Songlike. That’s what the word “ariose” means. An apt name for Santa Cruz’s Ariose Singers, whose voices will be raised this weekend in music both ancient and modern. The 18-member group performs their winter a capella concert, An Evening of Snow, January 23 and 24 at Aptos’ Resurrection Church. The concert will include pieces by Samuel Barber, J.S. Bach, Francis Poulenc, Juan del Encina and Juan Vásquez.

Ariose Singers, begun by Leta Miller in 2001, has been under the direction of Michael McGushin since 2006. McGushin, a Cabrillo College music professor and the coach/accompanist for the Music Department at UC Santa Cruz, was kind enough to answer five questions — including one about what it takes to be in the group — via email for Weekend Santa Cruz.

Much of the music you’ve chosen for “An Evening of Snow” is sung in foreign languages — Spanish, French, German. How do you make the music accessible for your singers and your audience? At least until the 20th century, the greater majority of western “classical” vocal and choral music was not in English — Latin being the norm for most sacred music, and the languages of western continental Europe for most non-religious works. A good composer of vocal music will be working with specific nuances, rhythms and sound colors found in the text he or she is setting to music, so that much of the composition’s intent and beauty will be lost or rendered awkward when translated into another language. For this reason, it is a basic requirement for a choral singer to have a certain facility with at least the rudiments of pronunciation for the major languages commonly used in classical music — Latin, German, Italian and French.

As we begin a new piece during the rehearsal process, I provide the singers with an English translation. Along with work on learning notes and rhythms, we work on details of pronunciation. In fact we do this when singing in English too, because singing well in English is not especially easy — many of the idiosyncracies of the way we speak have to be adjusted or modified to achieve a choral blend. We also approach English-language singing a bit differently depending on the country-of-origin for the poet and/or the composer of a given piece.

Sometimes considerations of style in a specific musical work will also influence the type of pronunciation we will use when singing it. If a piece uses material derived from folk music or popular music, the type of English pronunciation we use may be very different than what we may use when singing a setting of a text by Shakespeare, for example. Throughout the process of building our interpretation of a work (whether it be in English or another language), we continually consider the meaning of the text and what the composer is trying to express through the musical setting of the words. I firmly believe that when preparing a piece of choral music an understanding of both the text and music are crucial to a successful performance.

It is our hope that the work we do to integrate text and music in our interpretaion will give the audience a general feel for the emotions or ideas expressed in the pieces, whether or not they understand the language the piece is sung in. We also provide English translations for all the pieces we sing in our programs. English translations, along with the texts of the pieces we will sing in their original languages, can be found on our web site, ariosesingers.org, should anyone want to have a look at them before attending a concert.

The show features compositions from the Renaissance, Baroque and 20th Century. Is there a common theme or musicality that ties your choices together? What do you look for in a piece of music to perform? I’m as interested in building a program around contrasts of style as affinities between pieces. For example, in our upcoming program, I find the contrast of Poulenc’s extremely concentrated and intense micro-cantata [Un soir de neige ] placed next to the expansively spun out Bach motet [Jesu, meine Freude] to be very fascinating. I can find building a concert program around a specific theme to be sometimes a bit limiting, although a subtle theme of light emerging from darkness does run throughout our An Evening of Snow concert.

Many things can attract me to a piece of music. And suitability for our group must always be a consideration. I find choral compositions where the composer has responded emotionally and deeply to a beautiful (or otherwise stirring) piece of text to be the most satisfying.

What piece to be performed in An Evening of Snow held the most challenge to conduct/direct? I believe that any piece I choose to perform is worthy of my utmost care and respect. A seemingly simple piece can require just as much attention as an extremely complex piece in order to be performed with integrity.

Each of the pieces on our program present their own set of challenges, although they differ in type or degree. The Bach is an 11-movement piece that takes over 20 minutes to perform; it is very intricately designed and ranges over a very large gamut of styles and emotions, so in a way it has been the most challenging piece on this program to prepare. But, on the other hand, the severe intensity of the Poulenc distilled into four very short movements means that every tiny musical gesture needs to be carefully considered and shaped. The Samuel Barber pieces and the Spanish Renaissance set also present their own unique and worthy sets of challenges to the performers.

What was the first piece of choral music you ever directed? What was that experience like for you? The first piece of choral music I ever directed was a little madrigal of my own composition. I was in high school and the singers were a small group of my high school friends and fellow choral singers. It was a frightening and thrilling experience. My memory of the end result is more that of a composer than a conductor, but the inexpressible excitement of hearing a group of singers come together into something that actually sounded like a unified piece of music is a feeling I’ll never forget.

For those who might be interested, what does it take to be an Ariose Singer? It takes a love for and dedication to the classical choral repertoire, as well as the ability to attend Thursday evening rehearsals. Singers need to be able to read music, have the time to prepare often difficult pieces for rehearsals, and have a voice type that can easily blend in a small choral ensemble. A rudimetary facility with the standard choral-singing languages is also required.

We will, in fact, have an opening in our soprano section for our next concert, because one of our members will be having a baby the week of our scheduled June concert! Interested singers may contact me at director@ariosesingers.org to arrange an audition.

An Evening of Snow will be performed 8 p.m. January 23 and 3 p.m. January 24 at Resurrection Church, 7600 Soquel Drive in Aptos. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased in advance from Brown Paper Tickets.