A premiere of “A Child Is Born,” a cantata composed by Bruce Saylor, will be the centerpiece of the Choral Society of the Hamptons winter concerts on Sunday at 3 and 5:30 p.m. at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Saylor is a widely performed composer with five operas to his credit, including “Orpheus Descending,” based on Tennessee Williams’s 1957 play, for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. His orchestral music has been performed by the San Francisco, Houston, Nashville, and Yale Symphonies, and by the American Composers Orchestra and Chicago Composers Orchestra. Mr. Saylor teaches at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Sunday’s program, “Rejoice and Sing,” was chosen by Walter Klauss, the Choral Society’s resident conductor, who will lead the ensemble, accompanied by the South Fork Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Song-A Cho. Lydia Saylor, a professional soprano and a daughter of Mr. Saylor, will be the soloist. Other selections on the program include works by John Rutter, a contemporary composer, and Jan Dismas Zelenka, of the 18th century.
In “A Child Is Born,” Mr. Saylor drew from several sources, among them “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come,” a 1535 hymn by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther; a 15th-century carol, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” and “O, Come, Little Children,” composed by Johann Abraham Peter Schulz in the late 1700s.
Ms. Saylor is a soprano section leader at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan, where she also teaches and conducts its youngest choristers. In February, she will perform Copland’s “Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson” with the Queens College Orchestra.
Tickets are $45 (preferred seating tickets are $80, and student tickets are $10), available online at choralsocietyofthehamptons.org or over the phone at 631-204-9402. A reception will follow the second performance at Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Bridgehampton, with a silent auction, carols, and Channing Daughters wine.
