Concerts At St. Thomas Presents St. Thomas Choir Of Men And Boys, 5/11

On Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 7:30 pm Concerts at Saint Thomas presents the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys in their final concert of the season featuring a rare performance of George Shearing's Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare. This mix of twentieth century sacred and secular music begins with Copland's famous setting of the opening words of the Book of Genesis, featuring Meg Bragle, and ends with the very last verse of the Bible, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen" set by Carl Rütti. Eric Whitacre's rock-star quality shines through in his i thank you God for most this amazing day. And the legendary pianist and composer George Shearing encapsulates "creation" with his undeniably American jazz influence in his Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare featuring Ted Rosenthal on piano.

PROGRAM

Aaron Copland (1900-1990): In the Beginning

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970): i thank you God for most this amazing day

John Rutter (b. 1945): Hymn to the Creator of Light

George Shearing (1919-2011): Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare

Aaron Copland: Four Motets

Carl Rütti (b. 1949): Amen

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Widely praised for her musical intelligence and "expressive virtuosity" (San Francisco Chronicle), Meg Bragle is quickly earning an international reputation as one of today's most gifted mezzo-sopranos.

As a featured soloist with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, she has made four recordings with the group, including Bach's Easter and Ascension Oratorios - the vehicle for her BBC Proms debut − and the Fall 2015 release of Bach's Mass in B Minor. She has performed as soloist in North America and Europe with many of the world's premiere early music ensembles: the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Les Violons du Roy, Apollo's Fire, and the Dunedin Consort.

Among Ms. Bragle's 2016/17 season highlights are appearances with the Milwaukee Symphony (Mozart's Requiem), Cincinnati Symphony (Bach's Mass in B Minor), St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (Pergolesi's Stabat Mater), American Bach Soloists (Handel's La Resurrezione), Early Music Vancouver (Bach's Magnificat) and the Winter Park and Carmel Bach Festivals.

Recent orchestral highlights in the U.S. and Canada include engagements with the Houston (Beethoven's Mass in C Minor), Indianapolis (Mozart's Requiem), Pacific (Handel's Judas Maccabeus), and Colorado (Mendelssohn's Elijah) Symphonies; the National Arts Center Orchestra (Handel's Messiah) and a series of concerts with the Calgary Philharmonic including Messiah and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. She performed Bruno Moretti's Vespro with New York City Ballet, Bach's Lutheran Masses with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and tours of Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio with the Netherlands Bach Society.

At the Carmel Bach Festival this past summer she sang the role of Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo. She has also portrayed Dido and the Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Dardano in Handel's Amadigi, Amastre in Handel's Serse, Speranza in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Ippolita in Cavalli's Elena, and Elpina in Vivaldi's La Fida Ninfa.

Ted Rosenthal is one of the leading jazz pianists of his generation. He actively tours worldwide with his trio, as a soloist, and has performed with many jazz greats, including Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, and James Moody.

Winner of the 1988 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, Rosenthal has released fifteen CDs as a leader. Rhapsody in Gershwin (2014), which features his arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue for jazz trio, reached #1 in jazz album sales at iTunes and Amazon. Wonderland (2013), was selected as a New York Times holiday pick, and received much critical praise: "Sleek, chic and elegant" - Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune. Impromptu (2010), showcases his reimaginings of classical themes for jazz trio. "A serious listen to Impromptu will be a mind-changing experience...sit back and enjoy these wonderfully creative takes on ten compositions from the classical canon that have never sounded so cool." - Elliott Simon, AllAboutJazz

Rosenthal's solo album, The 3 B's, received 4 stars from DownBeat magazine. It features renditions of the music of Bud Powell, Bill Evans and his improvisations on Beethoven themes. "With this subtly provocative solo recital, Ted Rosenthal merges three very different streams of piano history, putting his personal stamp on all of them. In Rosenthal's hands all this music sounds as though it sprang from the same muse, and that's the sign of a skilled, imaginative artist." - David R. Adler, All Music Guide.

Rosenthal is artistic director of Jazz at the Riverdale Y and previously was artistic director of Jazz at Dicapo Theatre, both in New York City. He has also performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and Jon Faddis and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. In addition, Rosenthal is the pianist of choice for many top jazz vocalists including Helen Merrill, Ann Hampton Callaway and Barbara Cook. He appeared on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio and performed with David Sanborn on NBC's Night Music.

Rosenthal's orchestral performances include solo and featured appearances with The Detroit Symphony, The Boston Pops, The Grand Rapids Symphony, The Rochester Philharmonic, The Pittsburgh Symphony and The Fort Worth Symphony.

A recipient of three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rosenthal regularly performs and records his compositions, which include jazz tunes and large-scale works. He has also composed music for dance, including "Uptown," for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. "The Survivor," a concerto for piano and orchestra, has been performed by the Manhattan Jazz Philharmonic and the Rockland Symphony Orchestra, with Rosenthal at the piano. In 2011, Rosenthal premiered his second jazz piano concerto, "Jazz Fantasy," with The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in New York City.

Rosenthal received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. Active in jazz education, he is on faculty and the Board of Trustees at Manhattan School of Music and also teaches at The Juilliard School. In addition, he presents jazz clinics throughout the world, often in conjunction with his touring. Rosenthal was a contributing editor for Piano and Keyboard magazine and has published piano arrangements and feature articles for Piano Today, The Piano Stylist and The Juilliard Journal. Website: www.tedrosenthal.com.

Born in the UK, Daniel Hyde began his education as a chorister at Durham Cathedral. Whilst at school he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 17, and won the organ scholarship to King's College, Cambridge. During his time at Cambridge University, he served under Dr Stephen Cleobury, performing world-wide with the renowned King's College Choir; he studied the organ with Dame Gillian Weir and Nicolas Kynaston. Upon graduation with First Class Honours in Music, he was appointed as Director of Music at Jesus College, Cambridge, serving five very happy years developing the College's music programme, and training of a choir of men and boys and a mixed-voiced choir. In 2009, he took up the post of Informator Choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was also an Associate Professor in Oxford University's Faculty of Music. In 2016 he moved to New York to take up the post of Organist and Director of Music at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue.

Alongside his roles in Oxford and Cambridge, Daniel has been in increasing demand as a choral and orchestral conductor, and has worked with the BBC Singers, the London Bach Choir, the Britten Sinfonia, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the City of London Sinfonia. Magdalen College Choir recorded exclusively with Opus Arte, the label of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Daniel's broad-ranging discography can be found on the Opus Arte, Linn, Naxos and EMI labels.

As an organist, Daniel has performed across the UK and the world. Recital engagements have taken him to Vienna, Finland, Germany, Holland and also Australia, where he has performed at all the major venues including the Sydney Opera House and Adelaide Town Hall. He has been a concerto soloist with the BBC Philharmonic, and with the Britten Sinfonia he has performed the Poulenc Concerto a number of times, and has recorded the Hindemith Concerto to great critical acclaim. He was awarded Second Prize and the Audience Prize in the Royal College of Organists Performer of the Year 2002competition. A regular accompanist to the BBC Singers on BBC Radio Three, he has appeared at the BBC Proms on numerous occasions, and he made his solo debut there in 2010, performing Bach's Canonic Variations at the organ of the Royal Albert Hall. In the 2014/15 season, he performed the complete organ works of J S Bach on the new Dobson organ in Merton College, Oxford. As an ensemble player he has appeared with Phantasm, the Britten Sinfonia, Aurora Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields amongst others. www.danielhyde.co.uk

The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is considered by many to be the leading ensemble of its kind in the Anglican choral tradition in the United States. The Choir performs regularly with Orchestra of St. Luke's, or with the period instrument ensemble, Concert Royal, as part of its own concert series. Its primary raison d'être, however, is to provide music for five choral services each week. Live webcasts of all choral services and further information including recordings of the choir may be found at www.SaintThomasChurch.org.

Supplementing its choral services and concert series over the past four decades, the Choir has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe with performances at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, King's College, Cambridge, Windsor, Edinburgh, St. Albans, the Aldeburgh Festival and the Vatican. In February 2012, the Boys of the Choir traveled to Dresden to give the premiere of Lera Auerbach's Dresden Requiem with the Dresden Staatskapelle in the Frauenkirche and Semper Oper. Later in 2012, the Choir was invited to perform in the Thomaskirche at the Leipzig BachFest, a highlight of their June 2012 tour to Germany and Copenhagen. Domestically, the Choir most recently toured the Southeastern United States and was a featured performer at the National AGO Convention in Houston, Texas.

In addition to the annual performances of Handel's Messiah, concerts at Saint Thomas Church have included Requiems by Fauré, Brahms, Mozart, Duruflé, Victoria and Howells; Bach's Passions, Mass in B Minor and Motets; the U.S. premiere of John Tavener's Mass; the U.S. premiere of Nico Muhly's work My Days with viol consort Fretwork; Handel's Israel in Egypt; a program of Handel and Purcell's baroque masters conducted by John Scott and Richard Egarr along with Juilliard 415 and MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross, conducted by David Hill. In 2014, the Boy Choristers performed in Bach's Saint Matthew Passion at the Park Avenue Armory as part of Lincoln Center's White Light Festival with the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Peter Sellars and conductor Sir Simon Rattle.

The Gentlemen of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers; the Boy Choristers attend the Saint Thomas Choir School. The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is represented by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc. (www.concertorganists.com) and records exclusively for Resonus Classics (www.resonusclassics.com)

Founded in 1919, the Saint Thomas Choir School is the only boarding school solely for choristers in the United States, and one of only three schools of its type remaining in the world today. The Choir School offers a challenging pre-preparatory curriculum, interscholastic sports, and musical training for boys in grades three through eight. Following graduation, boys move on to highly competitive independent boarding and day schools across the country.

Saint Thomas Choir School is committed to training and educating talented musicians without regard to religious, economic, or social background. Generous financial aid is available to all successful applicants. Inquiries from interested families are sought throughout the year.

you know a boy who loves to sing? We want to hear from you at admissions@choirschool.org. To learn more about the exceptional opportunity provided by a Choir School education, consult our website: www.choirschool.org.

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