Musica Viva NY Concludes 2018-19 Season with HOMAGE TO PEACE

Musica Viva NY concludes its 2018-19 season with Homage to Peace on Sunday, May 19 at 5:00 p.m. at The Brick Church. The program features reflective masterworks by Duruflé, Poulenc, and Pärt, performed by the Musica Viva NY Choir, led by Artistic Director Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez - including Duruflé's Ubi Caritas, and Requiem, Op. 9, Poulenc's Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings, Op. 36, with acclaimed organist Renée Anne Louprette, and Pärt's Da Pacem Domine for mixed choir and string orchestra.

A pre-concert talk will be held 4:00pm at The Brick Church featuring Renée Anne Louprette in conversation with Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez.

Tickets, priced at $40, are available by visiting musicaviva.org/tickets or can be purchased at the door.

Founded in 1977, Musica Viva NY shares the transcendent power of choral and instrumental music with audiences in New York City and beyond, through its annual four-concert series. The Musica Viva NY choir of thirty professionals and highly skilled volunteers performs broad repertoire, including new compositions and classic masterworks, emphasizing artistic excellence and transformative interpretations.

Program Information
HOMAGE TO PEACE
Duruflé, Poulenc and Pärt

Maurice Duruflé: Ubi Caritas
Francis Poulenc:Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings, Op.36
Renée Anne Louprette, organ
Arvo Pärt:Da Pacem Domine, for mixed choir and string orchestra
Maurice Duruflé:Requiem, Op. 9

Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 5:00 p.m.
The Brick Church
1140 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10128

Featuring:
Musica Viva NY Choir
Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, Artistic Director
Renée Anne Louprette, Organ

About the Artists
Esteemed conductor and pianist Dr. Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez was named Artistic Director of Musica Viva NY and Director of Music of the historic Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan in 2015. He is also Co-Founder of the New Orchestra of Washington and Artistic Director of the Victoria Bach Festival. He has earned accolades from The Washington Post as a conductor "with the incisive clarity of someone born to the idiom," as well as praise from The New York Times for leading "a stirring performance" of Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem. At a concert commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the WW1 Armistice (featuring the world premiere of Joseph Turrin's cantata And Crimson Roses Once Again Be Fair) Oberon's Grove wrote: "Maestro Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez drew rich warm sounds from the musicians" in "a beautiful and deeply moving program." He is featured in El mundo en las manos/Creadores mexicanos en el extranjero (The World in Their Hands/Creative Mexicans Abroad), a book by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs honoring Mexican nationals who are leading figures in diverse artistic fields. He is the recipient of a 2016 Shenandoah Conservatory Alumni of Excellence Award for his exemplary contribution to his profession, national level of prominence, and exceptional integrity. He resides in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Hailed by The New York Times as "splendid", Renée Anne Louprette has an active career as organ recitalist, accompanist, and teacher. She has performed with the Mostly Mozart Orchestra, Voices of Ascension, American Symphony Orchestra, New York Choral Society, and Piffaro, among numerous others. In New York City she has appeared in Carnegie, Zankel, Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, and Merkin Halls. She has performed throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, including Westminster Abbey and the Temple Church (London), St. Giles Cathedral Edinburgh and Dunblane Cathedral (Scotland), and Galway Cathedral (Ireland). She appeared as soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia. She has been featured at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists including the 2010 Convention in Washington, D.C. and 2014 Convention in Boston. In October 2018, she will be featured at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with Irish piper Ivan Goff where the duo will premiere a work for organ and uilleann pipes by Eve Beglarian.

Her recording of J.S. Bach's "Great Eighteen Chorales" (on the Acis label) was named a classical music Critics' Choice 2014 by The New York Times. In February 2018, her new CD, Une Voix Française: A French Voice was released also on the Acis label.

Renée Anne Louprette is University Organist and Coordinator of the Organ Department at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and has held teaching positions at the Manhattan School of Music, The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, and the John J. Cali School of Music, Montclair State University. She has previously served as Associate Director of Music and Organist of the Unitarian Church of All Souls, Trinity Wall Street, and the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, all in New York City.

Ms. Louprette holds a Bachelor of Music degree and a Graduate Professional Diploma from The Hartt School, University of Hartford. She was awarded a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire National de Région de Toulouse, France and a Diplôme Supérieur for organ from the Centre d'Études Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse, where she studied with Michel Bouvard, Jan Willem Jansen, and Philippe Lefebvre. Additional studied have been with Dame Gillian Weir, James David Christie, and Guy Bovet. She is presently a candidate for the Master of Music degree in conducting from Bard College Conservatory.

Renée Anne Louprette is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.

Musica Viva NY Image by Richard Termine, Renée Anne Louprette image by Joshua South

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