Musica Viva NY Performs Mozart's Requiem and Golijov's Oceana in May

New York City’s leading chamber choir, Musica Viva NY, will perform its season-ending concert on Sunday, May 19, 2024, 5:00 p.m., at Manhattan’s All Souls. Led by Musica Viva NY’s conductor/artistic director Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, the Musica Viva NY choir and orchestra perform two imposing works: the ethereal Latin-influenced cantata Oceana by Osvaldo Golijov followed by one of the most famous choral works in the classical repertoire, Mozart’s timeless Requiem. 
 
Mozart’s Requiem can be heard throughout New York City this season with performances by the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Voices of Ascension and more. For the first time in over a decade, Musica Viva NY performs this masterpiece of great poignance and emotional depth. A swansong of sorts, it has been shrouded in mystery from its inception, fascinating performers, musicologists, and audiences for almost a quarter of a millennium. Musica Viva NY pairs this imposing work with an equally imposing work by Golijov.
 
A longtime environmental advocate and fan of Golijov’s music, Hernandez-Valdez (who is of Mexican descent) is thrilled to present Oceana and introduce audiences to two significant Latino artists: the compelling Argentine-born composer Osvaldo Golijov (b.1960) and Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet-diplomat Pablo Neruda (1904-1973). “Oceana is a sophisticated, complex song that conjures up images of rhythmic crashing waves and our oceans receding into myth,” explains Hernandez-Valdez. “Oceana put Golijov on the musical map; it was a breakthrough for the then 36-year-old composer.”
 
Sung in Spanish, Oceana is a seven-movement work set to Neruda’s 1961 poem “Give me”. It was Golijov’s first commission of a choral work in the spirit of J.S. Bach. The Los Angeles Times hailed: “Oceana is a reinvention of the Bach cantata form for a modern age, Golijov celebrating the oceans and dramatizing their demise with the same transfixing death-and-transfiguration emotions and musical resourcefulness that Bach employed to celebrate God and render the last days of Jesus.” 
 
With a boldly flavored mix of styles, Oceana seamlessly blends Latin and jazz sounds into a gorgeous evocative choral piece. The vocal effusion and jazz scat singing by choir and soloist are accompanied by a Latin-tinged ensemble of amplified guitars, percussion (talking and doumbek drums, maracas, shekere, and more), harp, and flutes. “The music's Latin American roots are unmistakable, its passion and energy hard to resist.” (The Guardian)

 
About Musica Viva NY

Musica Viva NY is a non-profit arts organization that was established nearly 50 years ago. Its mission is to bring world-class music to a wide community through an annual concert series, an active community engagement program, and an ambitious artistic vision. Under the baton of Artistic Director Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez since 2015, Musica Viva NY strives to offer joy, solace and renewal in a complex world by presenting new compositions and classic masterworks in transformative interpretations that ennoble the human spirit.
 
Musica Viva NY’s superb chamber choir and world class collaborating instrumentalists make their concert home in Manhattan’s historic All Souls Church. It regularly combines its presentation of the classical repertoire with less widely known works, as part of its commitment to perform the works of living American composers, women composers and composers of color, including works that address social, racial or environmental issues. Composers whose works have been featured in recent Musica Viva NY performances include Florence Price, Alexandra T Bryant, Steve Reich, Frank Ticheli, Missy Mazzoli, Alice Walker, Joel Thompson and Jesse Montgomery.
 
Musica Viva NY has commissioned and premiered numerous works by contemporary composers including Bora Yoon, Seymour Bernstein, Elena Ruehr, Joseph Turrin, Bruce Saylor, Jean-Louis Petit, Eugenio Toussaint, Gilda Lyons, Richard Einhorn, Trent Johnson and Trevor Weston.
 
Beyond high-quality concert performances, Musica Viva NY also serves the communities of New York City through a growing variety of rich community engagement programs. Currently, Musica Viva NY partners with New York city public schools, extracurricular youth ensembles, New York Public Library branches and the All Souls’ Monday Night Hospitality dinner program, offering free performances, artist clinics, interactive workshops, and more. Musica Viva NY has nurtured young artists throughout its half century of existence. Great musicians who have been Musica Viva NY singers and soloists include the Metropolitan Opera stars Samuel Ramey and Renée Fleming, and Broadway’s Aladdin, Michael Maliakel.
 
The organization was founded as an annual concert series in 1977 by Walter Klauss, who directed the group for 38 years, and adopted the name “Musica Viva” in 1985. Under Walter Klauss’ baton the choir toured in Paris (2004), Germany and Czechoslovakia (2006) and Italy (2012).