Spy Review: Transported by Darrell Parsons

“The quality of the Allegra concert was on par with music we’ve heard in concert halls in our former hometown of New York City”
– An audience member after the recent performance of the Allegra! Women’s Choir in Oxford.  

The Oxford concert was the second of two performances this past weekend, the first one presented in Easton.  This ensemble delivers a range of choral music not heard anywhere else, and performs it at an astonishingly skilled level.  I was deeply touched by their sensitive interpretation of a remarkable palette of choral music. To seek confirmation of my own opinion I asked several audience members to share with me what they took away from the concerts.  Powerful…Brilliant…Inspiring…Sublime are a few of the responses I received.  I observed people in the audience turning to one another with tears of appreciation, and mouthing, “wow”.  I felt all of that.

The ensemble focuses on repertoire by contemporary women composers.  Many texts are modern, but even those texts which aren’t, are exquisite settings both musically and poetically, and by turns exciting and tender.  The choir is a disciplined group of musicians who listen to and feed off one another, creating a soulful and balanced ensemble. As one audience member remarked, “The breathtaking resolutions from complex harmonies into perfect unison were sublime”.   The sound and sensation was so enveloping that another said, “The music was inside me – I was the music.”.  There were many more high compliments, but you get the idea.  Don’t pass up an opportunity to hear this extraordinary ensemble, based at the Allegro Music Academy here in Easton.

Amy Morgan is the founder and director of the Academy, and conductor of the women’s ensemble.  The Academy is a music conservatory offering many opportunities for music learning and involvement through its children’s choir, the community summer sing, and through private instruction for most instruments and voice.  It is dedicated to enriching the lives of our community.

Darrell Parsons is a professional musician, having retired to the Eastern Shore in 2018. He has had a distinguished career in opera and oratorio in Europe and the United States.