A Splendid Grandeur: Amy Beach’s Grand Mass in E-flat
Rochester, NY – July 27, 2017 The centennial celebration of Women’s Suffrage in New York frames the context for ‘A Splendid Grandeur: Amy Beach’s Grand Mass in E-flat,’ the first production of the 72nd season of the Rochester Oratorio Society [ROS], Friday, October 20, 2017, 7:30 P.M. at the Hochstein Performance Hall, 50 Plymouth Avenue North. Tickets ($25) are available from the Oratorio Society Office, (585) 473-2234, from its website, www.ROSsings.org or online. A pre-concert chat, starting at 6:45 P.M., will be moderated by Brenda Tremblay, Morning Drive Host/Producer for WXXI Public Broadcasting.
Joining the ROS are special guests, Concentus Women’s Chorus, conducted by Gwendolyn Gassler, and the choir of the Young Women’s College Prep School, to perform the National Anthem. The fully-professional ROS Orchestra and vocal soloists ELENA O’CONNOR, soprano, KATIE HANNIGAN, mezzo-soprano, JOSHUA BOUILLON, tenor, and KEITH BROWN, bass, join the 130-voice Oratorio Society Chorus under Artistic Director, Eric Townell, for the Beach.
Congresswoman LOUISE SLAUGHTER offers remarks to open the concert.
With this performance, the ROS also celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of American composer, Amy Beach, whose Grand Mass set a new standard for American choral masterworks at its premiere in 1892. Born in New Hampshire, the child prodigy pianist began writing music by age 5 and made her professional concert debut at 16. Self-taught in composition, Beach commenced her Grand Mass at age 19. Its critical success placed her among the foremost American composers of the era and the first female composer of large-scale works. She resided in New York from 1930 until her death in 1944.
This event is the third annual collaboration between the Oratorio Society and the Humanities Center of the University of Rochester. Sponsored by a Humanities New York Vision/Action Grant, it is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature administered by the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts at the Livingston Arts Center, a member supported organization
The Rochester Oratorio Society is the region’s premier large, mixed chorus. Members from across the seven-county area rehearse weekly to perform choral masterworks, free concerts for charity and for civic commemorations, such as the Frederick Douglass at 200 concert set for February, 2018. More information on the ROS is available from its web site, www.ROSsings.org.