Hearn, Szot, Fitzgerald et al. Set for Collegiate Chorale in 2010-2011

The Collegiate Chorale, led by music director James Bagwell, announces its 69th season, including Brahms' Alto Rhapsody and A German Requiem, featuring Stephanie Blythe, Erin Morley, and Eric Owens, on October 13, 2010 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall; Knickerbocker Holiday on January 25 and 26, 2011 at 8pm at Alice Tully Hall; and two special events: We Remember Them: Choral Music from the Camps and the Ghettos on March 10, 2011 at 7pm at Central Synagogue, and Something Wonderful - A Night of Broadway with Deborah Voigt, conducted by Ted Sperling, on May 19, 2011 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall.

"There is something for nearly everyone's musical palate - the warm, familiar sonorities of the Brahms, deeply somber and moving human expression in our program entitled We Remember Them, tuneful wittiness in Knickerbocker Holiday, and a soaring, rollicking good time in our Broadway Evening with Deborah Voigt. Added to that are the concerts in which The Chorale is the featured chorus with the American Symphony Orchestra, a collaboration begun last year that continues to blossom and expand," said James Bagwell, music director of The Collegiate Chorale.

Brahms' Alto Rhapsody, Op.53 and A German Requiem
October 13, 2010 at 7pm, Opening Night and Annual Gala at Carnegie Hall
International artist and Musical America's 2009 Vocalist of the Year mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe performs with The Collegiate Chorale in Brahms' lush, rarely-seen Alto Rhapsody. Metropolitan Opera star baritone Eric Owens and soprano Erin Morley will join The Chorale to perform Brahms' transcendent masterpiece A German Requiem. The Chorale's Annual Gala follows the concert. Gala tickets are available by phone at 646-435-9052.

Conducted by James Bagwell, featuring Stephanie Blythe, Erin Morley, and Eric Owens, with the American Symphony Orchestra.

Knickerbocker Holiday
January 25-26, 2011 at 8pm at Alice Tully Hall
Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson teamed up for the first time to create this delightful romantic comedy. First performed in 1938 with Walter Huston in the role of Peter Stuyvesant, the work is one of Weill's deft hybrid theater pieces which lies somewhere between operetta and musical theater, and also contains bits of political satire. The famous pop standard September Song first appeared in Knickerbocker Holiday.

Knickerbocker Holiday, with music by Kurt Weill and books and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson, will be performed for two nights in concert version. The cast will include George Hearn as Stuyvesant and Christopher Fitzgerald as Tenpin.

Directed by Ted Sperling and conducted by James Bagwell with the American Symphony Orchestra.

We Remember Them: Choral Music from the Camps and the Ghettos
March 10, 2011 at 7pm at Central Synagogue
From within the camps and ghettos of the Holocaust came a great deal of music, passed along secretly and embraced by the entire community. For obvious reasons, much of it was choral, and included songs of great power, depth, and beauty. In this concert of choral works by composers who perished in the Holocaust, as well by contemporary composers who wrote to sustain the memory of all who suffered in the camps and ghettos, Maestro Bagwell will lead The Chorale in a program entitled We Remember Them. The concert will be held in the magnificent sanctuary of Central Synagogue.

Cantor Angela Buchdahl, host; The Collegiate Chorale, conducted by James Bagwell, with Kenneth Bowen, pianist.

Something Wonderful - A Night of Broadway with Deborah Voigt
May 19, 2011 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall
Deborah Voigt, one of the world's favorite international opera luminaries, will turn her estimable vocal talents toward the world of musical theater to provide us with a delightful evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gershwin, Kern, Sondheim and others. Teaming up with Ted Sperling, one of Broadway's foremost conductors, arrangers and directors, Ms. Voigt will spread her vocal wings and display her fearless ability to do it all. See her strut her Broadway stuff with The Chorale just before she begins her widely anticipated debut in Annie Get Your Gun at Glimmerglass. Paulo Szot, critically acclaimed baritone who starred last season in both The Nose at the Met and South Pacific on Broadway, will join in this Special Event.

Deborah Voigt with featured guest artist Paolo Szot, conducted by Ted Sperling with the American Symphony Orchestra. The Chorale's Annual Spring Benefit follows the concert. Benefit tickets are available by phone at 646-435-9052.

Subscription tickets can be purchased by contacting The Chorale office at (646) 435-9052 or via the website: www.collegiatechorale.org. Single tickets start at $25. Tickets to individual Carnegie Hall concerts may also be purchased through The Carnegie Hall Box Office 60 days in advance of each concert and on Carnegie Charge at (212) 247-7800 or www.carnegiehall.org. Single tickets for all concerts can be obtained by calling The Collegiate Chorale at (646) 202-9623, and for the Alice Tully Hall or Central Synagogue concert by visiting www.collegiatechorale.org.

The Collegiate Chorale is honored to be returning to the renowned Verbier (Switzerland) Festival in 2011. This will mark The Chorale's fifth season of appearing at the festival since the initial invitation by Maestro James Levine in 2005. The following concerts in the 2011 festival will feature The Collegiate Chorale:

July 19: Purcell, Dido and Aeneas
Angelika Kirchschlager as Dido; Gabor Takacs-Nagy, conductor

July 21: Mendelssohn, Elijah
Thomas Quasthoff, Michael Schade; Manfred Honeck, conductor

July 22 or 23: Program featuring The Collegiate Chorale T.B.A.
James Bagwell, conductor

July 24: Puccini, Tosca
Bryn Terfel, Barbara Frittoli, Aleksandrs Antonenko; Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

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The mission of The Collegiate Chorale, led by Music Director James Bagwell, is to enrich its audiences through innovative programming and exceptional performances of a broad range of vocal music featuring a premier choral ensemble. Founded in 1941 by the legendary conductor Robert Shaw, The Chorale has established a preeminent reputation for its interpretations of the traditional choral repertoire, vocal works by American composers, and rarely heard operas-in-concert, as well as commissions and premieres of new works by today's most exciting creative artists. Among the many guest artists with whom The Chorale has performed in recent years include: Thomas Hampson, Bryn Terfel, Nathan Gunn,Victoria Clark,Stephanie Blythe, Renee Fleming, Hei-Kyung Hong, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Salvatore Licitra, Ewa Podles, and Deborah Voigt. Last season's highlights include A Jubilant Song, the inaugural concert for new Music Director, James Bagwell in works of Beethoven, Bernstein, Verdi and Dello Joio and the world premiere two-act concert version of Ricky Ian Gordon's opera The Grapes of Wrath at Carnegie Hall. In addition to The Chorale's presentations, the chorus is honored to be performing in five programs in the American Symphony Orchestra's 2010-11 season, will return to Verbier in the summer of 2011, and will perform with the Israel Philharmonic in Israel and Salzburg in July 2012.

Music Director James Bagwell maintains an active schedule throughout the United States as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral music. He has recently been named Principal Guest Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York and is Director of the Music Program at Bard College. At Bard SummerScape he has led numerous theatrical works, most notably Copland's The Tender Land, which received unanimous praise from The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Opera News. He frequently appears as guest conductor for orchestras around the country and abroad, including the Jerusalem Symphony, Tulsa Symphony, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. He has also prepared The Concert Chorale of New York for performances with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Mostly Mozart Festival (broadcast nationally in 2006 on Live from Lincoln Center), all in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. He has trained choruses for a number of major American and international orchestras and worked with noted conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Louis Langrée, Leon Botstein, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Raymond Leppard, James Conlon, Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Leon Fleischer, and Robert Shaw.

For more information, visit www.collegiatechorale.org.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.