PARK RIDGE, IL, February 23, 2010 – The Northwest Choral Society will present its spring concert under the direction of guest conductor Kurt R. Hansen on Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Park Ridge, IL.
The concert is entitled “Pastoral Spring”, and Mr. Hansen will conduct the 45-member chorus, accompanied by a 16-member orchestra, in Gabriel Faure’s Requiem in D minor and other classical compositions. Alan Heatherington is the concert master of the Northwest Choral Society Chamber Orchestra.
The Requiem in D minor piece is widely known as one of the most beautiful pieces in the Romantic repertoire. One reviewer described the Requiem as “ . . . calm and resigned, a profound and moving meditation.” Gabriel Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine will also be presented, along with several selections from Brahms.
Pastoral Spring is the second of three concerts the Northwest Choral Society performs each year. Founded in 1965, the Northwest Choral Society is a non-profit organization that promotes and encourages the appreciation, understanding and performance of a wide variety of outstanding choral literature. Its adult membership resides in Chicago and the northwest suburbs.
Two soloists will accompany the chorus is its performance of the Requiem, Ilana Goldberg, soprano, and Leo Radosavljevic, bass-baritone. Ms Goldberg is a 2007 US Presidential Scholar in the Arts and also an awarding winning Finalist of the YoungArts NFAA competition. Mr. Radosavljevic is a third year scholarship student at the Juilliard School in New York. Tracy Watson, mezzo-soprano, will be a soloist in the chorus’ performance of Brahms’ Rhapsodie Opus 53. Ms Watson has sung at Carnegie Hall on seven occasions in concerts of repertoire ranging from Handel to Britten.
A complimentary preconcert lecture and discussion of the music will be hosted by chorus member John Morrison at 6:30 p.m. at the church.
Tickets for the Pastoral Spring concert are $16 for adults and $13 for students and seniors and may be obtained online at www.nwchoralsociety.org, by calling 224 / 585–9127 or the day of the concert at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 306 South Prospect Avenue, Park Ridge, IL.
Tenor Kurt R. Hansen is a senior lecturer and co-coordinator of the voice and opera program at the Northwestern University School of Music, where he regularly performs in faculty recitals. He has been the soloist with such prestigious ensembles as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in Europe, the Far East and South America, as well as across the United States. He has appeared frequently as soloist with Music of the Baroque, most recently in May 2004 in Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Mass. He is featured on Music of the Baroque’s compact disc recording of Telemann’s Day of Judgment.
An active recitalist, Mr. Hansen has sung major cycles of Faure, Schumann and Schubert both in concert and live national broadcast on WFMT Radio. Mr. Hansen is in his eighteenth year as director of music of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Lincoln Park. He is a resident of Glenview, IL.
This year’s concert performances by the Northwest Choral Society are dedicated to the memory of John H. Melcher, who was the organization’s Music Director for 30 years and passed away in June 2009.
The Northwest Choral Society invites experienced singers may audition to join the organization. Basses, tenors, altos and sopranos with previous choral experience and 17 years of age can obtain additional information about the Northwest Choral Society at www.nwchoralsociety.org.