Kimmel Center Presents’ First Ever Holiday Sing-Along Messiah
November 6, 2006
Members of the Public Invited to Bring Their Vocal Scores and Vocal Chords
Celebrating both the holidays and the brand new Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, Kimmel Center Presents offers its first ever "Sing Along Messiah" in Verizon Hall on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 7:30pm. Led by Music Director Jeffrey Brillhart, the Singing City Choir and joined by an ensemble of renowned soloists including Julianne Baird, soprano; Suzanne DuPlantis, mezzo soprano; Stephen Costello, tenor; and David Arnold, bass; as well as organist Michael Stairs, Philadelphians are invited to bring their own vocal scores (regardless of edition) along with their friends and family for this very special holiday event. While not mandatory, audience members will be encouraged to sit in sections according to vocal parts. A full list of actual sections from Handel’s Messiah to be performed can be found online at www.kimmelcenterorg and is listed below.
This performance is the eighth in the Kimmel Center Presents Classical Series. The next events in this series are three Silent Films with Organ on December 29, 2006 in Verizon Hall.
Tickets for Sing-Along Messiah are $20 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office, open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply). For group sales call 215-893-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Founded in Philadelphia in 1948, Singing City Choir remains committed to artistic excellence and to the betterment of the community. As a result of critical acclaim through performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the choir was invited to perform in Israel with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic and also in Jordan and Egypt while on tour in the 1970's and ‘80's. Singing City was the first western choir to perform with the Leningrad Philharmonic in Leningrad in 1990. In May 2000, Singing City was the lead choir at the First International Choral Festival de Cuba. The choir toured Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the summer of 2004.
Singing City continues to bring choral music to the underserved, performing not only in concert halls, but also in homeless shelters and nursing homes in and around Philadelphia. Singing City's nationally recognized school residency program, Singing City in the Schools, has brought music rudiments, choral singing, and composition techniques to children in the Philadelphia public schools and to some private schools in the area. Singing City in the Schools was taken to a new level with the launching of the Singing City Prize for Young Composers last spring.
Jeffrey Brillhart has served as Director of Music and Fine Arts at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church since January 1983. He held his first position as an organist at the young age of 11. In 1994 he won first prize in the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation. Subsequently, in May 2005, he was appointed Lecturer in Organ Improvisation at Yale University. He has worked with internationally renowned artists such as Dave Brubeck, Nick Page, and Rossen Milanov.
Julianne Baird, soprano, has been hailed as "one of the most extraordinary voices in the service of early music that this generation has produced." Aside from maintaining a busy concert schedule of solo recitals and performances of baroque opera and oratorio, Baird has also appeared as soloist with many major symphony orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Baird is considered one of America’s most recorded women with over 100 recordings to her credit on Decca, Deutsche Gramophone, Newport Classics and Dorian. In addition to her major roles in the acclaimed series of Handel operatic and oratorio premieres, she has a new solo album titled "Glorious Handel." Baird is currently a Professor of Music at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.
Suzanne DuPlantis, Mezzo Soprano, is co-founder of Lyric Fest, a new concert series in Philadelphia that brings a variety of singers together with a pianist to present dynamic, theme-oriented programs. She made her New York debut in the St. John Passion of Bach at Alice Tully Hall, where she returned during the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center to sing Apollo et Hyacinthus. DuPlantis is well known in the region for her solo appearances with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Orchestra (Messiah), Hadddonfield Symphony, Reading Symphony, among many others.
Stephen Costello is currently a resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. At the Academy of Vocal Arts, he has performed such roles as the Duke in Rigoletto, Rodolfo in La bohème, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Fritz in L’amico Fritz, and Roberto in Le villi. Costello recently sang the role of the Fisherman in Guillaume Tell with Opera Orchestra of New York in concert at Carnegie Hall, and made his professional stage debut as Rodolfo in La bohème with Fort Worth Opera. Costello was recently awarded a 2006 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation.
David Arnold made his debut in 1983 with the Metropolitan Opera as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, and has scored successes in symphonic music performing the Bach Passions with Robert Shaw, Helmuth Riling, Richard Westenburg, Harold Rosenbaum, Blanche Moyse, Sergio Comissiona, and Norman Scribner. For six seasons Seiji Ozawa chose him as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Arnold has performed as soloist with the orchestras of Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Baltimore, Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, Hartford, St. Louis, New Haven, and others. He has won the New York City Opera gold debut award, a Sullivan Foundation Award, and a Shoshana Foundation award, as well as being presented with a Career Grant by Kurt Herbert Adler on behalf of the National Opera Institute.
Michael Stairs studied the organ with Alexander McCurdy at The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia after receiving his B.M. from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1986, Stairs became the official organist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and recorded the Strauss Festival Prelude for Organ and Orchestra with the Orchestra while on tour in Japan in 1993. He is currently the Chairman of the Music Department at The Haverford School and serves as the organist-choirmaster at The Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr.
Kimmel Center Presents' 2006/2007 season is supported by: Mellon Financial Corporation, University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, ARC Wheeler, The William Penn Foundation, The Presser Foundation, Philadelphia Music Project and Dance Advance, Initiatives of The Pew Charitable Trust administered by The University of the Arts. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. Toyota is the Official Vehicle of Kimmel Center Presents Jazz and World Pop programming. NBC-10 is a Media Partner for Kimmel Center Presents. The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com are media sponsors for the Great Orchestras on Tour series.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS
Sunday, December 10, 2006 | 7:30pm
Verizon Hall
Sing-Along Messiah
Jeffrey Brillhart, conductor
Michael Stairs, organ
Julianne Baird, soprano
Suzanne DuPlantis, mezzo soprano
Stephen Costello, tenor
David Arnold, bass
Messiah Sing-in
1. Overture (Organ)
2. Recitative: Comfort Ye, My People (Tenor)
3. Aria: Every Valley Shall Be Exalted (Tenor)
4. Chorus: And the Glory Of The Lord (Audience/Choir)
5. Recitative: Thus Saith the Lord (Bass)
6. Aria: But Who May Abide? (Alto)
8. Recitative: Behold, A Virgin Shall Conceive (Alto)
9. Aria and Chorus: O Thou That Tellest (Alto/ Audience/Choir)
10. Recitative: For Behold, Darkness (Bass)
11. Aria: The People That Walked in Darkness (Bass)
12. Chorus: For Unto Us A Child Is Born (Audience/Choir)
13. Pastoral Symphony (Organ)
14. Recitative: There Were Shepherds (Soprano)
15. Recitative: And The Angel Said Unto Them (Soprano)
16. Recitative: And Suddenly There Was With The Angel (Soprano)
17. Chorus: Glory To God (Audience/Choir)
18. Aria: Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter Of Zion (Soprano)
19. Recitative: Then Shall The Eyes Of The Blind (Alto)
20. Aria: He Shall Feed His Flock (Alto & Soprano)
Part II:
22. Chorus: Behold the Lamb (Audience/Choir)
23. Aria: He Was Despised (Alto)
24. Chorus: Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs (Audience/Choir)
29. Recitative: Thy Rebuke Hath Broken His Heart (Tenor)
30. Aria: Behold, And See If There Be Any Sorrow (Tenor)
33. Chorus: Lift Up Your Head, O Ye Gates (Audience/Choir)
38. Aria: How Beautiful Are The Feet (Soprano)
40. Aria: Why Do The Nations (Bass)
42. Recitative: He That Dwelleth In Heaven (Tenor)
43. Aria: Thou Shalt Break Them (Tenor)
44. Chorus: Hallelujah! (Audience/Choir)
Part III:
45. Aria: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth (Soprano)
46. Chorus: Since By Man Came Death (Audience/Choir)
47. Recitative: Behold, I Tell You A Mystery (Bass)
48. Aria: The Trumpet Shall Sound (Bass)
53. Chorus: Worthy Is The Lamb (Audience/Choir)
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