In September, ROS was invited as guests of the RPO to help celebrate the gala opening of the new Kodak Hall, Eastman Theatre, performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Christopher Seaman, conducting; in November ROS production at Hochstein Performance Hall included music Brahms, Handel, Beethoven and Handel. ROS continued collaborations with RPO: in December a Holiday Concert, Christopher Seaman, conducting, with music of Bach, Borodin, Handel, Vaughan-Williams; in February performing “Hurray for Hollywood”, conducted by Jack Everly with music from Hollywood films; in May performing in the season finale of Verdi’s Requiem, Christopher Seaman, conducting.
The ROS produces “Partners in Freedom” with special guests, the Morgan State University Choir of Baltimore, MD (Conductor: Eric Conway) and the Bach Children’s Choir (Conductor: Karla Krogstad), soloist Dr. Jeffrey McGhee, and historian Dr. David Anderson. The event, commemorating the lives of abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass and of President Abraham Lincoln, features Kirke Mechem’s Songs of the Slave, David Diamond’s This Sacred Ground, and Nathaniel Dett’s Ave Maria.
The ROS offers special programs through Rochester’s public television and radio stations: May 31, 2009, the Rochester Oratorio Society performs before a studio audience for its first-ever, one-hour television broadcast. The chorus shows its versatility on WXXI-21’s “Voices” series with a program of music spanning over 400 years, from Gabrieli’s Jubilate Deo to Kirke Mechem’s Blow ye the Trumpet and Cole Porter’s Night and Day.
In December 2009, Resonanz performs a diverse selection of holiday music in its first-ever live radio broadcast on WXXI’s Classical 91.5FM “Backstage Pass” hosted by Julia Figueras.
