If you are familiar with this work, then you already know that it is one of the finest pieces in the universe.  If you’ve never heard it, and you live close enough to NY to attend, you will hear some music that I think you will find exquisitely beautiful and deeply moving.

It is being performed by Musica Sacra, a very fine professional orchestra and chorus that has been performing Baroque works and other choral masterpieces since 1964.  Musica Sacra’s founder, Richard Westenburg, passed away earlier this year, and he is terribly missed by New York’s musical community.  He conducted Musica Sacra’s performances from its beginning until last season and I am very grateful that I got to do some Bach with him several years ago.  It was great fun!  Kent Tritle has been chosen to be the organization’s new music director, and I have worked with him several times in the past as well.  He’s wonderful to collaborate with and I am really looking forward to doing this wonderful music with him in October!

* I’m confident that all the other soloists whom I haven’t met yet will be fine singers, but I do want to let you know that the part of the evangelist will be sung by tenor Rufus Müller.  I sang the Messiah with him several years ago, and was incredibly impressed.  He is one of the finest singers I’ve ever heard.

About the St. John Passion, Musica Sacra’s website says:
“First heard in Leipzig in 1724, the St. John Passion is now a beloved pillar of western music, and for good reason!  In contrast to his setting of the St. Matthew Passion, Bach’s St John Passion is raw and unbridled. A highly personal tone pervades the arias, choruses, chorales and especially the dramatic narration.  In keeping with the tradition established in Musica Sacra’s last three performances of the St. Matthew, the chorales of the St. John will once again envelop the audience with the surround-sound effect of the Musica Sacra Chorale Choir.”

About Bach:
Nicholas Slonimsky, late editor of Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, says this in his entry on “Bach, Johann Sebastian, supreme arbiter and lawgiver of music, a master comparable in greatness of stature with Aristotle in philosophy and Leonardo da Vinci in art.”

Goethe said about Bach, “It is as though eternal harmony were conversing with itself, as it may have happened in God’s breast shortly before he created the world.”

Beethoven called Bach, “the immortal god of harmony” and “his name should not be ‘brook’ [bach] but ’sea’”.

Charles Gounod said “Bach is a Colossus of Rhodes, beneath whom all musicians pass and will continue to pass.  …Bach is the most comprehensive and has said all there is to say.”

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 7:30 PM

Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana - Sing-along!

Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater 2537 Broadway (at 95th Street), Manhattan

This Summer Sing is hosted by the New York Choral Society, conducted by John Daly Goodwin.

Mary Ellen will sing as a soloist - you’re invited to come be part of the sing-along chorus!

Friday May 2, 2008, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday May 4, 2008, 3:00 p.m.

B Minor Mass
J.S. Bach
with the Williams Concert Choir and Orchestra
conducted by Brad Wells
Chapin Hall
Williams College
Williamstown, Massachusetts

Sunday, May 18, 2008, 4:00 p.m.
Solemn Vespers, K.339
W.A. Mozart
Mass in C, opus 86
L. v. Beethoven
with the Canterbury Choral Society
conducted by Charles Dodsley Walker
Church of the Heavenly Rest
Fifth Avenue at 90th Street
New York City
tickets $20, available at the door

Songs of Bowles and Yarmolinsy
Saturday, February 16 , 5 PM
Roerich Museum
319 West 107th Street, near Riverside Drive
pianist, Ishamel Wallace

Songs by American composers Paul Bowles and Ben Yarmolinsy, who knew Bowles. They are great songs, using classical, jazz, pop, and blues forms, on poems by W.B. Yeats Tennessee Williams and others.

J.S. Bach Christmas Oratorio
Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.

with
Washington Bach Consort
J. Reilly Lewis, music director

The Music Center at Strathmore
5301 Tuckerman Lane
North Bethesda, MD  20852

With other soloists
Ole Hass, tenor (Evangelist)
Jennifer Hines, alto
Alan Bennett, tenor
Sanford Sylvan, bass

Handel, Messiah
Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 3:00PM
with the Fairfield County Chorale, and The AmorArtis Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Johannes Somary
Norwalk Concert Hall, 125 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT
with
Clara Mouriz, mezzo soprano
Philip Anderson, tenor
Kevin Deas, bass

C.P.E. Bach Magnificat
Sunday, November 25, 2007, 5:00 p.m.
with Cantate Chamber Singers
Gisèle Becker, conductor

St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church
4700 Whitehaven Parkway, N.W.
Washington, D.C.

also on the program:
J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, BWV 1047
Sylvia Alimena, conductor
with other soloists:
Barbara Hollinshead, alto
Robert Baker, tenor
Bobb Robinson, bass