The Greenville Chorale opens its 2026-27 season at First Baptist Greenville on Oct. 25 with an afternoon program built around light overcoming darkness, pairing a newer choral work with young singers from two Upstate high schools. The afternoon centers on Elaine Hagenberg's Illuminare, a five-movement piece for chorus and chamber orchestra that the composer describes as moving from confusion toward restored hope and peace.
The performance marks the start of an education-outreach partnership the chorale has built with choirs from Spartanburg High School and Eastside High School, according to Greenville Chorale. As reported by the Greenville Journal, the concert will take place at First Baptist Greenville, with adult tickets priced at $40 and tickets for children and students set at $5. Anthony Bernarducci is the Greenville Chorale's conductor.
A Season Built Around Connection
Greenville Chorale frames the afternoon as more than a concert opener. The organization says the program celebrates renewal, connection and belonging through the power of music, and that its broader mission is connecting, educating and cultivating the community through choral performance, according to the same source. That framing lines up with how the chorale has described its 2026-27 season overall: an effort, in its own words, to turn to music as something that brings people together across generations and traditions.
Hagenberg's Illuminare uses lesser-known sacred Latin, Greek and English texts, per Elaine Hagenberg Music. The Greenville Journal reports the piece runs roughly 25 minutes and combines Latin and English texts with a Greek Kyrie, exploring themes of light, darkness, love and hope across its five movements. On the composer's own site, Illuminare is described in similar terms, as depicting darkness and confusion gradually giving way to returning light, restored hope and peace.
High School Choirs Share The Stage
The concert brings student singers from Eastside and Spartanburg high schools into an education-outreach collaboration with the Greenville Chorale. The Spartanburg school's own choir program lists a group called the Honors Viking Chorale under director Kimberly D. Colón, who also co-directs the school's Corporation Show Choir and the new SHS Mixed Choir, according to shschoirs.com.
Spartanburg High School's choir program also includes Alexa Cotran, who directs the Honors Choristers Treble Ensemble and co-directs the Corporation Show Choir and SHS Mixed Choir alongside Colón, per the school's director listing. Sarah Quartel's In Time of Silver Rain is based on a poem by Langston Hughes.
Taken together, the lineup reflects the chorale's stated aim of using choral music to connect generations of singers rather than simply showcase its own ensemble. For Eastside and Spartanburg students taking part in the First Baptist Greenville concert, the afternoon offers a chance to perform alongside the Greenville Chorale while opening a new chapter in the Upstate's choral calendar.
