Our spring concert, “Brahms & Friends,” will feature Brahms’s powerful motet, Warum ist das Licht gebeben and his Seven Songs, op. 62, including his most famous part song, Waldesnacht (sung in English as “Wondrous Cool, Thou Woodland Quiet”). The inclusive list of “friends” encompasses composers who influenced Brahms, such as Heinrich Schütz and Robert and Clara Schumann; other Romantic composers influenced by him, such as Samuel Coleridge Taylor and Ethel Smyth; and living composers who follow in Brahms’s footsteps in some way, such as Jennifer Higdon and Jean Belmont Ford. The acclaimed choir of DeForest Area High School under the direction of Lyrica Daentl will also be making a special appearance at this concert.