Buffalo Master Chorale Presents Cultural Vignettes
A choral concert can do something few art forms manage so naturally - It brings many voices into one room, each distinct in tone and character, and draws them together into a shared sound. In that meeting of voices, something remarkable happens: individual expression becomes collective experience, and music becomes a way of connecting with one another.
That idea sits at the heart of Cultural Vignettes, the upcoming Buffalo Master Chorale concert under the direction of Jaman Dunn-Danger, with Alan Spring as accompanist. The program offers a lively exploration of America’s many cultural traditions and musical influences, shaped through choral music that reflects memory, movement, place, faith, celebration, and community.
Audiences will have two chances to hear the concert this week, with performances on Friday, October 23 and Sunday, October 25. For listeners who already know the Buffalo Master Chorale, it is an invitation to hear the ensemble through a rich and varied program. For those newer to choral music, it is a welcoming way to experience how voices can carry history, identity, and emotion without needing a screen, a stage set, or a long explanation.
Cultural Vignettes brings many American musical influences into one program
A program built around varied cultural traditions requires careful direction. Each work needs its own sound, but the concert still needs to feel unified. That balance falls to Jaman Dunn-Danger, who leads the Buffalo Master Chorale as Artistic Director.
The title Cultural Vignettes suggests brief scenes, each one offering a glimpse into a larger story. In music, that can be especially powerful. A choral work may be only a few minutes long, yet it can open a door to a time, a place, a community, or a tradition that shaped the sound.
America’s musical identity has never come from one source. It has grown through many influences, including folk traditions, sacred music, spirituals, hymns, classical choral writing, immigrant songs, jazz language, theater, and popular song. Those influences do not exist in separate boxes. They cross, answer, borrow, resist, and transform one another.
A program like Cultural Vignettes gives singers and listeners a chance to hear those connections.
Opening the program will be a Buffalo Master Chorale favorite, Earth Song, with both music an original poetry by Frank Ticheli. The piece was composed during the Iraq War as a pro-peace plea against violence and war.
The highlight of the concert will definitely be The Choral New Yorker by Irving Fine. Fine drew his text from four poems in The New Yorker Book of Verse, an anthology of poems originally published in The New Yorker magazine between 1925 and 1935. Buffalo Master Chorale is excited to perform his work, celebrating the 82nd anniversary of it's completion on October 23.
Other works included are:
Shenandoah, a popular American folk song arranged by Kevin Memley,
God's Gonna Set This World On Fire, a traditional spiritual arranged by Moses Hogan and Edwin B. Hogan,
The Promise of Living, the Thanksgiving Song from "The Tender Land" by Aaron Copland,
And many more.
The result is more than a themed concert. It is a guided listening experience built around contrast, motion, and shared expression.
The concert offers two chances to hear the program live
Buffalo Master Chorale will present Cultural Vignettes twice, giving audiences multiple opportunities to attend.
Tickets are available for advanced purchase using the links below.
The best reason to attend is also the simplest: this music is meant to be heard live.
Choose the Friday or Sunday performance, or better yet, come to both. Experience the sound of voices coming together in one room, where tradition is not something distant or preserved in the past, but something living, shared, and heard anew.
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