The Masterworks Choir presents its annual Christmas Concert on Sunday December 9, 2012 at Central United Methodist Church. There will be 2 performances, one at 4 PM and the other at 7 PM. The church is located in downtown Florence at the Corner of Irby and Cheves Streets. All are welcome to this free concert. Bring the whole family, a nursery for the little ones will be provided.
The program will feature 2 great works for the Season, The Rutter GLORIA and Handel’s MESSIAH. Under the baton of the Masterwork’s new Music Director, Dr. Will Carswell the 70 plus voice choir will be joined by soloists Tina Milhorn Stallard, soprano; Janet Hopkins, mezzo-soprano; Walter Cuttino, tenor and Eric Kesler, Bass.
Dr. William Carswell is an Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Coker College in Hartsville, SC. In addition to conducting the Coker Singers and Coker Chamber Singers, he teaches conducting, voice, and courses in music education. Dr. Carswell recently completed five seasons as Music Director and Conductor of the Columbia Choral Society in Columbia, SC. Walter Cuttino Upon completing his education, Mr. Cuttino performed throughout Europe, with over 1,000 operatic performances to his credit. Ferrando (Cosi fan Tutte), Almaviva (Barber of Seville), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Lenski (Eugene Onegin), Alfredo (La Traviata) and Rodolfo (La Boheme) are a sampling of the more than forty roles in his repertoire. He has also performed over 500 concerts, including a concert tour with the late Leonard Bernstein to London and Moscow. Janet Hopkins New York Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Janet Hopkins has won world wide critical acclaim for her wide-ranging operatic and concert repertoire. Active as a concert artist, soprano Tina MilhornStallard has performed solos in works such as Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Haydn’sThe Creation, Bach’s St. John Passion, Poulenc’s Gloria and Handel’s Messiah. In June, 2011, she made her Lincoln Center debut as soprano soloist in Timothy Powell’s Incarnation Mysteria. Eric Kesler holds a Master in Music Performance and Bachelor in Music Education degrees from Appalachian State University. He is currently a Candidate for the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC and is adjunct professor of voice at Coker College, Hartsville, SC.
John Rutter is, perhaps, the most widely known and respected living composer of choral music today. He is best known for his Christmas carols including What Sweeter Music, Shepherd Pipe’s Carol, Star Carol, and Candlelight Carol, to name a few. Many know him from his wedding anthem composed for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton; This is the Day which the Lord Hath Made.
Messiah, the most famous oratorio ever written, is quite unlike Handel's other ones, let alone those by most earlier and later composers. A German who initially made his fame writing Italian operas for English audiences, Handel found in the 1730s that the public wanted something new and more understandable. After composing some three dozen Italian operas, works of great musical brilliance but often dramatically inert and set to mediocre librettos, he shifted his energies to creating what are in essence sacred English operas.
This project is made possible through funding from the Florence
Regional Arts Alliance's Quarterly Grants Program, which is funded in
part by a generous award from Honda of South Carolina, the South
Carolina Arts Commission and the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts
Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC.
No comments:
Post a Comment