Tucson choir kicks off first indoor performance with composers of color | Music

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Benjamin Hansen will lead his Helios ensemble at his first personal hall concert in 16 months.

Mindi Acosta

Benjamin Hansen had no idea how much he missed waving his baton with the audience behind him.

“For me it’s therapy,” says the founder and conductor of the Helios Ensemble.

On Sunday, July 18, Hansen will get an hour of much-needed therapy as he leads 45 members of his 7-year-old Tucson Choir. It’s the group’s first indoor concert with a live audience since the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

To say that Hansen and his singers are delighted would be a dramatic understatement.

“This is the first concert with tickets we’ve had and we’re just so excited,” he said last week. “I’m just glad we’re where we are.”

Hansen will lead the Helios Ensemble on a program of choral masterpieces including Stephen Paulus ‘“Pilgrim’s Hymn”, Whitacre’s “Go, Lovely Rose”, excerpts from Barber’s “Reincarnations” and sections from Vaughan Williams’ “Songs of Travels”.

The program also includes “The Cloths of Heaven,” by black composer Adolphus Hailstork, conducted by James Higgs, a graduate student at the University of Arizona, and several songs for solo voices, including “Mother to Son,” by black composer Undine Smith Moore, sung by a mezzo-soprano Julia Powers; and “On the Way” by Korean-American composer Hak Jun Yoon, sung by soprano Chunghee Lee.

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