 White Plains, NY - The award-winning Westchester Choral Society, under the baton of Music Director Frank Nemhauser, will present a festive holiday program showcasing the impressive artistic skills of the 50-member chorus.
The concert featuring works by Bach, Handel, Vaughan Williams and Craig Courtney will take place on Sunday, December 6, at 3:00 p.m. at Rye Presbyterian Church, 282 Boston Post Road, Rye, New York.
Tickets are $20 for general admission; students with ID, $10. For tickets and information, please contact Katie Goulart, Administrator, at (914) 761-3900, ext. 103, or visit www.westchesterchoralsociety.org.
Mr. Nemhauser, now in his fourth year as Music Director of the Westchester Choral Society, will conduct the ensemble and soloists, accompanied by David Baranowski, pianist and organist. Regarding his choice of musical selections, Nemhauser said, “I chose the Bach and Vaughan Williams to feature our young professional singers: soprano Jennifer Marshall, tenor Dan Molkentin and baritone Ricardo Rivera. It's the first time that WCS will perform Bach under my leadership. Craig Courtney’s A Musicological Journey through the Twelve Days of Christmas is a hoot, which will be enjoyed by the chorus and audience alike.”
The concert will include J.S. Bach’s archetypal Advent Cantata, No. 61, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, and selections from Handel’s great choral drama, Judas Maccabaeus, which relates the origins of the biblical Hanukkah story. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols draws upon traditional English carols from Hereford, Somerset and Sussex.
The program will conclude with a tour de force of musical recycling and borrowings; American composer Craig Courtney’s irresistible A Musicological Journey through the Twelve Days of Christmas. Based on the traditional “Twelve Days of Christmas,” this musical romp through the centuries provides a composer’s dozen of musical pastiches, from 6th century Rome through 19th century America, with stops in France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Russia, rendered by the ensemble with wit and precision.
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