CALENDAR

Mozart Requiem & Martines Dixit Dominus
Spire Chamber Ensemble
Ben A. Spalding, conductor
Ensemble
Mozart's Requiem is a profound emotional journey that ranges from angst, sheer terror, and sublime transcendence. Experience the region’s first ever period performance featuring basset horns, natural trumpets, sackbuts and more – breathing new life to this consummate masterpiece. Left unfinished at the composer's untimely death, the Requiem was completed by Franz Süssmayer, offering a poignant glimpse into Mozart's final musical thoughts. The Mozart is paired with a performance of Dixit Dominus, by 18th-Century composer Marianna Martines who was a student of Haydn and was one of Vienna’s most prominent composers. She received more acclaim than perhaps any other female composer of her time, yet her name isn’t mentioned enough today. Dixit Dominus is a prime example of her skill in combining the Baroque contrapuntal tradition with the emerging Classical style.

Mozart Requiem & Martines Dixit Dominus
Spire Chamber Ensemble
Ben A. Spalding, conductor
Ensemble
Mozart's Requiem is a profound emotional journey that ranges from angst, sheer terror, and sublime transcendence. Experience the region’s first ever period performance featuring basset horns, natural trumpets, sackbuts and more – breathing new life to this consummate masterpiece. Left unfinished at the composer's untimely death, the Requiem was completed by Franz Süssmayer, offering a poignant glimpse into Mozart's final musical thoughts. The Mozart is paired with a performance of Dixit Dominus, by 18th-Century composer Marianna Martines who was a student of Haydn and was one of Vienna’s most prominent composers. She received more acclaim than perhaps any other female composer of her time, yet her name isn’t mentioned enough today. Dixit Dominus is a prime example of her skill in combining the Baroque contrapuntal tradition with the emerging Classical style.

Considering Matthew Shepard
Oregon Bach Festival
Craig Hella Johnson, conductor
OBF Chorus
Baritone Soloist
On October 6, 1998, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, beaten, and left to die, in what became an infamous act of brutality, and one of America’s most notorious anti-gay hate crimes. Shepard’s murder served as a catalyst for legislation that expanded the definition of a hate crime to include sexual orientation. The Grammy-nominated oratorio, composed and conducted by OBF artistic partner Craig Hella Johnson, is an evocative and compassionate musical response to the murder of Matthew Shepard.

Palestrina in the Park
Oregon Bach Festival
Craig Hella Johnson, conductor
An outdoor, sunset concert to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the “Prince of Music,” whose works defined the golden age of Renaissance polyphony. The evening also features a transformative reimagining of J.S. Bach’s Chaconne and a world premiere new work by award-winning west coast composer, Derrick Skye. Interwoven throughout the program are readings inspired by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th-century Mexican poet and nun. Conducted by OBF artistic partner, Craig Hella Johnson.

Fauré: Requiem
Oregon Bach Festival
Stephanie Childress, conductor
Gabriel Fauré's Requiem is one of the 19th century’s most beloved choral masterpieces. Unlike traditional requiems, it emphasizes peace and solace over fear and judgment. The concert opens with the second annual installment of the OBF “New Transcriptions” Project, featuring composer Oswald Huỳnh, and a signature performance of Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs by “charismatic star” (The Boston Globe) mezzo-soprano, Fleur Barron.

Grant Us Peace
Oregon Bach Festival
Craig Hella Johnson, conductor
Explore the complicated relationship between peace and conflict. Internationally renowned pianist Awadagin Pratt joins the OBF Chorus and Modern Orchestra for a thrilling and haunting performance of Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds, as well the Vaughan Williams “Dona nobis pacem,” and music from J.S. Bach. Conducted by OBF artistic partner, Craig Hella Johnson.

Orff: Carmina Burana
Oregon Bach Festival
Ken-David Masur, conductor
Join OBF and Eugene Ballet for a thrilling performance of one of classical music’s most electrifying works. From the instantly recognizable opening chorus, “O Fortuna,” to its evocative tales of love, nature, and fate, Orff’s masterpiece delivers raw emotion and dazzling energy. An unforgettable tribute to Eugene Ballet artistic director Toni Pimble. The concert opens with violinist Rahel Rilling—daughter of OBF co-founder Helmuth Rilling—soloing with OBF violinists Sarah Kwak and Suzanne Leon on Bach’s Concerto for Three Violins.

Mozart Requiem & Prayers and Remembrances
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
The late, great Stephen Paulus’s transcendent and GRAMMY Award-winning Prayers and Remembrances, commissioned by True Concord, and the Mozart Requiem—the program with which True Concord made its New York debut at Lincoln Center, September 11, 2015.
Paulus, whom The New Yorker called “a bright, fluent inventor with a ready lyric gift,” held a long tradition of partnerships with Tucson and its many cultural institutions. Through his work he strove to inspire hope and light for the future.
The Requiem, Mozart’s ultimate masterpiece, became even more universally known through its brilliant if fictionalized use in one of the greatest, most honored films of all time, Amadeus.

Mozart Requiem & Prayers and Remembrances
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
The late, great Stephen Paulus’s transcendent and GRAMMY Award-winning Prayers and Remembrances, commissioned by True Concord, and the Mozart Requiem—the program with which True Concord made its New York debut at Lincoln Center, September 11, 2015.
Paulus, whom The New Yorker called “a bright, fluent inventor with a ready lyric gift,” held a long tradition of partnerships with Tucson and its many cultural institutions. Through his work he strove to inspire hope and light for the future.
The Requiem, Mozart’s ultimate masterpiece, became even more universally known through its brilliant if fictionalized use in one of the greatest, most honored films of all time, Amadeus.

Mozart Requiem & Prayers and Remembrances
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
The late, great Stephen Paulus’s transcendent and GRAMMY Award-winning Prayers and Remembrances, commissioned by True Concord, and the Mozart Requiem—the program with which True Concord made its New York debut at Lincoln Center, September 11, 2015.
Paulus, whom The New Yorker called “a bright, fluent inventor with a ready lyric gift,” held a long tradition of partnerships with Tucson and its many cultural institutions. Through his work he strove to inspire hope and light for the future.
The Requiem, Mozart’s ultimate masterpiece, became even more universally known through its brilliant if fictionalized use in one of the greatest, most honored films of all time, Amadeus.

Lenten Meditations: Remorse to Redemption
Trinity Choir
Ensemble
Trinity Choir leads the audience through the Lenten journey, from Ash Wednesday’s reminders of human mortality to the redemption of Christ’s death on the cross. Focusing on countertenor, tenor, and bass voices, this performance includes powerful, contemplative works by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Jonathan Woody, and John Sheppard.

The Tucson Spirit, The Love of Flight
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
The fascinating and rarely performed Airborne Symphony is the perfect piece to pay homage to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base—a world premiere of a new suite version focused on the exhilaration of flying and the miracle of flight itself.
Leonard Bernstein so loved this work that he not only premiered it—with Orson Welles narrating—but he also recorded it twice. The fascinating Airborne Symphony is a great way to celebrate Tucson’s birthday!
Beginning with the words “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history…,” Copland’s Lincoln Portrait sets to music excerpts of Abraham Lincoln’s greatest documents. Too extensive to list, past luminary narrators range from Marian Anderson to Neil Armstrong, Barack Obama to Walter Cronkite, Danny Glover to Katherine Hepburn, and Coretta Scott King to Carl Sandburg.
Randall Thompson’s Testament of Freedom is a setting of texts by Thomas Jefferson in a work created for the bicentennial of Jefferson’s birth.
Works by Gershwin, Bernstein and Weill top off this All-American program.

The Tucson Spirit, The Love of Flight
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
The fascinating and rarely performed Airborne Symphony is the perfect piece to pay homage to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base—a world premiere of a new suite version focused on the exhilaration of flying and the miracle of flight itself.
Leonard Bernstein so loved this work that he not only premiered it—with Orson Welles narrating—but he also recorded it twice. The fascinating Airborne Symphony is a great way to celebrate Tucson’s birthday!
Beginning with the words “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history…,” Copland’s Lincoln Portrait sets to music excerpts of Abraham Lincoln’s greatest documents. Too extensive to list, past luminary narrators range from Marian Anderson to Neil Armstrong, Barack Obama to Walter Cronkite, Danny Glover to Katherine Hepburn, and Coretta Scott King to Carl Sandburg.
Randall Thompson’s Testament of Freedom is a setting of texts by Thomas Jefferson in a work created for the bicentennial of Jefferson’s birth.
Works by Gershwin, Bernstein and Weill top off this All-American program.

The Tucson Spirit, The Love of Flight
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
The fascinating and rarely performed Airborne Symphony is the perfect piece to pay homage to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base—a world premiere of a new suite version focused on the exhilaration of flying and the miracle of flight itself.
Leonard Bernstein so loved this work that he not only premiered it—with Orson Welles narrating—but he also recorded it twice. The fascinating Airborne Symphony is a great way to celebrate Tucson’s birthday!
Beginning with the words “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history…,” Copland’s Lincoln Portrait sets to music excerpts of Abraham Lincoln’s greatest documents. Too extensive to list, past luminary narrators range from Marian Anderson to Neil Armstrong, Barack Obama to Walter Cronkite, Danny Glover to Katherine Hepburn, and Coretta Scott King to Carl Sandburg.
Randall Thompson’s Testament of Freedom is a setting of texts by Thomas Jefferson in a work created for the bicentennial of Jefferson’s birth.
Works by Gershwin, Bernstein and Weill top off this All-American program.

A Night at the Opera
First Presbyterian Church Staff Singers
Kevin Bailey, music director

Vivaldi & Bach
First Presbyterian Church of Metuchen
Bass Soloist
Antonio Vivaldi: Magnificat, RV 610
J.S. Bach: Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn!, BWV 157

Vivaldi & Bach
First Presbyterian Church of Metuchen
Bass Soloist
Antonio Vivaldi: Magnificat, RV 610
J.S. Bach: Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn!, BWV 157

Handel & Vivaldi
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria is a perennial favorite of audiences and, second only to his Four Seasons, is his best-known work. The liturgical Gloria text was first inspired by the angels’ joyful melody at Christ’s birth. True Concord brings this masterpiece to life with a lively and historically-informed interpretation.
George Frideric Handel may be best known for his Messiah, a monument of Western music, but the exhilarating Dixit Dominus prefigured that work. Inspired by the opera art form, this composition is filled with virtuosic solo melodies, dramatic choral sound and orchestral flourishes.

Handel & Vivaldi
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria is a perennial favorite of audiences and, second only to his Four Seasons, is his best-known work. The liturgical Gloria text was first inspired by the angels’ joyful melody at Christ’s birth. True Concord brings this masterpiece to life with a lively and historically-informed interpretation.
George Frideric Handel may be best known for his Messiah, a monument of Western music, but the exhilarating Dixit Dominus prefigured that work. Inspired by the opera art form, this composition is filled with virtuosic solo melodies, dramatic choral sound and orchestral flourishes.

Handel & Vivaldi
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria is a perennial favorite of audiences and, second only to his Four Seasons, is his best-known work. The liturgical Gloria text was first inspired by the angels’ joyful melody at Christ’s birth. True Concord brings this masterpiece to life with a lively and historically-informed interpretation.
George Frideric Handel may be best known for his Messiah, a monument of Western music, but the exhilarating Dixit Dominus prefigured that work. Inspired by the opera art form, this composition is filled with virtuosic solo melodies, dramatic choral sound and orchestral flourishes.

Holiday Special
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Mix things up with a different style, including fun favorites of the holidays. Relax, sit back, savor a drink, bask in the view for this Holiday Party in Song. All in one of Tucson’s iconic locations.

Lessons & Carols
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Beautiful churches, candlelight, the sharing of the Christmas story in words and song. Join your voice with True Concord’s “halo of resonance” (Gramophone) to celebrate the beauty, awe and joy of the season.

Lessons & Carols
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Beautiful churches, candlelight, the sharing of the Christmas story in words and song. Join your voice with True Concord’s “halo of resonance” (Gramophone) to celebrate the beauty, awe and joy of the season.

Lessons & Carols
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Beautiful churches, candlelight, the sharing of the Christmas story in words and song. Join your voice with True Concord’s “halo of resonance” (Gramophone) to celebrate the beauty, awe and joy of the season.

Lessons & Carols
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Beautiful churches, candlelight, the sharing of the Christmas story in words and song. Join your voice with True Concord’s “halo of resonance” (Gramophone) to celebrate the beauty, awe and joy of the season.

Lessons & Carols
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Beautiful churches, candlelight, the sharing of the Christmas story in words and song. Join your voice with True Concord’s “halo of resonance” (Gramophone) to celebrate the beauty, awe and joy of the season.


Lutheran Vespers
Yale Consort
James O’Donnell, conductor
Join Yale Consort for a service of Lutheran Vespers. For at least the last eighteen centuries, some formula for prayer at the end of the day has been part of the Christian tradition. Though we don’t know precisely what the earliest Vespers looked or sounded like, certain themes have endured, including confession, gratitude, and light. Through the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, we explore these ancient traditions.
Featured repertoire: J.S. Bach: Nun komm der Heiden Heiland BWV 61.
Yale Consort will be accompanied by a Baroque orchestra for this service.

Es begab sich zu der Zeit...
Harmonia Stellarum Houston
Mario Aschauer, artistic director
Ensemble
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger’s Pastori di Bettelemme constitutes one of the earliest Christmas oratorios in music history, composed for a performance on Christmas Eve 1629 in the Apostolic Palace in Rome. We pair it with the first American performance of the anonymous Historia von der Gebuhrt Christi from 1686, today in the Saxon State Library Dresden.

Frankenstein, Brahms & The Search For Love
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Ever since its publishing in 1818, young Mary Shelley’s masterpiece has created an unwavering fascination with Frankenstein, inspiring major performance works created to this day.
What is this endless fascination? Is it a horror story? A love story? What does a book written over 200 years ago tell us about empathy and compassion that we need to learn today?
True Concord is proud to present one of the most recent interpretations; Co-Composer-In-Residence Timothy C. Takach and choreographer Penny Freeh’s Unfashioned Creature, a Choral Ballet, in its Southwest Premiere, performed by the company for which the dance was created.
Rooted in Shelley’s groundbreaking novel, Unfashioned Creature explores personhood, otherness, abandonment and hopeful yearning, all with vocalists performing a libretto based on Shelley’s text.

Frankenstein, Brahms & The Search For Love
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Ever since its publishing in 1818, young Mary Shelley’s masterpiece has created an unwavering fascination with Frankenstein, inspiring major performance works created to this day.
What is this endless fascination? Is it a horror story? A love story? What does a book written over 200 years ago tell us about empathy and compassion that we need to learn today?
True Concord is proud to present one of the most recent interpretations; Co-Composer-In-Residence Timothy C. Takach and choreographer Penny Freeh’s Unfashioned Creature, a Choral Ballet, in its Southwest Premiere, performed by the company for which the dance was created.
Rooted in Shelley’s groundbreaking novel, Unfashioned Creature explores personhood, otherness, abandonment and hopeful yearning, all with vocalists performing a libretto based on Shelley’s text.

Frankenstein, Brahms & The Search For Love
True Concord Voices & Orchestra
Eric Holtan, conductor
Ensemble
Ever since its publishing in 1818, young Mary Shelley’s masterpiece has created an unwavering fascination with Frankenstein, inspiring major performance works created to this day.
What is this endless fascination? Is it a horror story? A love story? What does a book written over 200 years ago tell us about empathy and compassion that we need to learn today?
True Concord is proud to present one of the most recent interpretations; Co-Composer-In-Residence Timothy C. Takach and choreographer Penny Freeh’s Unfashioned Creature, a Choral Ballet, in its Southwest Premiere, performed by the company for which the dance was created.
Rooted in Shelley’s groundbreaking novel, Unfashioned Creature explores personhood, otherness, abandonment and hopeful yearning, all with vocalists performing a libretto based on Shelley’s text.

Un sarao de la Chacona
Ensemble Origo
Eric Rice, artistic director
Baritone
Though the sarabande and the chaconne were stylized sections of courtly suites by Baroque composers such as Scarlatti and Bach, their origins are far removed from any European court, stemming instead from New Spain. In a book about the Spanish colony in 1579, a Dominican friar described the sarabande as a lascivious dance and identified it with the indigenous population. However, at least one surviving song—a villancico for Christmas —links it with enslaved Africans, suggesting that both populations were involved in the creation of the genre. In this program, Ensemble Origo aims to contextualize these origins, showing how a song that mentions the dance was likely performed following Christmas services. The next two sections of the concert trace the printing history of both genres (which were related at one time) from simple guitar strumming patterns that sometimes accompanied voices to the stylized instrumental works adopted by hundreds of European composers in the centuries that followed. The ensemble aims to bring what is known of the genres’ lost—or suppressed—histories to light.

Requiem Æternam: Music for the End of Days
Three Notch’d Road Baroque Ensemble
Bass Soloist
Three Notch’d Road explores the healing power of music with a program of memory, hope, and farewell. As remembrance of the dead during the month of November is an ancient custom, we welcome you to join us for this musical exploration of the German Baroque, English & Spanish Renaissance, and American sacred music.
The young J.S. Bach’s cantata BWV 106 “Actus Tragicus,” written for a funeral, features violas da gamba and recorders and contains some of the most hope-filled music Bach ever wrote. English texts include joyful American hymnody, Henry Purcell’s “Evening Hymn,” Thomas Campion’s “Never weather-beaten sail,” and American composer David Hughes’ (b.1980) “May He Support Us All The Day Long” (text by St. John Henry Newman).

Requiem Æternam: Music for the End of Days
Three Notch’d Road Baroque Ensemble
Bass Soloist
Three Notch’d Road explores the healing power of music with a program of memory, hope, and farewell. As remembrance of the dead during the month of November is an ancient custom, we welcome you to join us for this musical exploration of the German Baroque, English & Spanish Renaissance, and American sacred music.
The young J.S. Bach’s cantata BWV 106 “Actus Tragicus,” written for a funeral, features violas da gamba and recorders and contains some of the most hope-filled music Bach ever wrote. English texts include joyful American hymnody, Henry Purcell’s “Evening Hymn,” Thomas Campion’s “Never weather-beaten sail,” and American composer David Hughes’ (b.1980) “May He Support Us All The Day Long” (text by St. John Henry Newman).

Requiem Æternam: Music for the End of Days
Three Notch’d Road Baroque Ensemble
Bass Soloist
Three Notch’d Road explores the healing power of music with a program of memory, hope, and farewell. As remembrance of the dead during the month of November is an ancient custom, we welcome you to join us for this musical exploration of the German Baroque, English & Spanish Renaissance, and American sacred music.
The young J.S. Bach’s cantata BWV 106 “Actus Tragicus,” written for a funeral, features violas da gamba and recorders and contains some of the most hope-filled music Bach ever wrote. English texts include joyful American hymnody, Henry Purcell’s “Evening Hymn,” Thomas Campion’s “Never weather-beaten sail,” and American composer David Hughes’ (b.1980) “May He Support Us All The Day Long” (text by St. John Henry Newman).

The Lutheran Vespers Re-Imagined
Bach Akademie Charlotte
Nicholas Haigh, conductor
Ensemble
Join the Bach Akademie Charlotte Choir on a musical journey beginning in Johann Sebastian Bach’s music library in Leipzig and ending in the present day. Our program opens with virtuosic choral works that the great Thomaskantor taught his students in Leipzig before exploring contemporary responses to similar texts. Framed by the structure of a Lutheran service of Vespers, this concert will also include Bach Akademie Charlotte’s first performances of works by living composers. A not-to-be-missed highlight will be the first performance of Giles Swayne’s Magnificat I in the Southeast. Inspired by a field trip he took to southern Senegal and Gambia, Swayne incorporated the opening call of the Senegalese ploughing song O Lulum into the beginning of his composition. Brimming with unbridled fertility, rhythmic verve, and percussive drive, Swayne’s work shattered expectations of what ‘church music’ could be.