The highlight of the Boulder Chorale's upcoming season is a performance that's a prelude to the ensemble's 2009 weeklong tour of South Africa.

In November Tim Snyder conducts the Chorale in the world premiere of Randall McIntosh's "Misa Tariro," a work that combines the Latin text of the traditional Catholic mass with Shona poetry from Zimbabwe.

The Boulder-based Kutandara Marimba ensemble joins the 120-voice Concert Chorale in the performance.

McIntosh and his wife, Amy Stewart, founded the Kutandara Center, home of the ensemble, after falling in love with African music during their travels there.

"It's a high-energy group that plays on African -- not American -- marimbas," says Snyder, who points out that the work is dedicated to the many in Africa suffering from AIDS. "We heard a movement of the 'Misa' four years ago and we liked it so much that we commissioned the completion of the score."

In September the Chorale and Kutandara offered a further sampling from the score at the Boulder Public Library.

"It's compelling music, but it's not your typical choral piece," Snyder says. "We hope to reach a new audience with it.

"And we look forward to taking it to the land of its origins next year."

A committee in Africa is at work on details of the trip; the Chorale has also commissioned a set of eight marimbas from an African instrument maker.

"After the tour we will donate them to a school there," Snyder says.

(McIntosh, by the way, holds a graduate degree in composition from the University of Colorado.)

The Chorale opens its 43rd season Friday with an evening of "Cantu e Dolci" at Grace Lutheran Church.

"We've assembled a quartet of local singers for a program of favorite opera excerpts," Snyder says. "In several selections they will sing with the Chamber Chorale."

Vocalists are sopranos Beth McDowell Baldwin and Michelle Diggs; tenor Jason Baldwin; and baritone Bradley Thompson.

Food, wine and a silent auction add to the attraction of the fundraiser.

For the ensemble's annual December holiday concert Snyder has invited the Apollo Brass Ensemble to accompany the Chorale in Daniel Pinkham's "Christmas" Cantata.

The Concert and Chamber Chorale, plus the Women's Chorus, all take part in the program that further features traditional music for the season and a "sing-along" of carols.

In February Amy Andersson will conduct the Chorale and the High Plains Symphony in Brahms' setting of Schiller's "Nanie," an elegy on beauty and death.

Snyder and the Chamber Chorale complete the program with several unaccompanied motets by Bruckner.

April finds the Chorale on stage in Longmont to sing Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester" Psalms with the Longmont Symphony.

Robert Olson conducts.

The May "Songs of Youth and Childhood" concert anticipates another major event of the season: the June debut of the Boulder Children's Chorale, the newest division of the Chorale organization.

"This is the realization of a dream that I've had for years," Snyder says. "We've engaged Kimberly Watkins, a CU graduate now teaching at Niwot High.

"A South Carolina native, she's had lots of experience with youth choirs and is already developing plans for the new group."

The ensemble will join the entire Chorale to perform Orff's popular "Carmina Burana."