Rochester, NY – Aug 4, 2014 Classics of the choral repertoire feature prominently in the Rochester Oratorio Society’s 2014–15 concert season, its 69th year.
Haydn’s masterwork, the Lord Nelson Mass, for chorus, orchestra and soloists, anchors the opening concert on October 24, 2014, 7:30 P.M. at Hochstein Performance Hall. Guest artists with strong local ties perform as soloists, including pianist Kevin Nitsch, soprano Emily Mills Woodruff, mezzo-soprano Katie Hannigan, tenor Matthew Valverde and baritone Darik Knutsen. Woodruff, Hannigan, Nitsch and Valverde, graduates of the Eastman School of Music who reside in Rochester, now pursue international careers. Nitsch, Hannigan and Valverde serve on the faculty of Nazareth College. Knutsen, a finalist in the Rochester Oratorio Society’s Classical Idol vocal competition in 2012, resides in New York and pursues an international career. They are featured in the Haydn and in Handel’s Chandos anthem #7, “My song shall be alway.” Nitsch performs the solo piano part in Gerald Finzi’s “Eclogue for Piano and Strings.” Artistic Director Eric Townell conducts the professional ROS Orchestra. The ROS produces a second masterworks concert on March 13, 2015, 7:30 P.M. at Hochstein Performance Hall. The program opens with Norman Dello Joio’s classic “Jubilant Song,” an energetic, hopeful setting of Walt Whitman poetry that has become a choral favorite. Johannes Brahms’s “German Requiem” offers a darker but similarly consoling perspective on mankind’s effort to fathom human destiny. The ROS performs this majestic work in Brahms’s own setting for piano 4-hands, with Nazareth College faculty member Linda Boianova joining Kevin Nitsch in the accompaniment. Soloists are the Finnish soprano Jenni Lattila and baritone Benjamin Bloomfield, both of New York. Lattila makes her Rochester debut with this performance; Bloomfield has performed leading roles with the Rochester Lyric Opera. Mendelssohn’s popular anthem “Verleih uns Frieden” (“Grant us Peace”) completes the program.Community performances, prominent in the ROS 2014–15 season, include four performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, an appearance at the Greentopia Festival in September and two performances with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Information on the RPO performances may be found at RPO.org.
The Rochester Oratorio Society, Inc., was founded in 1945 with the mission of engaging the community through uplifting and educational choral music performances of the highest quality. Tickets are available by calling the ROS office at (585) 473-2234, through Brown Paper Tickets or through the ROS web site, www.ROSsings.org.
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