MasterVoices: Israel in Egypt at Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage

Mr. Ted Sperling will lead the New York premiere of a multi-media version of Israel in Egypt, Handel’s timely oratorio of exile and displacement, reflecting the biblical account of the heroic flight of Israelites enslaved in Pharaonic Egypt and their crossing the Red Sea. In collaboration with The Juilliard School, MasterVoices will feature soloists who are current students or alumni from the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, including sopranos Mikaela Bennett and Jessica Niles, countertenor John Holiday, baritone Gregory Feldmannand bass-baritone Erik Van Heyningen, as well as rising star tenor Andrew Stenson. The program will also feature the New York Baroque Incorporated period instrument ensemble and Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad. Mourad will create a combination of pre-composed film and in-the-moment paintings that bring a personal perspective to the work’s universal theme of displacement and the entrenched human instinct to return home. Kevork Mourad, a member of the Silk Road Ensemble as a visual artist, is known for making fantastical paintings in spontaneous collaboration with performing artists. His process for Israel in Egypt involves a technique of live painting that will be projected onto the walls of the hall, combined with animated sequences.