The Kansas City Chorale, conducted by Charles Bruffy, performed Christopher Tin’s “The Lost Birds” at Village Presbyterian Church on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Photo credit: Spencer Pope)
The Kansas City Chorale closed their 43rd season with “The Lost Birds,” a concert recognizing the heartbreaking reality that human behaviors have caused the extinction of many avian species. Not the happiest topic for a Spring evening, but this solemn event was nevertheless beautifully rendered and well attended.
Artistic director Charles Bruffy conducted the Chorale at Village Presbyterian Church on Friday evening. In the pre-concert talk he said, “It’s important that we elevate the choral arts and put beauty and peace into the world, and elevate the need to take better care of the world, so that the loss does not continue to grow.”
There’s plenty of music devoted to and inspired by birds, those natural music-makers, susceptible species forced to navigate the Anthropocene. While not all the pieces this evening tied directly to the topic of extinction, bird-themed selections were both specific and metaphorical, drawing attention to their beauty, grace, and delicacy.
The piece opened with Jean Belmont Ford’s “Murmurations,” a work premiered by the Chorale in 2023. It’s a bold and powerful piece, with open, spiralling, soaring lines. At moments, the singers mimicked a morning chorus of songbirds. Ford is a favorite of Bruffy’s, who has presented a number of her pieces with the Kansas City Chorale, and her work always includes surprising moments.
Hans Bridger Heruth’s “Migration” was commissioned by the Chorale, and made its world premiere Friday with the composer at the piano, along with choir and string quartet. Heruth used an original poem by Anna Ralls-Ulrich, contemplating the everyday miracle of a bird’s amazing endurance during its brief existence. The instrumentalists began with somber, low tones, an atmospheric layer under the voices. Heruth’s excellent work was by turns tense, hopeful, and pleading, ending with a dissipating pianissimo.
“The White Bird,” by Ron Kean, setting the poem by Irish poet W.B. Yeats, featured soloists Patrick Graham (baritone), Rachel Field (soprano), and Casey Morgan (whistler), with Matt Gladden on bodhrán. Kean maintains a lilting Irish element in the piece through melody, drum, and whistle. Morgan (usually performing in the tenor section) was particularly impressive—whistling with strength and accuracy is no easy task—with Field’s wordless soaring line set against Graham’s plaintive text.
Soprano Ariel Morris was soloist for Charles Villiers Stanford’s “The Blue Bird,” a work depicting the sense of fleeting peace of watching a bird in flight, the soloist with high steady tones above the rest of the choir, like a bird wafting on currents, seemingly suspended in the sky above the earth. “Rest,” by Robert Cohen, was a bit more straightforward and traditional, featuring Evelyn Wouters (soprano) and Paula Brekken (mezzo).
At the midpoint in the concert (the performance ran a little over 90 minutes, with no intermission), Bruffy acknowledged long-time Chorale member Pan Williamson, who was in the audience, having retired in December after 33 years with the ensemble, and Bryan Taylor, another 33-year veteran, on stage in his last performance.
The final portion of the concert was devoted to a large-scale work: “The Lost Birds, an Extinction Elegy” by Grammy Award-winning composer Christopher Tin, who was in attendance. The twelve movement work ran about 35 minutes. Completed in 2022, Tin originally recorded the Grammy Award-nominated album with vocal group VOCES8 and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, but here arranged the work for choir and a chamber ensemble of string quartet, harp, and percussion (increasing the size of the choir and reducing the instrumentalists). Tin set selections by poets Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Sara Teasdale.
Tin’s writing was wonderfully melodic, listenable and appealing. He interlaced material, weaving lines and repeating chord progressions through the work, which built familiarity even in a first listen, always a challenge in presenting new music. Shiny percussion tones, sombre, low strings, and glistening harp supported the voices. There was a shimmering, rather amiable nature to the piece, leaning more toward soft melancholy than the harsh trauma the topic and title suggests.
The Chorale’s exquisite high voices were certainly utilized, a key component in depicting birds and flight and weightlessness. While Tin included many different techniques and effects, more often than not a sense of delicacy and transparency permeated. This performance featured soloists Alex Kolster (tenor), Lindsey Lang (soprano), Melanie Malcher Cuthbertson (soprano), and Sarah Stevens (mezzo).
“Hope is the Thing with Feathers,” from Dickinson’s text, harkened to the all-instrumental opening material from “Flocks a Mile Wide,” an indication that while loss is ongoing, hope is, too.
It was a poignant and moving performance, gorgeous music to underscore this urgent theme of lost life. This same week, the Kansas City Chorale records these works for an upcoming album project, furthering the message and mission of using captivating music to encourage change in our hearts and our world.
Reviewed Friday, May 16, 2025. For more information about the Kansas City Chorale, visit kcchorale.org.
