WHEN: June 6 & 7, 7:30 PM
WHERE: Grace Episcopal Church, Main Street, Madison
TICKETS: General admission tickets are $25 at the door ($20 for students/seniors).
Tickets may be purchased online at www.harmonium.org/paypal.shtml.
You may also send an email to sales@harmonium.org or call 973.538.6969 for more information. Large print or Braille programs will be made available if requested in advance.
WHERE: Grace Episcopal Church, Main Street, Madison
TICKETS: General admission tickets are $25 at the door ($20 for students/seniors).
Tickets may be purchased online at www.harmonium.org/paypal.shtml.
You may also send an email to sales@harmonium.org or call 973.538.6969 for more information. Large print or Braille programs will be made available if requested in advance.
The 100-voice Harmonium Choral
Society, led by Artistic Director Dr. Anne Matlack of Madison, N.J., presents
its 2014-2015 concert season finale, Apocalypse Now. The concert features
Randall Thompson's The Peaceable Kingdom, and works about the end
times, both scary and comforting, by Stanford, Takach, Bernstein and others.
The Harmonium Chamber Singers will present works by Lassus, Parry and the band
Imagine Dragons in an arrangement by Harmonium singer Jake Sachs.
This concert also premieres a work by 2015's Grand Prize
winner of the Harmonium High School Student Choral Composition Contest, Mendham
High School junior Zachary Catron (left). His work Fire Unfelt is based on
a poem by Christina Rossetti, "Earth Grown Old," set for piano and
chorus.
"I've interpreted Christina Rossetti's poem as the
quiet passing of the earth and of humankind," Zachary said. "The
person has grown old and tired, but maintained warmth and spirit through their
long and well-lived life." Zachary has been composing for three years,
studying with Dr. David Sampson.
"This concert includes works about the end-times both scary and comforting," explains Dr. Matlack. "It is a rare opportunity for the audience to hear a hair-raising performance of Randall Thompson's 1936 a cappella masterwork for double choir, and to join in the singing of a lilting Celtic ballad. Stanford's "For Lo I Raise Up" with Ian Tomesch, organ, should also be a barn-burner to burn all barns!"
Harmonium's annual High School Student Choral Composition Contest has previously won the prestigious Chorus America Education and Outreach Award. The runners-up in this year's contest are Reshma Kopparapu, a current freshman at Newark Academy in Livingston, New Jersey in second place, and Carl Hausman, a freshman at Mount Olive High School, third prize.
ABOUT HARMONIUM CHORAL SOCIETY
Harmonium Choral Society, based in Morris County, is one
of New Jersey's leading choral arts organizations. The 100-voice choral society
has been widely recognized for its musical excellence and innovative
programming, and has commissioned and premiered works by Amanda Harberg,
Matthew Harris, Elliot Z. Levine, Harmonium's composers-in-residence Mark
Miller and Martin A. Sedek, and others. One-third of Harmonium's singing
members are music educators. Directed by Dr. Anne J. Matlack of Madison,
Harmonium's season consists of four major subscription concerts held in
December, March, April and June, as well as numerous special events and
partnerships. Harmonium also sponsors musicianship workshops and an Outreach
Chorus which performs in schools, nursing homes and other venues.
They have performed at Carnegie Hall, the Eastern
Division Convention of the American Choral Directors Association and at the
opening convocation of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) Region II
Convention. Harmonium has toured internationally to England and Wales, Eastern
Europe, Northern Italy, Spain and Portugal, and most recently, Greece and
Turkey. Plans are currently underway for the next concert tour to the Baltic
Region during the summer of 2016.
Funding has been made possible in part by funds from
Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of
State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
