ASO, Choir Join Forces for 'Messiah'
The Alma Symphony Orchestra will join forces with the combined Alma
College Choirs for a season-finale masterworks concert of choral and
orchestral music, including highlights from Handel’s “Messiah.”
More than 150 Alma College students from the College Chorale, Women’s
Glee Club and Concert Choir will share the stage with the Alma Symphony
Orchestra, which is celebrating its 48th season. The performances will
take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 5 and 4 p.m. Sunday, April 6 in
the Remick Heritage Center.
Tickets are $10 for adults and free for Alma College staff, students
and youth 18 and under. Seating is reserved. Call (989) 463-7304 for
ticket information.
“We have a very exciting and wonderful concert planned, with a mix of
both familiar and not-so-familiar music,” says ASO Conductor Murray
Gross. ”A lot of great works have been composed for choir and orchestra
combinations; it’s an important part of the repertoire that our
students will get to experience with this performance.
“Because there are so many students on stage, we anticipate a large
audience turnout with parents and relatives attending along with our
loyal regular audience members from campus and the greater Alma
community. All are welcome,” he says.
The orchestra opens with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chorale and Fugue in G minor.
The Concert Choir then joins the orchestra for the more modern
masterpiece “Lux Aeterna,” a “beautiful, expressive work by Morten
Lauridsen that has been performed many times around the world,” says
Gross.
Following intermission, the combined choirs and ASO perform highlights
from George Frideric Handel’s incomparable oratorio, “Messiah.”
“Many people think of ‘Messiah’ as appropriate for the Christmas
season, but many groups also perform it at Easter,” says Gross. “It is
very familiar, with many great choruses.”
-mjs-
Posted: Thu, March 27th, 2008 at 1:57PM
