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Press Releases
The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys with Concert Royal presents G.F. Handel's Dixit Dominus and J.S. Bach's Cantatas 106 & 11
The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys with Concert Royal and guest conductor Daniel Beckwith present Handel’s Dixit Dominus and two cantatas by J.S. Bach: Cantata 106, God’s time is the very best time, and Cantata 11, Laud to God in all his kingdoms on Friday, May 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, One West 53rd Street. New York, NY. Soloists for this program are Yulia Van Doren & Shannon Mercer, soprano; Ian Howell, countertenor; Steven Caldicott Wilson, tenor; Jesse Blumberg, bass.
Dixit Dominus was composed by Handel in Rome in 1707. A setting of Psalm 110 (The Lord Said), it captures the flamboyant tension and precocious genius that must have struck the 22-year-old’s Roman patrons like a thunderbolt.’ (Gramophone Magazine) Cantata 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God’s time is the very best time), is one of J. S. Bach’s (1685-1750) earliest cantatas, otherwise known as the funeral cantata Actus Tragicus. Alfred Dürr called the piece ‘a work of genius such as even great masters seldom achieve…The Actus Tragicus belongs to the great musical literature of the world’. Cantata 11, Lobet Gott in seinen Riechen (Laud to God in all his kingdoms), known as the Ascension Oratorio follows the story of the Ascension as told in the books of Luke, Mark and the Acts of the Apostles.
Allan Kozinn from New York Times says ‘The St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys sings with an uncommon balance of purity and power and Concert Royal provides a solid, polished period-instrument accompaniment.”
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
THE SAINT THOMAS CHOIR & CHOIR SCHOOL
The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is considered by many to be the leading ensemble in the Anglican choral tradition in the United States. The choir performs regularly with the period instrument ensemble, Concert Royal, or with Orchestra of St. Luke's as part of its own concert series. Its primary raison d'être, however, is to provide music for five choral services each week. Live webcasts of all choral services and further information including recordings of the choir may be found at www.SaintThomasChurch.org
Supplementing its choral services and concert series over the past three decades, the choir has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe with performances at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Kings College, Cambridge, Windsor, Edinburgh, St. Albans and the Aldeburgh Festival. In 2004, the choir toured Italy, and performed for a Papal Mass at the Vatican. During 2007, the choir performed Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion for the opening concert of the Mexico Festival in Mexico City as well as at Saint Thomas Church. In February 2012, the Boys of the choir traveled to Dresden to give the premiere of Lera Auerbach's Dresden Requiem with the Dresden Staatskapelle in the Frauenkirche and Semper Oper. Later in 2012, the choir was invited to perform in the Thomaskirche at the Leipzig BachFest, a highlight of their June 2012 tour to Germany and Copenhagen.
In addition to the annual performances of Handel’s Messiah, concerts at Saint Thomas have included Requiems by Fauré, Brahms, Mozart, Duruflé and Howells; Bach’s Passions and Mass in B Minor; the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610; a Henry Purcell anniversary concert; Rachmaninoff Vespers; the U.S. premiere of John Tavener’s Mass; a concert of American composers featuring works by Bernstein and Copland and a composition by Saint Thomas chorister, Daniel Castellanos; the world premiere of Scott Eyerly’s Spires and a concert of music by Benjamin Britten.
The Men of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers; the Boy choristers attend Saint Thomas Choir School. Founded in 1919, it is the only church related boarding choir school in the United States, and one of only a few choir schools remaining in the world. The Choir School offers a challenging pre-preparatory curriculum, interscholastic sports, and musical training for boys in grades three through eight. The Choir School is committed to training and educating talented musicians without regard to religious, economic, or social background. Choristers are sought from all regions of the country. Details of admissions procedures and audition requirements are available at www.ChoirSchool.org
CONCERT ROYAL
Founded by Artistic Director James Richman, Concert Royal, performs the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries exclusively on original instruments, presenting a multifaceted approach to the period by programming all genres of music from orchestral, vocal, and chamber music to opera and opera-ballet. The ensemble has been in the forefront of the Baroque and Classic revival in the United States, with innovative performances of the major repertoire of the period featuring the foremost performer/scholars in the field. This work has included the first ongoing program of Baroque opera on original instruments with period costumes and staging, as well as premieres from the chamber music and chamber orchestra repertoire. The ensemble has appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the E. Nakamichi Baroque Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA, Bermuda Festival, and the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, among others, and tours regularly with the New York Baroque Dance Company. Together they have appeared across the United States and abroad in Canada, England, France, Germany and Mexico.
JAMES RICHMAN
Artistic Director and founder of Concert Royal, James Richman is a prominent harpsichordist and fortepianist, and a leading conductor of Baroque music and opera. He was winner of the Bodky Competition of the Cambridge Society of Early Music, and in addition was a laureate of the Bruges Competition and a prize winner in the Paris Harpsichord Competition of the Festival Estival and the First International Fortepiano Competition (Paris). In appearances at the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Spoleto Festival USA, the E. Nakamichi Baroque Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, as well as in regular series in New York, he has presented staged and concert performances of such important works as Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Fêtes d’Hébé, Pygmalion, Les Indes Galantes, and Le Temple de la Gloire; Handel’s Ariodante, Acis and Galatea, Alessandro, Il Pastor Fido and Terpsicore, Glück’s Orfeo, Purcell’s King Arthur and Dido and Aeneas, Monteverdi’s Incoronazione di Poppea, J.C. Bach’s Amadis des Gaulles, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Le Devin du Village. He is also Artistic Director and conductor of the Dallas Bach Society and Music Director of the New York Baroque Dance Company, and recently led the Hanover Band at the Pollença Festival in Majorca. In 1996 he was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to the art of music.
DANIEL BECKWITH
Daniel Beckwith has conducted in most of the major opera houses throughout North America and Europe. With repertoire spanning the 17th to 21th centuries, he has been hailed as one of the most exciting conductors of his generation. Mr. Beckwith’s Metropolitan Opera debut was in 1995, followed by important debuts conducting the works of Handel, both nationally (Seattle Opera) and internationally (Grand Theâtre du Genève, The Glyndebourne Festival). Concert appearances include Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, the Juilliard Orchestra, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, Spain’s Santander Festival with soprano Renée Fleming, the Hartford Symphony, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, both with Ms. Fleming. Mr. Beckwith is Interim Organist at St. Ignatius Loyola and Assistant Organist at Temple Emanu-EL, both in New York City.
YULIA VAN DOREN
Recognized by Opera Magazine as “A star-to-be” following her Lincoln Center debut, young Russian-American soprano Yulia Van Doren’s debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra was acclaimed as a “revelation... a ravishing lyric voice and an ease with vocal ornamentation that turned her into an enchanted songbird” (Toronto Star). For her last minute step-in with the Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Plain Dealer praised Van Doren as an artist of “melting poignancy” and added, “To Van Doren, one could easily have listened for hours.”
A dedicated interpreter of repertoire off the beaten path, career highlights include creating the lead female role in the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Orango with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, directed by Peter Sellars and released on Deutsche Grammophon; two Grammy-nominated opera recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival; the modern revival of Monsigny’s opera Le roi et le fermier at Opera de Versailles, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center (recorded for Naxos); and a tour of Handel’s Orlando with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra to the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals.
Highlights of Ms. Van Doren’s upcoming season include appearances with the Cincinnati and Baltimore Symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra, and tours with Mark Morris Dance Group including performances of Handel’s Acis and Galatea and L’Allegro under conductor Nicholas McGegan.
SHANNON MERCER
Recognized for the luminosity and effortless agility of her voice, as well as her commanding stage presence and profound acting ability, Canadian soprano Shannon Mercer enthusiastically embraces a range of repertoire from early to contemporary music, from Francesca Caccini and Monteverdi to John Beckwith and Ana Sokolovic. Shannon maintains a busy and challenging performance calendar of opera, concert, and recital engagements throughout North America and Europe while also sustaining an active recording presence, capturing some rarely performed works. In the 2015-2016 season, audiences will hear Shannon sing Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Calgary Opera; Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Mozart’sEsultate, Jubilate with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra; and theMessiah with the Oregon Symphony.
IAN HOWELL
Praised by the New York Daily News for his “rich voice, capable of great dramatic force,” San Francisco Classical Voice for the “heart at the core of his soulful sound,” and Classical Voice of North Carolina for his “lovely, supple, and crystal-clear” voice, Ian Howell sings with a warm and seamless tone rarely heard from countertenors.
STEVEN CALDICOTT WILSON
Tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson is a member of the male classical a cappella quartet New York Polyphony, and he frequently appears as soloist and small ensemble singer with leading conductors. Praised for his "steadiness and sensitivity…impassioned without ever straining” (NY Times, December 2015) and “powerful, polished and moving Evangelist" (NY Times, April 2011), recent solo highlights include the title role in Britten’s St. Nicholas at Trinity Wall Street; Bach’s St. John Passion at Alice Tully Hall; Monteverdi’s Vespers with Paul O’Dette; soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion and multiple Bach cantata solo appearances with Trinity Baroque Orchestra NYC; Evangelist in C.P.E. Bach’s Matthew Passion; Messiah solos at Lincoln Center; J.S. Bach’s Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Wilson is a veteran of the United States Air Force Band Singing Sergeants (2001-2005), and a graduate of Ithaca College and the Yale University Voice Masters program in early music, oratorio, and chamber ensemble.
JESSE BLUMBERG
Baritone Jesse Blumberg has performed roles at Minnesota Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Atlanta Opera, Boston Early Music Festival, and at London’s Royal Festival Hall. He has made concert appearances with American Bach Soloists, Boston Baroque, and on Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, and has performed recitals with the New York Festival of Song and Marilyn Horne Foundation. His 2015-2016 season includes Messiah performances at the National Cathedral, Bach cantatas with Montreal Baroque, St. John Passion with Apollo's Fire, and The Merry Widow at Boston Lyric Opera. Jesse is also the founder and artistic director of Five Boroughs Music Festival in NYC. www.jesseblumberg.com
TICKET INFORMATION
Order concert tickets and recordings online at: www.SaintThomasChurch.org E-mail: concerts@SaintThomasChurch.org
WEBSITE
www.SaintThomasChurch.org/music/concerts
ST THOMAS CHURCH INFORMATION
Concerts at Saint Thomas
One West 53rd Street, New York, New York 10019-5496
Phone: 212-664-9360
E-mail: concerts@SaintThomasChurch.org
www.SaintThomasChurch.org/music/concerts
The Reverend Canon Carl F. Turner, Rector; Stephen Buzard, Acting Director of Music Benjamin Sheen, Acting Organist; The Reverend Charles F. Wallace, Headmaster Saint Thomas Choir School
PRESS CONTACT
DAN DUTCHER PUBLIC RELATIONS, Dan Dutcher, 917- 566 -8413, dan@dandutcherpr.com
Dixit Dominus was composed by Handel in Rome in 1707. A setting of Psalm 110 (The Lord Said), it captures the flamboyant tension and precocious genius that must have struck the 22-year-old’s Roman patrons like a thunderbolt.’ (Gramophone Magazine) Cantata 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God’s time is the very best time), is one of J. S. Bach’s (1685-1750) earliest cantatas, otherwise known as the funeral cantata Actus Tragicus. Alfred Dürr called the piece ‘a work of genius such as even great masters seldom achieve…The Actus Tragicus belongs to the great musical literature of the world’. Cantata 11, Lobet Gott in seinen Riechen (Laud to God in all his kingdoms), known as the Ascension Oratorio follows the story of the Ascension as told in the books of Luke, Mark and the Acts of the Apostles.
Allan Kozinn from New York Times says ‘The St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys sings with an uncommon balance of purity and power and Concert Royal provides a solid, polished period-instrument accompaniment.”
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
THE SAINT THOMAS CHOIR & CHOIR SCHOOL
The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is considered by many to be the leading ensemble in the Anglican choral tradition in the United States. The choir performs regularly with the period instrument ensemble, Concert Royal, or with Orchestra of St. Luke's as part of its own concert series. Its primary raison d'être, however, is to provide music for five choral services each week. Live webcasts of all choral services and further information including recordings of the choir may be found at www.SaintThomasChurch.org
Supplementing its choral services and concert series over the past three decades, the choir has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe with performances at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Kings College, Cambridge, Windsor, Edinburgh, St. Albans and the Aldeburgh Festival. In 2004, the choir toured Italy, and performed for a Papal Mass at the Vatican. During 2007, the choir performed Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion for the opening concert of the Mexico Festival in Mexico City as well as at Saint Thomas Church. In February 2012, the Boys of the choir traveled to Dresden to give the premiere of Lera Auerbach's Dresden Requiem with the Dresden Staatskapelle in the Frauenkirche and Semper Oper. Later in 2012, the choir was invited to perform in the Thomaskirche at the Leipzig BachFest, a highlight of their June 2012 tour to Germany and Copenhagen.
In addition to the annual performances of Handel’s Messiah, concerts at Saint Thomas have included Requiems by Fauré, Brahms, Mozart, Duruflé and Howells; Bach’s Passions and Mass in B Minor; the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610; a Henry Purcell anniversary concert; Rachmaninoff Vespers; the U.S. premiere of John Tavener’s Mass; a concert of American composers featuring works by Bernstein and Copland and a composition by Saint Thomas chorister, Daniel Castellanos; the world premiere of Scott Eyerly’s Spires and a concert of music by Benjamin Britten.
The Men of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers; the Boy choristers attend Saint Thomas Choir School. Founded in 1919, it is the only church related boarding choir school in the United States, and one of only a few choir schools remaining in the world. The Choir School offers a challenging pre-preparatory curriculum, interscholastic sports, and musical training for boys in grades three through eight. The Choir School is committed to training and educating talented musicians without regard to religious, economic, or social background. Choristers are sought from all regions of the country. Details of admissions procedures and audition requirements are available at www.ChoirSchool.org
CONCERT ROYAL
Founded by Artistic Director James Richman, Concert Royal, performs the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries exclusively on original instruments, presenting a multifaceted approach to the period by programming all genres of music from orchestral, vocal, and chamber music to opera and opera-ballet. The ensemble has been in the forefront of the Baroque and Classic revival in the United States, with innovative performances of the major repertoire of the period featuring the foremost performer/scholars in the field. This work has included the first ongoing program of Baroque opera on original instruments with period costumes and staging, as well as premieres from the chamber music and chamber orchestra repertoire. The ensemble has appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the E. Nakamichi Baroque Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA, Bermuda Festival, and the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, among others, and tours regularly with the New York Baroque Dance Company. Together they have appeared across the United States and abroad in Canada, England, France, Germany and Mexico.
JAMES RICHMAN
Artistic Director and founder of Concert Royal, James Richman is a prominent harpsichordist and fortepianist, and a leading conductor of Baroque music and opera. He was winner of the Bodky Competition of the Cambridge Society of Early Music, and in addition was a laureate of the Bruges Competition and a prize winner in the Paris Harpsichord Competition of the Festival Estival and the First International Fortepiano Competition (Paris). In appearances at the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Spoleto Festival USA, the E. Nakamichi Baroque Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, as well as in regular series in New York, he has presented staged and concert performances of such important works as Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Fêtes d’Hébé, Pygmalion, Les Indes Galantes, and Le Temple de la Gloire; Handel’s Ariodante, Acis and Galatea, Alessandro, Il Pastor Fido and Terpsicore, Glück’s Orfeo, Purcell’s King Arthur and Dido and Aeneas, Monteverdi’s Incoronazione di Poppea, J.C. Bach’s Amadis des Gaulles, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Le Devin du Village. He is also Artistic Director and conductor of the Dallas Bach Society and Music Director of the New York Baroque Dance Company, and recently led the Hanover Band at the Pollença Festival in Majorca. In 1996 he was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his contributions to the art of music.
DANIEL BECKWITH
Daniel Beckwith has conducted in most of the major opera houses throughout North America and Europe. With repertoire spanning the 17th to 21th centuries, he has been hailed as one of the most exciting conductors of his generation. Mr. Beckwith’s Metropolitan Opera debut was in 1995, followed by important debuts conducting the works of Handel, both nationally (Seattle Opera) and internationally (Grand Theâtre du Genève, The Glyndebourne Festival). Concert appearances include Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, the Juilliard Orchestra, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, Spain’s Santander Festival with soprano Renée Fleming, the Hartford Symphony, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, both with Ms. Fleming. Mr. Beckwith is Interim Organist at St. Ignatius Loyola and Assistant Organist at Temple Emanu-EL, both in New York City.
YULIA VAN DOREN
Recognized by Opera Magazine as “A star-to-be” following her Lincoln Center debut, young Russian-American soprano Yulia Van Doren’s debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra was acclaimed as a “revelation... a ravishing lyric voice and an ease with vocal ornamentation that turned her into an enchanted songbird” (Toronto Star). For her last minute step-in with the Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Plain Dealer praised Van Doren as an artist of “melting poignancy” and added, “To Van Doren, one could easily have listened for hours.”
A dedicated interpreter of repertoire off the beaten path, career highlights include creating the lead female role in the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Orango with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, directed by Peter Sellars and released on Deutsche Grammophon; two Grammy-nominated opera recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival; the modern revival of Monsigny’s opera Le roi et le fermier at Opera de Versailles, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center (recorded for Naxos); and a tour of Handel’s Orlando with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra to the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals.
Highlights of Ms. Van Doren’s upcoming season include appearances with the Cincinnati and Baltimore Symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra, and tours with Mark Morris Dance Group including performances of Handel’s Acis and Galatea and L’Allegro under conductor Nicholas McGegan.
SHANNON MERCER
Recognized for the luminosity and effortless agility of her voice, as well as her commanding stage presence and profound acting ability, Canadian soprano Shannon Mercer enthusiastically embraces a range of repertoire from early to contemporary music, from Francesca Caccini and Monteverdi to John Beckwith and Ana Sokolovic. Shannon maintains a busy and challenging performance calendar of opera, concert, and recital engagements throughout North America and Europe while also sustaining an active recording presence, capturing some rarely performed works. In the 2015-2016 season, audiences will hear Shannon sing Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Calgary Opera; Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Mozart’sEsultate, Jubilate with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra; and theMessiah with the Oregon Symphony.
IAN HOWELL
Praised by the New York Daily News for his “rich voice, capable of great dramatic force,” San Francisco Classical Voice for the “heart at the core of his soulful sound,” and Classical Voice of North Carolina for his “lovely, supple, and crystal-clear” voice, Ian Howell sings with a warm and seamless tone rarely heard from countertenors.
STEVEN CALDICOTT WILSON
Tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson is a member of the male classical a cappella quartet New York Polyphony, and he frequently appears as soloist and small ensemble singer with leading conductors. Praised for his "steadiness and sensitivity…impassioned without ever straining” (NY Times, December 2015) and “powerful, polished and moving Evangelist" (NY Times, April 2011), recent solo highlights include the title role in Britten’s St. Nicholas at Trinity Wall Street; Bach’s St. John Passion at Alice Tully Hall; Monteverdi’s Vespers with Paul O’Dette; soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion and multiple Bach cantata solo appearances with Trinity Baroque Orchestra NYC; Evangelist in C.P.E. Bach’s Matthew Passion; Messiah solos at Lincoln Center; J.S. Bach’s Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Wilson is a veteran of the United States Air Force Band Singing Sergeants (2001-2005), and a graduate of Ithaca College and the Yale University Voice Masters program in early music, oratorio, and chamber ensemble.
JESSE BLUMBERG
Baritone Jesse Blumberg has performed roles at Minnesota Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Atlanta Opera, Boston Early Music Festival, and at London’s Royal Festival Hall. He has made concert appearances with American Bach Soloists, Boston Baroque, and on Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, and has performed recitals with the New York Festival of Song and Marilyn Horne Foundation. His 2015-2016 season includes Messiah performances at the National Cathedral, Bach cantatas with Montreal Baroque, St. John Passion with Apollo's Fire, and The Merry Widow at Boston Lyric Opera. Jesse is also the founder and artistic director of Five Boroughs Music Festival in NYC. www.jesseblumberg.com
TICKET INFORMATION
Order concert tickets and recordings online at: www.SaintThomasChurch.org E-mail: concerts@SaintThomasChurch.org
WEBSITE
www.SaintThomasChurch.org/music/concerts
ST THOMAS CHURCH INFORMATION
Concerts at Saint Thomas
One West 53rd Street, New York, New York 10019-5496
Phone: 212-664-9360
E-mail: concerts@SaintThomasChurch.org
www.SaintThomasChurch.org/music/concerts
The Reverend Canon Carl F. Turner, Rector; Stephen Buzard, Acting Director of Music Benjamin Sheen, Acting Organist; The Reverend Charles F. Wallace, Headmaster Saint Thomas Choir School
PRESS CONTACT
DAN DUTCHER PUBLIC RELATIONS, Dan Dutcher, 917- 566 -8413, dan@dandutcherpr.com
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