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Press Releases
St. Charles Singers Unveil 2025-2026 Concert Season
Opening program to offer U.S. premiere of Irish folk-song settings
by late-Romantic composer Charles Stanford
October 18-19 in St. Charles, Illinois
Guitar virtuoso Goran Ivanovic to join in ‘Candlelight Carols’
December 5 in Wheaton, December 6-7 in St. Charles
‘Choral Connections’ to feature collaborations
with high school ensembles from DuPage, Kane
and DeKalb Counties February 20–21
in St. Charles
Season finale program June 11 in Wheaton and June 12 in St. Charles to preview works to be performed in Rome and Venice
during choir’s Italian concert tour
‘A national treasure’ — American Record Guide
St. Charles, Ill., August 5, 2025 — The St. Charles Singers, led by founder and music director Jeffrey Hunt, embarks upon its fourth decade with a season of concerts often venturing into repertoire new to the mixed-voice chamber choir and its audiences.
“The new season is filled with musical discoveries that our choir will relish and that will surprise and delight our listeners,” Hunt says.
The acclaimed vocal ensemble will launch its 41st concert season, 2025–2026, in October in its hometown of St. Charles, Illinois, with “Time to Explore.”
The program opens with the American premiere of some of Anglo-Irish composer William Villiers Stanford’s late-Romantic settings of Irish folk songs, followed by Johannes Brahms’ “Zigeunerlieder” (Gypsy Songs), Op. 10.
The choir’s December “Candlelight Carols” program, subtitled “Celebrating a World of Carols,” will offer an international perspective on Christmas music. Guest artist will be Croatian-born Chicago guitar virtuoso Goran Ivanovic.
The St. Charles Singers will host its third annual “Choral Connections” concerts in February. The ensemble’s community-outreach initiative showcases the choir alongside choral ensembles from six area high schools, many of whose choral directors also sing with the St. Charles Singers.
“The experience has proven inspirational and rewarding for the student choristers, the St. Charles Singers, and the entire audience,” choirmaster Hunt says.
In June, the choir will conclude its 41st season in Wheaton and St. Charles with “You, Us, Connected.” It’s a program of a cappella sacred and other religious music that the choir will perform in Italian cathedrals during their June concert tour to Venice and Rome, including the Vatican.
“Time to Explore” October 18–19
The St. Charles Singers’ season-opener concert, “Time to Explore,” illuminates how classical composers have availed themselves of folk melodies. Some of the works are rarely heard and all but two are new to the choir’s repertoire.
The choir will give what it believes will be the American premiere of five of Dublin-born, Anglo-Irish composer Charles Stanford’s recently rediscovered, late-Romantic Irish folk songs. Stanford’s style reflects his love for Irish music and also German Romanticism, especially the music of Johannes Brahms.
Known for his serious, introspective vocal works, Brahms takes an uncharacteristically charming and mischievous turn in his “Zigeunerlieder” (Gypsy Songs), Op. 103, inspired by Hungarian folk music.
The St. Charles Singers co-commissioned Illinois composer Lee Kesselman’s “Hymn to Time” for mixed choir and piano. It’s a meditation on time, with lyrics by science fiction and fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin. With soaring lyricism, the piece follows a circular path. The music suggests ticking clocks and Westminster chimes.
Composer and keyboardist Dan Messe wrote “Half Acre” for his critically acclaimed “countrypolitan” chamber-pop band Hem. Arranged for choir by Gregory Good, the piece reflects Messe’s affection for his native rural Michigan.
The music of Grammy-nominated composer Jake Runestad, a native of Rockford, Illinois, is appearing more frequently on the St. Charles Singers’ programs. His “Come to the Woods” is based on writings by pioneering naturalist and conservationist John Muir. The song captures the exhilaration of waiting out a windstorm outdoors amid the trees. “It’s a piece we’ve wanted to do for quite a while,” Hunt says.
Hunt reached far back into the ensemble’s history for one item on the program: Celebrated dance-band era singer and arranger Stuart Churchill’s arrangement of the Appalachian folk song “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” The St. Charles Singers first performed the piece in the 1980s when they were still known as the Mostly Madrigal Singers.
The St. Charles Singers first performed Shawn Kirchner’s “I’ll Be on My Way,” a song of reverence and free-wheeling joy, at its 2025 “Choral Connections” concerts in joint performances with local high school choruses.
“Time to Explore” is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 18, and 3 p.m. Sunday, October 19, at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Avenue, St. Charles, Illinois.
Christmas season to bring “A World of Carols” December 5-7
The 41st annual edition of the St. Charles Singers’ “Candlelight Carols” program bears the subtitle, “Celebrating a World of Carols.”
Underscoring the international theme will be guest artist Goran Ivanovic, a guitarist whose “stirring style incorporates jazz, traditional Balkan, flamenco and classical styles” (Chicago Sun-Times). The Croatian-born Chicagoan has been hailed as “a multiculti wunderkind” (New City).
Hunt, who considers Ivanovic a close friend, calls him “one of Chicago’s very finest guitarists.”
Ivanovic will accompany the choir on six songs and also perform a set of solo guitar works.
Audiences will hear seasonal songs by two Scandinavian composers: Gustav Nordqvist’s “Jul, jul, strålande jul!” ("Christmas, Christmas, Radiant Christmas!) from Sweden and Ola Gjeilo’s “Det hev ei rose sprunge” (Spotless Rose), a joyful, melodic Norwegian setting of a hymn of German origin.
The program includes French carols arranged by Stephen Paulus (“Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella”) and John Rutter (“Quittez, Pasteur”). There’s Japanese composer Rikuya Terashima’s setting of William Blake’s “Infant Joy” and Javier Busto’s Basque Country “Gabon Miresgarriak” (The Gentle Voice of the Night).
Among the many songs new to the St. Charles Singers this season is “The Rune of Hospitality” by Alf Houkom, a Minnesota-born composer of Norwegian heritage. The text is from the inscription on a Gaelic rune he spotted in a book during Christmastime 1984. “This text struck me with the openness, with the possibility of Christ to come in any place,” he wrote of the song’s inspiration.
The program offers two works by American composer and guitarist Jeffrey Van. His evocative “Manger Dance,” with the guitar conjuring frolicking animals, and his arrangement of the Mexican Christmas lullaby “El Rorro” (The Baby).
Chicago-born Norman Luboff was the founder and conductor of the Grammy Award-winning Norman Luboff Choir, a household name during the 1950s and 60s. The St. Charles Singers will perform his arrangement of the Austrian carol “Still, Still, Still.”
Songs by English composers include Donald Fraser’s gentle, melodic "This Christmastide (Jessye's Carol)," written for and dedicated to the soprano Jessye Norman, and Ben Parry’s calming, comforting setting of the 17th-century traditional song “Gentle Slumbers.”
Also from Great Britain: Hugo Cole’s “Deck the Hall,” based on a 16th-century Welsh melody, and Andrew Carter’s “Two Spanish Carols,” including the tender “Spanish Lullaby” and exuberant, flamenco-style “Spanish Carol” celebrating Christ’s birth.
As is the St. Charles Singers’ tradition, the concert concludes with choir members staged around three sides of the sanctuary for a surround-sound rendition of “Silent Night.” The famous song of hope and peace, originally in German, originated in post-war Austria in the early1800s.The first two verses of the version to be heard here were arranged by England’s David Willcocks, the third arranged for the St. Charles Singers by esteemed local choral director, composer, and educator Robert Boyd of Westmont, Illinois.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, December 5, at St. Michael Catholic Church, 310 S. Wheaton Ave., Wheaton, Illinois; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 6, and 3 p.m. Sunday, December 7, at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, St. Charles.
“Choral Connections” welcomes six high school choirs February 20-21
The third annual edition of the St. Charles Singers’ “Choral Connections” concerts February 20 and 21 will comprise two different programs. At each event, the St. Charles Singers will perform a set of songs, as will choruses from three suburban Chicago high schools. For the finale, they’ll all sing together.
“The goal is to instill, nurture, and celebrate a lifelong love of the choral arts,” Hunt says.
The February 20 concert includes the St. Charles Singers and choruses from Dundee Crown High School, Carpentersville, directed by Jacob Stouffer; Glenbard South High School, Glen Ellyn, directed by Elizabeth Hutchinson; and Waubonsie Valley High School, Aurora, directed by Chelsea King.
King is a member of the St. Charles Singers’ alto section.
The February 21 roster includes the St. Charles Singers and choruses from Sycamore High School, Sycamore, directed by Drayton Eggleson; St. Charles East High School, St. Charles, directed by Ashley Zima; and Glenbard West High School, Glen Ellyn, directed by Andy Jeffrey.
Eggleson is a bass with the St. Charles Singers, Jeffrey is a tenor.
Concert details will be announced in early 2026.
“Choral Connections” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday, February 20, 2025, and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 21, at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, St. Charles.
“You, Us, Connected” previews Italian concert tour June 11-12
“You, Us, Connected,” the finale of the St. Charles Singers’ 41st season, offers audiences the richly varied program of unaccompanied sacred music that audiences will hear in Roman and Venetian cathedrals when the choir makes it first Italian concert tour in mid-June.
“This concert celebrates the universal human experience and the spiritual bonds that connect people across time periods and national borders,” Hunt says.
The program opens with American Aaron Copland’s “In the Beginning,” his 1947 choral setting of verses from the biblical Book of Genesis. The work, lasting about 20 minutes, is infused with polytonality (the use of more than one musical key simultaneously), jazz and blues. Soprano soloist will be St. Charles Singers’ ensemble member Margaret Fox.
South Korea’s Hyo-won Woo blends traditional Korean and Western classical music in her groundbreaking works. The choir will sing the dynamic “Cum Sancto Spiritu” (With the Holy Spirit) movement from her "Gloria.”
John Rutter’s “Open Thou Mine Eyes” is his original setting of a 17th-century sacred text, with intricate vocal lines.
“We’re immensely proud of and grateful for our long and close association with John Rutter,” Hunt says. “His music and his musicianship are a core part of our identity as a choir.”
Traditional African American spirituals are represented by Moses Hogan’s arrangement of “My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord.”
Felix Mendelssohn wrote his popular motet “Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen” (For He Shall Give His Angels Charge) for eight-part choir using verses from Psalm 91. He later made it part of his famous oratorio, “Elijah.”
Southern California composer Shawn Kirchner is an accomplished tenor who has sung with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. "Hallelujah,” the first movement of his "Heavenly Home: Three American Songs,” is a six-part setting of a beloved Sacred Harp tune.
From Westmont, Illinois, comes revered choral musician Robert Boyd’s arrangement of “How Can I Keep from Singing,” an American Christian hymn from the 1860s later popularized as a folk song.
Charles Villiers Stanford’s lyrical "Beati quorum via" (Blessed are those whose way is blameless) is from his “Three Latin Motets,” Op. 38.
Brandon Williams is assistant professor of choral music and choral music education at Rutgers University and has conducted the Rutgers Voorhees Choir at Carnegie Hall. The St. Charles Singers will perform the rising young African American scholar and choirmaster’s arrangement of “Spirit of the Living God.
Three women composers, two Americans, one Italian, are represented on the program.
Amy Beach, America’s first widely successful female composer, wrote “With Prayer and Supplication” using verses from the New Testament Book of Philippians.
A native of Flint, Michigan, contemporary church-music specialist Molly Ijames is widely praised for her fresh and inventive hymn arrangements. Her version of the Shaker hymn “Not One Sparrow Is Forgotten” is for male voices alone.
The nun Sulpitia Cesis was an Italian Renaissance composer and renowned lute player from an aristocratic family. Her Christmas motet “Angelus ad Pastores” (The Angel Said to the Shepherds), scored for women’s voices, is from her 1619 collection “Motetti Spirituali,” edited by Richard Shakeshaft.
French composer Maurice Duruflé’s 1960 motet “Ubi Caritas” (Where There Is Charity) is based on ancient Gregorian chant.
The choir will conclude with Italian Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s “Tu es Petrus” (You Are Peter). Palestrina’s music was greatly admired by J. S. Bach, who closely studied his scores.
Concerts are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 11, at St. Michael Catholic Church, Wheaton; and 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 12, at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, St. Charles.
Tickets and information
Single-admission tickets (available September 1) for the October and June concerts are $50 for adults, $45 for seniors, and $12 for students. Single tickets for December’s “Candlelight Carols” are $60 for adults, $50 for seniors, and $12 for students. Season subscriptions offer a discount over single admissions. Group discounts are available.
Admission to each of the February “Choral Connections” concerts is $25 for adults and seniors, $12 for students.
Tickets and information are available at stcharlessingers.com or by calling 630-513-5272. Tickets are also available at Townhouse Books, 105 N. Second Ave., St. Charles (checks or cash only at this ticket venue). Tickets may also be purchased at the door on the day of the concert, depending on availability.
St. Charles Singers
Founded and directed by Jeffrey Hunt, the St. Charles Singers is a chamber choir dedicated to choral music in all its forms. Hailed by American Record Guide as “a national treasure,” the mixed-voice ensemble includes professional singers, choral directors, and voice instructors, some of whom perform with other top-tier Chicago choirs. Classics Today has called the ensemble “one of North America’s outstanding choirs,” citing “charisma and top-notch musicianship” that “bring character and excitement to each piece.” Choral Journal proclaimed, “They sing with versatile musicality, vibrant tone, and impeccable diction.” England’s Choir and Organ declared, “With a well-balanced and beautifully blended choral sound, the St. Charles Singers are totally committed to what they perform.” Among the St. Charles Singers’ prominent guest conductors have been renowned English composer John Rutter, founder of the Cambridge Singers; Philip Moore, composer and former music director at England’s York Minster cathedral; and Grammy Award-winning American choir director Craig Hella Johnson. The choir launched in St. Charles, Illinois, in 1984 as the Mostly Madrigal Singers.
St. Charles Singers
2025-2026 Concert Season
Complete Program Schedule
“Time to Explore”
Saturday, October 18, 2025, 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, October 19, 3 p.m.
Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, St. Charles
Music by Charles Villiers Stanford, Johannes Brahms, Lee Kesselman, Jake Runestad, Stuart Churchill, Dan Messe, and Shawn Kirchner.
“Candlelight Carols”
Friday, December 5, 2025, 7:30 p.m., St. Michael Catholic Church, Wheaton
Saturday, December 6, 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, December 7, 3 p.m. at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, St. Charles
Guest artist: Guitarist Goran Ivanovic.
Music by Gustav Nordqvist, Donald Fraser, Alf Houkom, Stephen Paulus, Norman Luboff, Jeffrey Van, Andrew Carter, Ben Parry, Hugo Cole, John Rutter, Javier Busto, Rikuya Terashima, Ola Gjeilo, David Willcocks and William Boyd.
“Choral Connections”
Friday, February 20, 2026, 7:30 p.m., Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, St. Charles
St. Charles Singers and Dundee Crown, Glenbard South and Waubonsie Valley High School choruses.
Saturday, February 21, 7:30 p.m., Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, St. Charles
St. Charles Singers and Sycamore, St. Charles East, and Glenbard West High School choruses.
Concert programs to be announced.
“You, Us, Connected”
Thursday, June 11, 2026, 7:30 p.m., St. Michael Catholic Church, Wheaton
Friday, June 12, 7:30 p.m., Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, St. Charles
Music by Aaron Copland, Hyo-Won Woo, John Rutter, Moses Hogan, Felix Mendelssohn, Shawn Kirchner, Robert Boyd, Charles Villiers Stanford, Brandon Williams, Amy Beach, Sulpitia Cesis, Molly Ijames, Maurice Duruflé, and G. P. Palestrina.
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Press information:
Nat Silverman
Nathan J. Silverman Co. PR
Tel: 847-868-1417
Email: nat@njscompany.com
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