Oratorio Society Of New York to Open 150th Anniversary And 2023-24 Season With Bach's Magnificat And Mozart's Requiem

The Oratorio Society of New York, led by Music Director Kent Tritle, will kick off its its 150th Anniversary and 2023-2024 season on Monday, November 6, 2023 at 7:00pm with Bach's Magnificat and Mozart's Requiem, two iconic works in the choral repertoire, at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall.

Joining the Society as soloists are Laquita Mitchell, soprano, Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano, Eric Finbarr Carey, tenor, and Adam Lau, bass, together with the Orchestra of the Society, all led by Music Director Kent Tritle.

Bach composed the Magnificat - a hymn of praise by Mary found in the Gospel of Luke, also known as the Canticle of Mary - in 1723. At the time, it was the composer's first work on a Latin text and Bach's first five-part choral setting in the city of Leipzig. Magnificat received its premiere on Christmas Day the same year Bach began working on it.

Mozart began composing the Requiem when his health was deteriorating. The commission came from an anonymous patron in 1791, later revealed to be Franz von Walsegg, who had intended to pass off the Requiem as his own work. Mozart was only able to complete the Requiem and Kyrie movements before his death on December 5, 1791. Joseph Eybler orchestrated the music following the Kyrie, and Mozart's student Franz Xaver Süssmayr ultimately finished the full work, although it is debated as to how much of the Requiem can be attributed to each composer who contributed to its completion.

Continuing its milestone season, the Oratorio Society of New York will next present its 149th rendition of Handel's Messiah on Monday, December 18, 2023 at 7:00pm also at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall. A holiday tradition for the Society since 1874, this year's grand performance - again led by Maestro Tritle - includes soloists soprano Kathryn Lewek, countertenor Daniel Moody, tenor Martin Bakari, and baritone John Brancy, together with the Orchestra of the Society.

Event Information
Bach's Magnificat and Mozart's Requiem
Monday, November 6, 2023 at 7:00pm
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Tickets: Starting at $39
Link: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2023/11/06/Oratorio-Society-of-New-York-0700PM

BACH: Magnificat
MOZART: Requiem

Laquita Mitchell, soprano
Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano
Eric Finbarr Carey, tenor
Adam Lau, bass
Kent Tritle, conductor
Orchestra of the Society

Ticket Information
Subscriptions to OSNY's three concerts at Carnegie Hall are available now at osny.org. Single tickets are available via carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800, or the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th and Seventh.

About Laquita Mitchell

Soprano Laquita Mitchell returns to OSNY this season for Bach's Magnificat and Mozart's Requiem. Ms. Mitchell consistently earns acclaim on stages worldwide, having recently been nominated for a Grammy for the world premiere of Paul Moravec's Sanctuary Road at Carnegie Hall. This season she sings the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with New Orleans Opera, Poulenc's Stabat Mater at Saint Thomas Church, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Chattanooga Symphony, Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with Waterbury Symphony, and she reprises Sanctuary Road with Virginia Opera, Princeton Pro Musica, and the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park.

Last season, Mitchell reprised Julie in Omar at Carolina Performing Arts and returned to the role of Josephine Baker in Cipullo's Josephine with Music of Remembrance. In concert, Ms. Mitchell performed Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Mahler's Symphony No. 4, Sanctuary Road, Verdi's Requiem, Tippet's A Child of Our Time, and Dett's The Ordering of Moses.

In her compelling début as Bess in Porgy and Bess with San Francisco Opera, Opera News said "Laquita Mitchell, in her first outing as Bess, dazzled the SFO audience with her purity of tone and vivid theatrical presence." Other notable previous engagements include the role of Coretta Scott King in I Dream with Opera Grand Rapids, Toledo Opera, and Opera Carolina; Violetta in La Traviata with Opera Memphis, New York City Opera, and Edmonton Opera; and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Florentine Opera and Portland Opera. She also returned to the Philadelphia Orchestra to perform in their Academy Ball alongside Steve Martin, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

About Lucia Bradford

Mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford, a Brooklyn native, has performed many operatic roles including the title role and Mercedes in Bizet's La Tragedie de Carmen, Zita in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, La Principessa in Puccini's Suor Angelica, The Mother in Ravel's L'Enfant des Sortileges, Mrs. Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff, The Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Gertrude in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, Hippolyta in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Miss Todd in Menotti's Old Maid and the Thief, the Duchess of Plaza Toro in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers, Azelia Dessalines in the historic return of William Grant Still's opera Troubled Island with New York City Opera at the Schomburg Center, Maria in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, the Mother of Paul Dunbar in the premiere of The Mask in the Mirror by Richard Thompson, and with Opera Carolina in its production of I Dream, a Tribute to Martin Luther King by Douglas Tappin. Ms. Bradford debuted with the Des Moines Metro Opera as Mariah in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in July 2022 and made her debut in Bach's St. Matthew Passion under the baton of Natalie Stutzman.

In addition to opera, she enjoys performing in concert and recital settings including a recital performance with Christoph Eschenbach at the piano at Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, as a soloist in Undine Smith Moore's The Scene for the Life of a Martyr in Minnesota, and with chamber orchestras including The Orchestra of St. Lukes and the Harlem Chamber Players.

Ms. Bradford also enjoys singing other genres such as gospel and jazz. She is a member of Opera Noire of New York City and the American Spirituals Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Everett McCorvey.

About Eric Finbarr Carey

Tenor Eric Finbarr Carey's 2023-2024 season includes notable debuts and reengagements including his main stage debut as soloist in Mozart Requiem and Bach Magnificat with the Oratorio Society of New York, as well as a return to The St. Agnes Cathedral, also performing Bach Magnificat. He reprises the roles of Tom Rakewell in The Rake's Progress in Fargo, North Dakota, Evangelist in Bach St. John Passion with Upper Valley Baroque, and will sing the role of Florestan in a concert version of Beethoven's Fidelio with Concerts in the Village.

Last season Carey was a soloist in Bach St. John Passion with Princeton Pro Musica, and Evangelist in the same piece with Bach in Baltimore, where he was a resident artist. He was soloist in the world premiere of the lost mass of Orlandini and Händel's Dixit Dominus with Upper Valley Baroque, where he returned last spring as soloist in Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610. He performed and recorded the world premiere of Andrew Faulkenberry's oratorio The Crooked Cross in 2023. An avid recitalist, he sang a series of recitals with pianist Bethany Pietroniro, and also presented a recital of Monteverdi, Händel, Caccini and Air de Cour with theorbist Richard Stone.

Carey has held residencies in the Renée Fleming Song Studio at Carnegie Hall, the Britten-Pears Festival Young Artist Program, and Tanglewood Music Center as a two time fellow. Awards include second place in the Oratorio Society of New York's 2022 Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition, second place in the Gerda Lissner Song Competition, the Grand Finals at the Joy in Singing Competition, and First Place at both the Sparks and Wiry Cries Song Slam Competition and the Bard College Conservatory of Music Concerto Competition. He is an alumnus of Bard College, Boston University, Peabody Conservatory and The Johns Hopkins University.

About Adam Lau

American bass Adam Lau, praised as "a bass whose singing resonates in every sense of the word", continues a busy and varied career in opera and concert. In the summer of 2023 he appeared with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin, at both Carnegie Hall and on a European tour (Paris, London, Baden-Baden). He then appeared as Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Ravinia Festival, conducted by Marin Alsop.

His 2023-24 season begins with his return to the San Francisco Opera followed by his appearance with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall. He begins 2024 with concerts at the Atlanta Symphony, then returns to Utah Opera to sing the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, then travels to Arizona Opera for more Mozart, as The Commendatore in Don Giovanni.

Adam Lau's repertoire includes such roles as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville, Colline in La boheme, Leporello in Don Giovanni and Kobun in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2021-22 season, and he has sung with the opera companies of Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Portland, Florida, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and North Carolina.

He has been a top prize winner in several major vocal competitions, and trained at some of the country's leading summer programs,such as Santa Fe Opera, Aspen Opera Theater and Merola Opera Center.

About the Oratorio Society of New York

Celebrating its 150th anniversary during the 2023-2024 season, the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY.ORG) is one of the oldest musical organizations in the United States and has become New York City's standard for grand choral performance. Founded in 1873 by Leopold Damrosch, the Society has played an integral role in the musical life of the city. In its early years, the Society established a fund to finance the building of a new concert hall, a cause taken up in earnest by the Society's fifth president, Andrew Carnegie. In 1891, and under the direction of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the Society helped inaugurate this new Music Hall, which would be renamed Carnegie Hall several years later.

The Society continues to perform several times each season at Carnegie Hall. Its annual performances of Handel's Messiah, a New York holiday tradition unbroken since 1874, have become a holiday favorite with New York audiences. In addition to its collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and Orchestra of St. Luke's, as well as other performing arts institutions, the Society performs internationally every few years - including recent concerts in Japan, Uruguay, Germany, Italy, and Brazil.

The Society is also committed to commissioning and championing new works, including most recently two pieces by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and Grammy Award-winning librettist Mark Campbell: Sanctuary Road, the recording of which was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award and is available from Naxos Records, and A Nation of Others, which saw its premiere in November 2022 after multiple pandemic-related delays. The recording of the premiere will also be commercially released

The OSNY membership consists of avocational and professionally trained singers as well as non-singing members. Auditions are held twice annually at the beginning of the fall and winter terms. OSNY is a not-for-profit 501c3 corporation governed by a volunteer board of directors with a professional music staff and executive director.

OSNY was awarded the Handel Medallion in 1974, and helped found the New York Choral Consortium.

About Kent Tritle

Kent Tritle is one of America's leading choral conductors. Called "the brightest star in New York's choral music world" by The New York Times, he is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City; Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, the acclaimed avocational chorus; and Music Director of Musica Sacra, New York's elite professional chorus. In addition, Kent is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School, serving its Vocal Arts Department. An acclaimed organ virtuoso, he is also the organist of the New York Philharmonic.

Kent Tritle's discography features more than 20 recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI and MSR Classics labels. Recent releases include the Grammy-nominated Naxos recording of the Paul Moravec/Mark Campbell oratorio Sanctuary Road with the Oratorio Society of New York; Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in David Briggs's organ-choral version, and Eternal Reflections: Choral Music of Robert Paterson with Musica Sacra. Other releases include the 2013 recording of Juraj Filas' Requiem, Oratio Spei dedicated to the victims of 9/11, with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Kühn Choir; Messages to Myself, an acclaimed recording with Musica Sacra of five new works; and recordings - including Cool of the Day, an a cappella program of music ranging from Gregorian chant, Palestrina, and spirituals to Strauss's Deutsche Motette, and Ginastera's The Lamentations of Jeremiah with Schnittke's Concerto for Choir - with the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola.

Kent Tritle is renowned as a master clinician, giving workshops on conducting and repertoire; he leads annual choral workshops at the Amherst Early Music Festival, and recent years have included workshops at Berkshire Choral International, Summer@Eastman and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. As Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music from 2008 to 2022, Kent established the school's first doctoral program in choral conducting. A Juilliard School faculty member since 1996, he currently directs a graduate practicum on oratorio in collaboration with the school's Vocal Arts Department.

Kent Tritle founded the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series at New York's Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, and led it to great acclaim from 1989 to 2011. From 1996 to 2004, he was Music Director of New York's The Dessoff Choirs. Kent hosted "The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle" on New York's WQXR, a weekly program devoted to the vibrant world of choral music, from 2010 to 2014. Among his recent honors are the 2020 Chorus America Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art, the 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award from Career Bridges and the 2016 President's Medal for Distinguished Service from the Manhattan School of Music. Kent is on the advisory boards of the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective (C4) and the Clarion Music Society, and was the 2016 honoree at Clarion's annual gala. He was recently featured in the WIRED video series "Masterminds," an installment titled, "What Conductors Are Really Doing".

Photo credit: Brian Hatton