Seattle Choral Company: Eternal Light, featuring Lauridsen's 'Lux Aeterna'
$27 ($22 senior, $5 student; ages 6-10 free)
- Ellaina Lewis, soprano
- Brendan Tuohy, tenor
- Darrell Jordan, baritone
- North Corner Chamber Orchestra (NOCCO)
- Freddie Coleman, conductor
Franz Schubert — Mass No. 2 in G major, D. 167
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Misericordias Domini, K. 222/205a
The Seattle Choral Company's mid-season concert brings back to the repertory a true masterpiece of the 20th century – Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna. The SCC presented the first Seattle performance of this beloved contemporary work in May of 2000, with the composer (a Washington native) in attendance. About the performance, Seattle Times music critic Melinda Bargreen wrote, "The audience was already on its feet, with a standing ovation for the Seattle Choral Company's first Seattle performance of Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna."
Since its world premiere in 1997, Lauridsen's luminous Lux Aeterna has made a lasting international impact. Lauridsen's music remains a powerful magnet for choral ensembles as well as music lovers around the world.
This concert will also feature two choral works from the 18th and 19th Centuries: Misericordias Domini, K. 222, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and the Mass No. 2 in G major, by Franz Schubert. Both of these works, written when the composers were quite young, express youthful energy and early genius. Mozart penned his Misericordias Domini when he was 19 years old, and Schubert composed his Mass in G major at the age of 18.
Joining the Seattle Choral Company for the performance of Schubert's Mass No. 2 in G major will be a trio of accomplished Seattle soloists: Ellaina Lewis, soprano; Brendan Tuohy, tenor; and Darrell Jordan, baritone. Once again, members of the North Corner Chamber Orchestra will complete the roster of guest artists for this concert of choral masterworks spanning three centuries.
Pre-concert talk at 7pm by director Freddie Coleman.
About Seattle Choral Company
Founded in 1982 by Artistic Director Freddie Coleman, the Seattle Choral Company has, over the course of 40 years, become one of the region's most accomplished and respected choral organizations. Maestro Coleman's finely-tuned yet spirited interpretations of the masterworks of classical choral music have been acclaimed by critics and audiences, including Berlioz's Te Deum, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, Orff's Carmina Burana, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Haydn's Creation, Mozart's C minor Mass, Bach's St. John Passion, and many more. After a recent performance at Benaroya Hall featuring Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, The Gathering Note wrote that the performance "was anchored by deep emotions, a strong sense of purpose, and an excellent advocate in Freddie Coleman and the Seattle Choral Company."
Freddie Coleman has also championed America's finest contemporary choral composers, offering area listeners their first live hearing of such works as Arvo Pärt's Te Deum, Philip Glass' Itaipu, Hawley's Songs of Kabir, Roxanna Panufnik's Westminster Mass, and Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna. In 2001, the SCC commissioned a new choral work, Seattle, by New York composer William Hawley, as part of the city of Seattle’s sesquicentennial celebrations. Additionally, the Company has commissioned and premiered new works from gifted Seattle composers, such as Donald Skirvin and Bern Herbolsheimer. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently applauded this commitment, stating "it's not surprising that Coleman…would devote an entire program to contemporary music. He has long been an advocate for living composers."
In the 1980s the Seattle Choral Company toured to Australia and the former Soviet Union. (Their work as cultural ambassadors was recognized with a commendation from the Washington State legislature.) The many albums it has recorded, including The Moon Is Silently Singing, When the Morning Stars Sang Together, Carmina Burana, and Unearthed, have been highly praised and received extensive radio exposure. The Company has recorded soundtracks for Public Television (Death: the Trip of a Lifetime) and NBC (Crime and Punishment and Noah's Ark), and its recordings have been used in at least a dozen Hollywood movie trailers.
The Seattle Choral Company has become a valued collaborator with other performing arts organizations in the region. It has appeared on stage with the Pacific Northwest Ballet many times, including several mountings of Kent Stowell's staging of Orff's Carmina Burana, and Hail to the Conquering Hero, featuring choruses by Handel. In 2010, the SCC appeared with the Seattle Youth Symphony in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection") at Benaroya Hall. The SCC has appeared with the Seattle Symphony on many occasions, including Those Glorious MGM Movie Musicals, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Holiday Pops with Doc Severinsen, Holiday Pops with Marvin Hamlisch, New Year's Eve with the Seattle Symphony, and most recently The Matrix Live In Concert. On four occasions, they have appeared at the Paramount Theater in the touring production of Video Games Live, and members of the Company sang in both the Seattle and Portland productions of Star Wars In Concert. The SCC is partnered with the Northwest Sinfonietta, and is an artist-in-residence at Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral.
http://www.seattlechoralcompany.org