Handel and Haydn Society Present HANDEL JEPHTHA, 5/3 & 5

Handel and Haydn Society Presents Handel Jephtha, conducted by Artistic Director Harry Christophers, in celebration of the 2015 Bicentennial. The piece premiered in the US by H&H in 1855. Performances are set for tonight, May 3, 2013 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 3pm at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Mass.

REPERTOIRE:

Handel Jephtha
HANDEL: Jephtha

Harry Christophers, conductor
Robert Murray, tenor (Jephtha)
Catherine Wyn-Rogers, mezzo-soprano (Storgè)
Joélle Harvey, soprano (Iphis)
William Purefoy, countertenor (Hamor)
Woodrow Bynum, baritone (Zebul)
Teresa Wakim, soprano (Angel)
Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus

Subscriptions and single tickets may be purchased through the Handel and Haydn (H&H) Box Office by phone at 617 266 3605, online at handelandhaydn.org, or in person at the Handel and Haydn Society office, Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston (M-F, 10am-6pm). Single tickets range from $20 to $78. Student rush is available starting 90 minutes before the performance: $15 cash only with valid ID, best available seats subject to availability. Groups of 10 or more receive a 20% discount.

Premiered in the US by H&H in 1855, Handel's Jeptha will be performed by the Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus for the first time since 1867. After performing the work in Berkeley and Los Angeles as part of H&H's California tour, H&H returns to Boston to perform the work at the renowned Symphony Hall. The oratorio brings a legend to life: the music tells the story of Jephtha, a commander for the Israelites against the Ammonites, and his daughter Iphis, who is betrothed to one of Jephtha's soldiers, Hamor.

Jephtha is Handel's final oratorio, completed in 1751 and premiered in 1752. In the midst of composing the work, Handel took a break for several months due to the loss of sight he suffered from at the end of his life. Rev. Thomas Morell wrote the libretto, which is based on the biblical story of Jephtha. In the story, Jephtha, a commander for the Israelites against the Ammonites, makes a promise that if he is victorious in battle he will sacrifice the first person he meets upon his return home. Tragically, the first person he meets after the victory in battle is his daughter, Iphis, who happens to be betrothed to one of Jephtha's soldiers, Hamor. In the bible, Iphis is sacrificed. Handel and Morell opted for a more uplifting ending; in a true deus ex machina, an angel stops the impending sacrifice and gives Iphis in exchange for the dedication of her life to God.

With a stellar cast, Christophers enlivens this dramatic story of passion and redemption and showcases the transformative powers of Handel's music. Robert Murray, tenor, performs the title role. The cast also includes mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Storge), soprano Joélle Harvey (Iphis), and countertenor William Purefoy (Hamor), as well as H&H chorus members Woodrow Bynum (Zebul) and Teresa Wakim (Angel). Jephtha marks the cast's first solos with H&H, with the exception of Catherine Wyn-Rogers, who last appeared with H&H in Messiah in 2010, and Teresa Wakim, who last performed as guest soloist for Mozart Coronation Mass in 2012.

One hour preceding each performance, Handel and Haydn welcomes audiences to join special guest Ruth Smith for a discussion of the work. A noted Handelian and published author, Ruth Smith is a regular writer, lecturer, and broadcaster on Handel's oratorios and operas both in the UK and US.

On Saturday, May 4, at 10am, H&H will participate in Jephtha: A Symposium, being held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and sponsored by MIT's Music and Theater Arts department. The symposium will be monitored by scholar and professor emeritus Ellen T. Harris and will include conversation with Ruth Smith, H&H Artistic Director Harry Christophers, and Margaret Murata, a professor of musicology from UC Irvine. The event will feature a brief performance by Handel and Haydn Society musicians as well as a small reception. The symposium is part of H&H's ongoing educational outreach efforts.

ASSOCIATED EVENTS:

Pre-Concert Conversation
Friday, May 3, 2013 at 6:30pm
Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 2pm
Conversations will take place in the Cabot-Cahners Room, Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
Free with concert tickets

Scholar and author Ruth Smith leads a discussion on Handel Jephtha.

Ovation!
Sunday, May 5, 2013 post-concert
Lucca Back Bay, 116 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA
$35 admission

Handel and Haydn celebrates the 2012-2013 Season by gathering with musicians, staff, and patrons for an evening of wine and hors d'oeuvres.

Jephtha: A Symposium
Saturday, May 4, 2013 10am-12pm
MIT's Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Sponsored by MIT Music and Theater Arts
Free and open to the public

Ellen T. Harris leads a discussion with Margaret Murata, Professor of Musicology, UC Irvine; Dr. Ruth Smith, Cambridge, UK; and Harry Christophers, Artistic Director, Handel and Haydn Society. Featuring a brief performance by Handel and Haydn Society musicians with Robert Murray and Joélle Harvey.

BIOGRAPHIES:

HARRY CHRISTOPHERS
Harry Christophers, CBE, enters his fifth season as Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society with the 2013-2014 Season. Appointed in 2008, he began his tenure with the 2009-2010 Season and has conducted Handel and Haydn each season since September 2006, when he led a sold-out performance in the Esterházy Palace at the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria. Christophers and H&H have since embarked on an ambitious artistic journey towards H&H's 2015 Bicentennial with a showcase of works premiered in the United States by the Handel and Haydn Society since 1815, education programming, community outreach activities and partnerships, and the release of the first of a series of recordings on the CORO label leading to the Bicentennial. Christophers is known internationally as founder and conductor of the UK-based choir and period instrument ensemble The Sixteen. He has directed The Sixteen throughout Europe, America, and the Far East, gaining a distinguished reputation for his work in Renaissance, Baroque, and 20th century music. In 2000, he instituted the "Choral Pilgrimage," a tour of British cathedrals from York to Canterbury. He has recorded close to 100 titles for which he has won numerous awards, including a Grand Prix du Disque for Handel Messiah, numerous Preise der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics Awards), the coveted Gramophone Award for Early Music, and the prestigious Classical Brit Award (2005) for his disc entitled Renaissance. In 2009 he received one of classical music's highest accolades, the Classic FM Gramophone Awards Artist of the Year Award; The Sixteen also won the Baroque Vocal Award for Handel Coronation Anthems, a CD that also received a 2010 Grammy Award nomination. Harry Christophers is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Granada Symphony Orchestra and a regular guest conductor with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In October 2008, Christophers was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Leicester. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford and also of the Royal Welsh Academy for Music and Drama and was awarded a CBE in the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Robert Murray
Tenor Robert Murray (Jephtha) makes his Handel and Haydn Society debut with Handel Jephtha. Murray studied at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. He won second prize in the Kathleen Ferrier awards 2003, and was a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Operatic roles at the Royal Opera House include Tamino (Die Zauberflote), Borsa (Rigoletto), Gastone (La Traviata), Harry (La Fanciulla del West), Lysander (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Agenore (Il re Pastore), Belfiore (La Finta Giardiniera), Jacquino (Fidelio), and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). He recently sang the title role in Albert Herring for Glyndebourne On Tour; Tom Rakewell (The Rake's Progress) and Tamino for Garsington Opera; The Simpleton (Boris Godunov), Tamino, Toni Reischmann (Henze's Elegy For Young Lovers), Idamante (Idomeneo), and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) for ENO; Benvolio (Romeo et Juliette) at the Salzburg Festival; Ferrando (Cosi fan Tutte) for Opera North; and Male Chorus (Rape of Lucretia) for Norway Opera. Future engagements include La Périchole for Garsington Opera and Steuerman Der fliegende Holländer for ENO.

Murray has sung in concert with many of the leading early music specialists, and performances include Haydn's Nelson Mass with Sir John Eliot Gardiner for the BBC Proms; Mozart's C Minor Mass both with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras and with Le Concert D'Astrée; the Evangelist in Bach's St John Passion for the London Handel Festival; Acis and Galatea (Damon), Berlioz's Grand Messe des Morts and Handel's Saul with the Gabrieli Consort & Players; and the Mozart Requiem at London's Barbican Mostly Mozart Festival with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. Forthcoming concert work includes performances of Britten's Serenade in Lyon and Nocturne in St Paul, Minnesota. Most recently he has appeared on Malcolm Martineau's Complete Poulenc Songs series for Signum and Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts with the Gabrieli Consort & Players.

CATHERINE WYN-ROGERS
Mezzo-soprano Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Storgè) last appeared with the Handel and Haydn Society in Handel Messiah in 2010. Wyn-Rogers was a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music, studying with Meriel St Clair and gaining several prizes including the Dame Clara Butt award. She continued her studies with Ellis Keeler and now works with Diane Forlano. Wyn-Rogers works extensively in recital and oratorio, appearing with the major British orchestras and choral societies and at the Three Choirs, Edinburgh, and Aldeburgh Festivals and at the BBC Proms, of which she was a memorable soloist at the Last Night of the 1995 Proms. She is equally renowned for her performances with period instrument orchestras. Her recent engagements have included appearances with the Philharmonia, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra, and her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Catherine Wyn-Rogers' numerous recordings include Handel's Samsonwith The Sixteen under Harry Christophers, Mozart's Vespers with Trevor Pinnock for DG, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music with Roger Norrington for Decca, and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius for EMI. She has joined Graham Johnson's Complete Schubert Edition for Hyperion, recorded Mozart's Requiem with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras, and Mrs. Sedley (Peter Grimes) with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis.

She appears regularly on the opera stage and has worked with Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, the Semperoper, Dresden, the Bordeaux Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Netherlands Opera, and the Salzburg Festival. She is a regular guest artist with English National Opera; with the Royal Opera House, Covent; and with the Bavarian State Opera. She made her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in The Midsummer Marriage and her debut at the Houston Grand Opera in Peter Grimes.

JOÉLLE HARVEY
Soprano Joélle Harvey (Iphis) makes her Handel and Haydn Society debut with Handel Jephtha. A native of Bolivar, New York, Harvey is quickly becoming recognized as one of the most promising young talents of her generation. She is the recipient of a First Prize Award in 2011 from the Gerda Lissner Foundation Vocal Competition and a 2009 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. In the summer of 2012 Harvey made her debut with Glyndebourne Festival Opera in a revival of Jonathan Kent's acclaimed production of The Fairy Queen. She also sang Bach's B Minor Mass with The English Concert at both the BBC Proms and in Leipzig. During the 2012­-2013 Season, she is engaged to sing Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro on tour with the Glyndebourne Festival and also with Arizona Opera; Handel's Messiah in a return to the San Francisco Symphony; music from Peer Gynt with the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas; the role of Tigrane in a United States tour of Radamisto, with Harry Bicket and The English Concert; and the Mendelssohn and Bach Magnificats for her debut with The New York Philharmonic. Future seasons will include further performances with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Arizona Opera, and the Dallas Opera, as well as on the concert stage with The Handel and Haydn Society, New York Phiharmonic, and the Kansas City Symphony.

Additional engagements of note include: Carmina Burana and Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe with the San Francisco Symphony, Handel's Messiah with The English Concert, and Michal in Handel's Saul with The Sixteen. Harvey appears on CORO's recording of Saul, conducted by Harry Christophers, and released in 2012.

WILLIAM PUREFOY
Countertenor William Purefoy (Hamor) makes his Handel and Haydn Society debut with Handel Jephtha. With a reputation consolidated by successful appearances in the UK with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Hanover Band, English Concert, and The Sixteen, Purefoy is also generating a strong international following, with recitals and operatic appearances in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. A graduate of Magdalen College Oxford and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, he was a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and a winner of the NFMS Young Concert Artists Award.

Purefoy's international operatic engagements have included Ottone (L'Incoronazione di Poppea) for Theater Basel, Ptolemy (Guilio Cesare) and Dr. Nice (Evening Hymn) for the Staatsoper Hannover, while highlights of his UK appearances include Sir Philip Sydney in Harle's Angel Magick (directed by David Pountney at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms), Apollo (Mozart's Apollo and Hyacinth) for Opera Theatre Company, Asciano in Mozart's Ascanio in Alba, and the Handel roles Athamas (Semele), Lychas (Hercules) and Arsace (Partenope) for the Buxton Festival. In addition he appeared as Ernesto (Il Mondo Della Luna) for Garsington Opera, while for Scottish Opera he sang Andronico (Tamerlano) and Antonio (Gesualdo).

His many recordings to date have included Vaughan-Williams' Mass in G Minor (Hickox/Chandos), Boyce's Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day and David's Lamentation Over Saul and Jonathan (Hanover Band/ASV Gaudeamus), Rosie Blood (John Harle Terror and Magnificence/Decca Argo) and the role of Spirit in Dido and Aeneas (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Chandos). He has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican, and Purcell Room, as well as in Innsbruck and Graz.

WOODROW BYNUM
Baritone Woodrow Bynum (Zebul) has been a member of the Handel and Haydn Society chorus since 2011. He was born in Arkansas in 1975 and began pursuing his musical education at The Interlochen Arts Academy before graduating summa cum laude from The University of Michigan. Following a residency at The Detroit Opera House, Bynum moved to New York City and studied at The Juilliard School and sang in the choir of Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. He studied voice with Lorna Haywood, Rita Shane, and Beverley Peck Johnson, and his other musical influences include Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, and John Scott. As a professional singer, he appears regularly in concert with orchestras and choirs alike. He has been lauded by The New York Times for his "fine free baritone register" and The Dallas Morning News as "...a gorgeous oiled-walnut baritone, elegant diction and delivery." Recent solo appearances include Messiah with Dallas Bach Society, and St. John Passion with Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. With Albany Pro Musica he was soloist in Bach's St. John Passion, Durufle's Requeim and Gabriel Fauré's Requiem. He has also appeared as soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Mendelssohn's Elijah. as well as Bach's Mass in B Minor. He marked his debut with The Handel & Haydn Society at Boston Symphony Hall singing the bass solo in Dixit Dominus (Handel). In addition to his singing engagements, Bynum serves as Director of Music for The Cathedral of All Saints where he conducts The Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, the oldest continuously performing ensemble of its kind in the US.

TERESA WAKIM
Soprano (Angel) Teresa Wakim has member of the Handel and Haydn Society Chorus since 2003, and made her Symphony Hall solo debut with H&H at Mozart Coronation in 2012. Wakim has garnered wide acclaim for her performances of opera, oratorio, and chamber music. Praised for her "gorgeous, profoundly expressive instrument" (Cleveland Plain Dealer), and possessing a voice of "extraordinary suppleness and beauty" (The New York Times), she enjoys an internationally successful career performing and recording music from the Renaissance to the freshly-composed, and is perhaps best known as "a fine baroque stylist" (The Miami Herald).

Wakim has performed as soloist under many of the world's renowned early music specialists, including Ton Koopman, Harry Christophers, Nicolas McGegan, Roger Norrington, Laurence Cummings, Martin Pearlman, Alex Weimann, Paul O'Dette, Stephen Stubbs, and Jeannette Sorrell.

A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Boston University's College of Fine Arts, she recently won first prize in the Internationaler Solistenwettbewerb für Alte Musik in Austria and was named Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow by Emmanuel Music. Noted engagements include Bach's Mass in B Minor and St. John Passion with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in the US and Europe, Bach's Wedding Cantata and Mendelssohn's Hear My Prayer with The Cleveland Orchestra, Handel's Messiah with the San Antonio Symphony, Pamina in The Magic Flute with Apollo's Fire, and a title role in Handel's Acis and Galatea with the Boston Early Music Festival.

Wakim can be heard as a featured soloist on four Grammy-nominated recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival and Seraphic Fire, as well as the Handel and Haydn Society's Mozart Coronation CD on CORO.

RUTH SMITH
Ruth Smith is a regular writer, lecturer, and broadcaster on Handel's oratorios and operas, in the UK and US. She has a BA and PhD from the University of Cambridge. Her book Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought (Cambridge University Press, 1995, paperback 2005) was awarded a British Academy Prize and has become a standard work on its subject. She has published several essays on Handel's Jephtha and its librettist Thomas Morell, and she recently collaborated with Harry Christophers on The Sixteen's recording of Handel's Saul. In 2012 the Handel House Museum and the Gerald Coke Handel Foundation published Charles Jennens: The Man behind Handel's Messiah, her illustrated survey of Jennens' life and achievements, to accompany the exhibition about him which she guest-curated at the Museum. From 1983 to 2011 her day job was as a careers adviser at Cambridge University Careers Service.

Handel and Haydn Society (H&H) is a professional Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus and an internationally recognize­d leader in the field of Historically Informed Performance, a revelatory style that uses the instruments and techniques of the composer's time. Founded in Boston in 1815, H&H is considered the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the United States and has a longstanding commitment to excellence and innovation: it gave the American premieres of Handel's Messiah (1818), Haydn's The Creation (1819), Verdi's Requiem (1878), and Bach's St. Matthew Passion (1879). Handel and Haydn today, under Artistic Director Harry Christophers' leadership, is committed to its mission to enrich life and influence culture by performing Baroque and Classical music at the highest levels of artistic excellence, and by providing engaging, accessible, and broadly inclusive music education and training activities. H&H is widely known through its local subscription series, tours, concert broadcasts on WGBH/99.5 Classical New England and National Public Radio, and recordings. Its recording of Sir John Tavener's Lamentations and Praises won a 2003 Grammy Award and two of its recordings, All is Bright and Peace, appeared simultaneously in the top ten on Billboard Magazine's classical music chart. Since the release of its first collaboration with Harry Christophers on the CORO label in September 2010, it has made available three live commercial recordings of works by Mozart - Mass in C Minor (2010), Requiem (2011), and Coronation Mass (2012) as well as Haydn, Vol. 1 (to be released September 2013) and of An American Christmas, an a cappella holiday program with its professional choir (to be released in October 2013). The 2010-2011 Season marked the 25th anniversary of Handel and Haydn's award-winning Karen S. and George D. Levy Educational Outreach Program, which brings music education, vocal training, and performance opportunities to 10,000 students annually throughout Greater Boston and beyond.

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