Musica Sacra Announces Their 2010-2011 Concert Season

Musica Sacra is pleased to announce its 2010-2011 season of four programs featuring the acclaimed Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra and a stellar cast of internationally acclaimed soloists under the leadership of Music Director Kent Tritle.

The season begins on Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 8:00 PM (Alice Tully Hall), with a program of three masters from the early, middle and late Baroque era. Giacomo Carissimi is considered the "Father of the Oratorio" and his Vanitas Vanitatum (Vanity of Vanities) is a rarely performed example of how Carissimi used techniques from Baroque opera to dramatize biblical texts. Marc-Antoine Charpentier, who was a pupil of Carissimi, further develops these techniques of recitative, aria and ensemble commentary in his dramatic portrayal of the Prodigal Son story in Filius Prodigus. Johann Sebastian Bach is considered to stand at the summit of the Baroque era, and his synthesis of aria and polyphony is at its best in his beloved motet Jesu, meine Freude (Jesus, My Joy). Soloists include Joseph Mikolaj, winner of the 2010 Oratorio Society Solo Competition.

On Tuesday, December 21, 2010 and Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 8:00 PM (Carnegie Hall), Kent Tritle leads the choir and orchestra in Musica Sacra's annual Messiah performances. While there are many occasions to hear Handel's Messiah in New York City each holiday season, Musica Sacra's presentations are the longest consecutive running performances by a fully professional chorus in the city's history. Its performances have been hailed as "impressively transparent and vibrant" and "beguilingly natural" by The New York Times, and New York Magazine declared, "I doubt if the city offers a better version of Messiah." The featured soloists are soprano Jennifer Zetlan, fresh from recent debuts with the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera; countertenor Matthew Shaw, tenor Colin Balzer and baritone Tyler Duncan.

Musica Sacra presents another of Handel's masterpieces on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 8:00 PM, his rarely performed oratorio Israel in Egypt. This masterpiece highlights the choir in stunning music for double chorus, while the orchestral writing contains some of Handel's most vivid musical depictions. Soloists include soprano Leslie Fagan, mezzo-soprano Charlotte Daw Paulsen, tenor Oliver Mercer in his Carnegie Hall debut, baritone Tyler Duncan and bass Kevin Deas.

The season comes to a close with Messages to Myself, an a cappella concert of new works by established and emerging New York City composers, on Friday, May 13, 2011 at 8:00 PM (Alice Tully Hall). The program includes world premieres by Daniel Brewbaker and Michael Gilbertson, and New York premieres by Christopher Theofanidis, Zachary Patten and Behzad Ranjbaran. This lush choral program will be recorded for commercial release in Fall 2011.

2010-2011 Concert Season

MUSICA SACRA
Professional Choral Music At Its Finest

Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center (Broadway at 65th Street)

GIACOMO CARISSIMI: Vanitas Vanitatum (Vanity of Vanities)
MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER: Filius Prodigus (The Prodigal Son)
JOHANN Sebastian Bach: Jesu, meine Freude (Jesus, My Joy)

Musica Sacra Chorus and Chamber Orchestra
Kent Tritle, Conductor
Kathryn Lewek and Jamet Pittman, Sopranos
Kirsten Sollek, Mezzo-Soprano
Ryland Angel, Countertenor
Joseph Mikolaj and Steven Fox, Tenors
Steven Hrycelak, Bass
Damian Savarino, Bass

Tickets: $25 through $110

Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Carnegie Hall (57th Street at 7th Avenue)

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL: Messiah

Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra
Kent Tritle, Conductor
Jennifer Zetlan, Soprano
Matthew Shaw, Countertenor
Colin Balzer, Tenor
Tyler Duncan, Baritone

Tickets: $25 through $128

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 8:00 PM
Carnegie Hall (57th Street at 7th Avenue)

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL: Israel in Egypt

Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra
Kent Tritle, Conductor

Leslie Fagan and Jamet Pittman, Sopranos
Charlotte Daw Paulsen, Mezzo-Soprano
Oliver Mercer, Tenor
Tyler Duncan, Baritone
Kevin Deas, Bass

Tickets: $25 through $120

Friday, May 13, 2011 at 8:00 PM
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center (Broadway at 65th Street)

CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS: Messages to Myself (New York Premiere)
DANIEL BREWBAKER: Mother, Father (World Premiere)
MICHAEL GILBERTSON: Three Madrigals after Dowland (World Premiere)
ZACHARY PATTEN: Magnificat (New York Premiere)
BEHZAD RANJBARAN: We Are One (New York Premiere)
CHRISTINA WHITTEN: Choral de Bêtes

Musica Sacra Chorus
Kent Tritle, Conductor

Tickets: $25 through $110

Tickets are available online at www.MusicaSacraNY.com or by calling 212-330-7684.

BIOGRAPHIES

Founded in 1964 by conductor Richard Westenburg, Musica Sacra is dedicated to presenting the highest caliber performances of great choral masterworks, as well as educating audiences in the different eras and styles of classical music to deepen the appreciation of the choral arts. In addition to its acknowledged affinity for Baroque music, Musica Sacra performs in all genres, from the earliest of Gregorian chant to commissioned works and premieres by leading contemporary composers such as Benjamin Britten, Dave Brubeck, Alessandro Cadario, Robert Convery, David Diamond, Aram Khatchaturian, and Ned Rorem. The 2010-2011 concert season features a performance of Baroque gems by Carissimi, Charpentier and J.S. Bach (October 23, 2010, Alice Tully Hall), a concert featuring five premieres by established and emerging composers (May 13, 2011, Alice Tully Hall) that will be recorded for commercial release in Fall 2011, Handel's Israel in Egypt (February 23, 2011, Carnegie Hall) and its annual performances of Handel's Messiah (December 21 and 22, 2010, Carnegie Hall). Highlights of previous seasons include performances of Mozart's Mass in C Minor, Bach's St. John Passion, Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel and Arvo Pärt's Stabat Mater for WNYC's New Sounds Live at the World Financial Center, and Edgard Varèse's Etude pour Espace with the International Contemporary Ensemble and So Percussion at the 2010 Lincoln Center Festival. Musica Sacra has recorded on the RCA, BMG, and Deutsche Grammophon labels, including the first all-digital recording of Messiah released in 1982 by RCA/BMG and reissued on "High Performance," BMG's audiophile label.

Kent Tritle is one of America's leading choral conductors. Called "the brightest star in New York's choral music world," he was appointed Music Director of Musica Sacra in February 2008, succeeding Richard Westenburg, who had designated Mr. Tritle as his successor. In addition, he is founder and Music Director of Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, the acclaimed concert series at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City; Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York; Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music; and a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School. An acclaimed organ virtuoso, he is also the organist of the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra.

Kent Tritle marks his fourth season in 2010-2011 as Music Director of Musica Sacra, the longest continuously performing professional chorus in New York City. Recent concerts by New York's premier professional chorus performing sacred music in concert halls have included Mozart's Mass in C Minor at Carnegie Hall, Bach cantatas at Alice Tully Hall, a program of works by Arvo Pärt and Morton Feldman for a WNYC New Sounds Live concert; Bach's Mass in B Minor and St. John Passion, and the annual performances of Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall.

Highlights of Kent Tritle's 2010-2011 season include performances of Handel's Jephtha (St. Ignatius Loyola) and Israel in Egypt (Musica Sacra), and Mendelssohn's Elijah (Oratorio Society of New York); premieres of works by Viktor Kalabis and Juraj Filas (St. Ignatius Loyola); performance and recording of new works by Daniel Brewbaker, Christopher Theofanidis, and Behzad Ranjbaran, among others (Musica Sacra), performances of such choral gems as Strauss's Deutsche Motette and Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives (St. Ignatius Loyola); Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem with the forces of the Manhattan School of Music; and the annual performances of Handel's Messiah with Musica Sacra and the Oratorio Society of New York. For more information please visit www.kenttritle.com.

Joseph Mikolaj, tenor, recently graduated from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music with his Masters of Music in Vocal Performance, concentrating in Early Music, Oratorio and Chamber Ensemble, studying with tenor James Taylor. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of St. Thomas (Houston), graduating summa cum laude and studying under Dr. Brady Knapp.

Recent engagements at Yale include soloist in Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium, a concert of Elizabethan lute songs, Bach's B Minor Mass, Beethoven's Mass in C, and Haydn's Paukenmesse, among others. He also recently performed as soloist in Mozart's Requiem with Mount Holyoke College, Handel's Alexander's Feast with the New Haven Chorale, and Honegger's King David with The Farmington Valley Chorale. Other orchestral appearances include Handel's Messiah with the Woodlands Symphony Orchestra, Johann Ernst Eberlin's Requiem and Mass in a minor with the University of St. Thomas, and Benjamin Britten's Abraham and Isaac in concert. In the summer of 2009 he appeared as a guest artist at the Oregon Bach Festival under the baton of Helmuth Rilling.

During the spring of 2010, Mr. Mikolaj won first place in the New York Oratorio Society's Lyndon Woodside Solo Competition, and received a Young Talent award from the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music's Lotte Lenya Competition.

Jennifer Zetlan recently sang Laoula in Chabrier's Étoile at New York City Opera, and made her Nashville Opera debut as Madeline Usher in Glass's Fall of the House of Usher. Also at New York City Opera, she performed Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Second French Actress in Prokofiev's War and Peace and will sing the role of Xenia in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov next season. Zetlan is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she performed Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff and Emily in Ned Rorem's Our Town, among others. Other roles include Lisa in Bellini's Sonnambula at Florida Grand Opera, the title role in Janácek's Cunning Little Vixen with the Aspen Music Festival, Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème, Gretel in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, and Monica in Menotti's Medium.

British-Columbia-born and New York-based baritone Tyler Duncan enjoys international renown for bringing consummate musicianship, vocal beauty and interpretive insight to recital, concert and-increasingly-operatic literature. In spring 2010 he debuted at the American Spoleto Festival in the role of Friendly in the 18th-century ballad opera Flora. He has sung Demetrius in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream; roles in Lully's Armide; Purcell's The Faerie Queen; Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; the title role of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro; and the High Priest in the Richard Strauss adaptation of Mozart's Idomeneo conducted by Ion Marin at the Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Forthcoming on the CPO label is his Boston Early Music Festival recording of the title role of John Blow's Venus and Adonis.

An excellent oratorio singer performing a remarkable range of repertoire, Mr. Duncan has sung Haydn's Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; Händel's Messiah; Händel's La Resurrezione; Brahms' Requiem; Bach's St. Matthew Passion, among numerous others.

Mr. Duncan's considerable gifts in the realm of art song have earned him prizes from the Naumburg, Wigmore Hall (London) and ARD (Munich) Competitions. He was also winner of the 2010 Joy in Singing competition, the 2008 New York Oratorio Society Competition, 2007 Prix International Pro Musicis Award and the Bernard Diamant Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts.