Great Music At St. Bart's Presents Radiance From The North

Romantic and recent choral music from Scandinavia and the Baltic States performed by the St. Bartholomew's Choir in the grand St. Bart's sanctuary, and the Dorian Wind Quintet playing jazz compositions in the intimacy of the St. Bart's Chapel - these are upcoming spring events presented by Great Music at St. Bart's (more information below).

Tickets may be purchased online at www.mmpaf.org, by phone by calling 212-378-0248, or in person at St. Bart's, 325 Park Avenue at 51st Street.

Great Music at St. Bart's continues the programmatic focus initiated by MMPAF Artistic Director William K. Trafka (Director of Music and Organist of St. Bart's): to embrace a wide range of music in programs that shine in St. Bart's spaces. The concert series, produced by the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation (www.mmpaf.org), for the past seven years has presented music in St. Bartholomew's Church, a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of New York located in the heart of midtown Manhattan. The magnificent 1918 Romanesque-style church, a National Historic Landmark, features a portal designed by Stanford White and a grand Byzantine-style interior - and two of New York's unlikely but outstanding concert spaces. The 150-seat chapel is an intimate and acoustically brilliant space perfectly suited for contemporary chamber music, and the majestic 1,000-seat sanctuary - outfitted with comfortable chairs enabling flexible seating - boasts an Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ that is the largest in New York City and one of the finest examples of the American Classic Organ in the U.S.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at 7:30 pm in the Church

ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S CHOIR

"PORTALS TO THE DIVINE: RADIANCE FROM THE NORTH"

St. Bartholomew's Choir

William K. Trafka, conductor

Romantic and contemporary choral works by composers from both Scandinavian countries and the Baltic States offer a testament of faith and a glimpse into a transcendent world: the Requiem of Icelandic composer Jón Leifs (1899-1968), Psalm 67 and Only in Sleep of Latvian Eriks Ešenvalds (b. 1977), Ubi caritas by Norwegian Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978) and Biegga luohte by Swedish Jan Sandström (b. 1964), as well as music of Norwegian Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), all performed by the St. Bartholomew's Choir led by St. Bart's Music Director William Trafka in the grand Romanesque architecture of the St. Bart's sanctuary.

Jón Leifs' Requiem was composed in memory of his young daughter, who perished in a swimming accident. Jan Sandström's Biegga luohte was inspired by a Scandinavian Yoik, an improvised chant originating in the Sami culture, the indigenous people of Scandinavia, who inhabit the northern portions of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Biegga is a call to the wind, conveying a sense of the divine.

"Much of this music, although unfamiliar to American audiences, is deeply affecting and expresses a dimension of experience which is mystical and divine, transcending the ordinary," says William Trafka. "One can't help but to consider that the extraordinary Northern European landscape, much of it arctic, with the beauty of its solitude and wealth of natural wonders including the fjords, forests and the extraordinary Aurora Borealis, might have served as a source of inspiration for these composers."

This concert has been made possible by a generous gift from Robin Henry.

Tickets: $35 general admission; $25 students and seniors

Tuesday, April 17, 2018, at 7:00 pm in the Chapel

THE DORIAN WIND QUINTET - AN EVENING OF JAZZ

The Dorian Wind Quintet - Gretchen Pusch, flute; Gerard Reuter, oboe; Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Adrian Morejon, bassoon; Karl Kramer-Johansen, horn - is known worldwide as one of chamber music's pre-eminent and longest continuously-active ensembles. At St. Bart's, the quintet will perform a program of jazz works including Gershwin's Three Preludes, Gunther Schuller's Blues, Billy Childs's Fugue in Perpetual Motion, and Lalo Schifrin's La Nouvelle Orleans.

The Quintet has traveled around the world - concertizing in 48 of the 50 United States and Canada, touring Europe eighteen times, and playing throughout the Middle East, India, Africa, and Asia. The Dorian made history in 1981, as the first wind quintet to appear at Carnegie Hall. The quintet has been responsible for 40 commissions of 20th and 21st century wind music from major composers such as Luciano Berio, Lukas Foss, and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. Their commission of George Perle's Wind Quintet No. 4 won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1986. The Dorian Quintet partners with the Pro Musicis foundation, expanding and restructuring its outreach efforts in New York City - bringing chamber music of the highest quality to residents of assisted living facilities, rehabilitation facilities, hospitals, schools, community centers, and retirement communities. Its goals are to provide access for audiences that are prevented from attending regular concert venues, spread joy and inspiration to people in difficult situations, and for the Quintet to continue enriching its beloved New York City community.

Tickets: $25 general admission; $15 students and seniors

The final event of the 2017-2018 season presented by Great Music at St. Bart's is the acclaimed pianist Marilyn Nonken and cellist Stephen Marotto performing Morton Feldman's 1981 Patterns in a Chromatic Field, one of the composer's most intricate chamber works (Sunday, May 13, 2018), in the St. Bart's Chapel.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.mmpaf.org, by phone by calling 212-378-0248, or in person at St. Bart's, 325 Park Avenue at 51st Street.