SHAKER HARMONY:

Celebrating 250 Years of the Shakers in America

At St. John’s Episcopal Church, Portsmouth nh

Sunday, May 19 @ 3:00pm

St. John’s Episcopal Church presents Shaker Harmony: Celebrating 250 Years of the Shakers in America. Sunday, May 19, 3:00pm. Admission $30 suggested donation, available to purchase online in advance, or at the door. A donation in any amount to The Choir School grants you access to the private livestream of the concert, available to view at any time.

In partnership with choral composer Kevin Siegfried, the St. John’s choral music program is proud to present Shaker Harmony: Celebrating 250 Years of the Shakers in America. Siegfried is well-known as an interpreter of Shaker music, and this program will bring the audience into this rich and vibrant American musical tradition in its many forms. This program is being presented in support of Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, and The Choir School at St. John’s.

Featuring our Parish Choir, Chamber Choir, and the students of our Choir School program, this concert seeks to bring audience members on a journey, following in the footsteps of the Shakers as we perform selections from their extensive musical catalog to highlight universal themes of Humility, Love, Simplicity, Kindness, Liberty, and more.

With over 10,000 songs in existence, Shaker music is the largest body of spiritual folk music in American history. The widely known song “Simple Gifts,” popularized by Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, represents only the tip of the iceberg of a tradition that encompasses thousands of songs, hymns, anthems, and dance tunes. Whether lively and joyful, or moving and deeply felt, Shaker songs boast irresistible melodies and feature texts that speak to universal themes of love, simplicity, and community. Shaker music communicates with a unique directness that reaches beyond time and place. Siegfried’s choral arrangements vividly bring the music to life for modern ears, while maintaining the integrity of the original Shaker melodies. The year 2024 marks the 250th anniversary of the Shakers’ arrival in America, providing a wonderful opportunity to reflect on their enduring legacy.

Concertgoers will delight in the diversity of emotion and storytelling, allowing the music to wash over, and at times course through them as they join in the singing. Join us in celebrating the vitality of this beautiful and powerful American musical tradition.

Established in 1783, Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester, Maine is home to the only active Shaker Community in the world. Sabbathday Lake is in the midst of an unprecedented capital campaign to develop the Herb House Cultural and Traditional Arts Center, a forward-looking project that reshapes and re-envisions the community for now and into the future. The Herb House at Sabbathday Lake is the sole remaining example of its kind in our nation, and a monument to an era when the Shakers pioneered the commercial production of herbal medicine and culinary herbs in America. The revitalization of the Herb House will strengthen community alliances and deliver new gateway experiences for audiences of all types and ages. Ideals of environmental stewardship, pacifism, gender and racial equality, and radical generosity are among the foundations of Shaker culture and remain so to this day.

“We live with our past, not in it. The past shows us where we’ve been, guides what we do, and sets the foundation on which we build for the future.” – Brother Arnold Hadd, Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village

MEET

brother arnold hadd and kevin siegfried, and

LISTEN

to shaker spirituals performed by radiance

LEARN MORE

about the maine shakers

in support of the shakers, and the st. John’s choir school

This performance is being offered in support of Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester, Maine. The only active Shaker community in the country, Sabbathday Lake is in the midst of an unprecedented capital project to develop the Herb House Cultural & Traditional Arts Center, with the goal of preserving and bringing Shaker culture into the 21st century. To learn more, visit the Sabbathday Lake website.

Revenue from this concert will also be directed toward the continuing mission of The Choir School at St. John’s, our free, after-school music and singing program for students in Grades 3-8, dedicated to fostering excellence in music and singing as well as building community and fostering a supportive environment for each student to shine the way they were meant to shine. To learn more about The Choir School at St. John’s, click through to our website here. For more information on how to support The Choir School at St. John’s, please click here to email Olin Johannessen.

ABOUT KEVIN SIEGFRIED

As a composer and arranger deeply committed to the performance and preservation of early American music, Kevin Siegfried has devoted much of his career to raising awareness of Shaker musical traditions. Choral arrangements from his “Shaker Harmony Collection” are published by Earthsongs, G. Schirmer, and E. C. Schirmer, and have been performed and recorded by choirs across the globe. “Lay Me Low,” one of Siegfried’s most frequently performed Shaker arrangements, was sung by The Joint Armed Forces Chorus at the State Funeral of President George H. W. Bush. In recent years, Siegfried has undertaken extensive archival research at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine, the only active Shaker community in the United States. This research has led to multiple collaborations with Brother Arnold Hadd, who carries on the 200-plus-year oral tradition of Shaker song. These collaborations include concert performances at Sabbathday Lake, a film for the American Folklife Center entitled “Shaker Spirituals in Maine,” and the recording of two oral histories for the Library of Congress.