The Nightingals, a summer choir for women under the direction of Elizabeth Allyn, performed two concerts on the weekend of September 17-18 at Battell Chapel. The program included both sacred and secular music embracing a broad range of styles, from Haydn and Mendelssohn to Harold Arlen and Carole King. The group, says Allyn, started as an experiment. The idea was to draw in women who sang but were unable to commit the time to the regular church choir. Some of the songs are scaled to the novice, and others to the more practiced singer. “’Arise My Love,’ by the contemporary composer Joan Szymko, is a lovely piece, and it fits all voices,” says Allyn. “’Illumina le Tenebre,’ also by Szymko, has eight parts, and as I told our audience, it was our challenge piece.” The Nightingals, who just completed their third season, plan to reconvene again next summer for a fourth.

Photo by Savage Frieze.