The Collegiate Chorale Bumps SUSANNA to 2015-16 Season

The Collegiate Chorale announces the postponement of George F. Handel's Susanna from February 3, 2015 to the company's 2015/16 Season, with date and time to be confirmed.

"It is regrettable that Susanna needed to be postponed to next season, due to illness, but we are delighted to include the piece next year," said Ted Sperling, Artistic Director of The Collegiate Chorale. "More details and exact performance date and time will be forthcoming, but I am thrilled that the cast is slated to remain the same as originally planned."

Bridging the genres of oratorio and ballad opera, Handel's intriguing Susanna originally premiered at Covent Garden in 1749. Based on an Apocryphal chapter from the biblical Book of Daniel, Susanna tells the story of a virtuous young woman who is falsely accused of sexual promiscuity by two lecherous elders.

The concert will feature Isabel Leonard as Susanna, Daniela Mack as Susanna's husband Joachim, Javier Abreu and Zachary James as the Elders and Benjamin P. Wenzelberg as the boy prophet Daniel, with Orchestra of St. Luke's and lighting design by Frances Aronson.

The mission of The Collegiate Chorale is to enrich its audiences through innovative programming and exceptional performances of a broad range of vocal music featuring a premier choral ensemble. Founded in 1941 by the legendary conductor Robert Shaw, The Chorale has established a preeminent reputation for its interpretations of the traditional choral repertoire, vocal works by American composers, and rarely heard operas-in-concert, as well as for commissions and premieres of new works by today's most exciting creative artists. The many guest artists with whom The Chorale has performed in recent years include: Stephanie Blythe, Victoria Clark, Nathan Gunn, Thomas Hampson, Angela Meade, Kelli O'Hara, Eric Owens, Rene Papé, Bryn Terfel and Deborah Voigt. Last season's highlights included Eric Owens, Arturo Chacón-Cruz, and Julianna Di Giacomoin Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele conducted by James Bagwell with the Manhattan Girls Chorus and the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and the New York premiere of David Lang's battle hymns conducted by James Bagwell with members of the Veteran Artist Program and the Manhattan Girls Chorus at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

For more information about The Collegiate Chorale, visit www.collegiatechorale.org.

The Collegiate Chorale's 2014/2015 season opened with the NYC Premiere of Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) in December at Carnegie Hall, featuring Eric Idle, Victoria Clark, Marc Kudisch, Lauren Worsham, and William Ferguson with Conductor/Director Ted Sperling and Orchestra of St. Luke's. The Chorale will perform Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín on March 9, 2015 at Avery Fisher Hall as a part of The Defiant Requiem, a multimedia performance that tells the story of the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt concentration camp who performed the Requiem while experiencing the depths of human degradation. The season concludes with the US Premiere of Kurt Weill and Franz Werfel's The Road of Promise in May 2015 at Carnegie Hall, featuring Anthony Dean Griffey, Mark Delavan, Philip Cutlip, Lauren Michelle, Megan Marino, and Justin Hopkins with Conductor/Director Ted Sperling and Orchestra of St. Luke's.

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