The latest album from the St. Charles Singers, led by founder and music director Jeffrey Hunt, centers two works written expressly for them. In the spring of 2025, the St. Charles Singers and harpist Erin Freund gave the John Rutter’s Dancing Tree, a suite of eight songs with harp accompaniment on texts by the 20th century British poet Charles Causley. “The music is quintessential John Rutter,” Hunt says. “It reflects his own heartfelt connection to nature and admiration for English folk music.” Scored for choir, cello, and piano, Cello Songs by Jake Runestad was premiered by the St. Charles Singers with cellist Cameron Grimes and pianist Stephen Uhl in October of 2021. With text by poet Todd Boss, the work’s four movements are named for the seasons of the year. For the world premiere recording, the choir is accompanied by Stephen Uhl and Jean Hatmaker, a favorite Chicago-area cellist. The program is rounded out with some of the ensemble’s signature repertoire that fits the album’s theme of nature: Stanford’s “The Blue Bird,” Debussy’s Trois Chansons, Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia, and Charles Forsberg’s “Buttercup Days,” commissioned by the St. Charles Singers in 1998.