Whatcom Chorale: George Frideric Handel's 'Messiah'
$22.50
- Serena Eduljee, soprano
- Sherrie Kahn, mezzo-soprano
- Jason Parker, tenor
- Michael Drumheller, bass
Join us in celebration of our 50th anniversary, 50 Seasons of Song!
Opening our 2022–2023 season of live concerts, Whatcom Chorale and Sinfonia return to the Mount Baker Theatre with a powerful and uplifting presentation of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah! Messiah stands as a pinnacle of choral composition, overshadowing virtually everything else the baroque master wrote during his fifty-year career. Beginning with its Dublin debut in 1742, critics rhapsodized over the oratorio’s captivating effect on the listener. As reported in The Dublin Journal: "Words are wanting to express the exquisite Delight [Messiah] afforded to the admiring crowded Audience. The Sublime, the Grand, and the Tender, adapted to the most elevated, majestic and moving Words, conspired to transport and charm the ravished Heart and Ear." The reviewer's enthusiastic praise still rings true, for in 280 years of presentations by all manner of ensembles, grandiose, intimate, professional, and improvised, this glorious work has retained its popularity and quite possibly ranks as the most performed piece of classical music in history.
For our Friday evening concert, we are joined by soloists Serena Eduljee, soprano; Sherrie Kahn, mezzo soprano; Jason Parker, tenor; and Michael Drumheller, bass. Soloists Eduljee and Drumheller, both favorites in the Pacific Northwest opera and classical music scenes, will be remembered for their incomparable performances in our 2019 presentation of Messiah. We are especially proud to feature two of our own Chorale singers, Kahn and Parker, as soloists in this concert. Both are well known to local audiences, Kahn as a frequent soloist with Whatcom Chorale and for her benefit recitals, and Parker as co-director of the Summer Musical Institute for all Bellingham High Schools, presenting Mamma Mia, and soloist in the Chorale's presentation of Beethoven's Choral Fantasy in May 2022. Whatcom Chorale Sinfonia members, a talented and dedicated group of regional instrumentalists joining us for this concert, round out this not-to-be-missed event.
All programs are subject to change; please see the Whatcom Chorale website for detailed information and, closer to the performance date, to access our digital program: http://www.whatcomchorale.org/
About Serena Eduljee, soprano
About Michael Drumheller, bass
Michael Drumheller is originally from Richland, Washington. A favorite bass-baritone in the Pacific Northwest opera and classical scenes, he has been a soloist with Seattle Symphony, Boston Lyric Opera, Tacoma Opera, Skagit Opera, Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestra Seattle, and many other organizations, under the direction of renowned conductors including Robert Spano, Gerard Schwarz, and Leonard Slatkin. As a recitalist, he is especially interested in Russian music, and has been an invited performer of Russian vocal repertoire at the Icicle Creek Music Festival and at Wellesley College.
Mr. Drumheller holds a Master's degree in Vocal Performance from Boston University, where he was a student of Phyllis Curtin. He has studied with Armen Boyajian, Robert Honeysucker, Julian Patrick, and several other notable teachers. He is an alumnus of the Tanglewood Music Center and holds BS and MS degrees in engineering and science from MIT. His diverse musical background includes playing tympani in symphony orchestras and drumming and singing for his own rock bands. Mr. Drumheller has been a featured performer in many productions of the late, distinguished Northwest conductor Hans Wolf, and regularly appears as a soloist for Northwest Chorale, which raises money for Northwest Harvest, which fights hunger throughout the Pacific Northwest.
https://michaeldrumheller.com/