Singing City
Jeffrey
Brillhart, Music Director
presents
Ein deutsches
Requiem
by
Johannes Brahms
ABOUT THE SOLOISTS Regarded as one of the finest singers of her
generation, the voice of American soprano Tamara Matthews has been
described as 'worthy of the angels'. As First Prize winner of the Musica Sacra
Bach Vocal Competition, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1994.
Singing City
Choir will present its 58th Anniversary Concert on Sunday, April
30, 2006, at 4 PM in the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 625
Montgomery Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA. Music director Jeffrey Brillhart
will lead the 100-voice chorus and full professional orchestra in a
performance of Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms, with
soloists Tamara Matthews, soprano, and David Arnold,
baritone.
Audience members are invited to attend live program
notes at 3 PM, when Mr. Brillhart and the choir will present a pre-concert
encounter with the music. A carillon recital and reception will
follow the performance of the Requiem.
Dr. Elaine Brown founded
Singing City in Philadelphia in 1948 as an integrated choir. She wanted to do
two things: to bring people of diverse backgrounds together through choral
music, and then to bring that music to every segment of the community. In short,
she wanted to make Philadelphia a "singing city." Based on Dr. Brown's beliefs
in equality and inclusiveness, Singing City was one of the country's first
integrated choirs in an era when segregation was the norm. Throughout its
history, Singing City has been committed to bringing choral music not only to
traditional audiences, but also to the underserved. Performance venues have
ranged from concert halls and cathedrals to homeless shelters and nursing homes.
General admission $30; students, seniors, groups (10 or more) $25.
Tickets/info phone
215-569-9067, or visit www.singingcity.org
Tamara
Matthews has appeared with the Los Angeles Master Chorale; the Accademia per La
Musica Antica; and the Berkeley, Boston and Ravinia music festivals. Recent
appearances as guest soloist have included performances of Beethoven's Missa
Solemnis and Ninth Symphony and the Mozart Mass in C minor in
San Francisco, Händel arias in New York, and Mendelssohn's Elijah in
Philadelphia. She has collaborated with prominent conductors including Leonard
Slatkin, Paul Salamunovich, Vance George, Joshua Rifkin, Robert Page, Luis
Biava, and Greg Funfgeld. Last season she enjoyed triumphant débuts as soloist
with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New
Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Operatic debuts in New York, Chicago and San
Francisco have garnered high praise for her portrayals of a wide range of roles.
She was also featured in the world premiere of Scarlatti's newly discovered
L'Adimiro with Cal Performances.
Her recordings include Bach's
Mass in B minor (BWV 232) with Dorian; the Buxtehude's Sacred
Cantatas; a live performance of Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) and
a collection of works by Ristori, Fux, Heinichen and Lotti on Pro Gloria
Musicae; The Music of William Byrd on Lyrichord; and Beethoven's 9th
Symphony and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass for Koch International
Classics. She also records for Angel/EMI and the Musical Heritage Society.
Recently, Tamara Matthews joined the faculty of the Westminster Choir
College (Princeton, New Jersey), as a professor of voice. She appeared as
soloist with this illustrious ensemble at Carnegie Hall in December.
Baritone David Arnold made his debut in 1983 with the
Metropolitan Opera as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, and has scored
successes in symphonic music performing the Bach Passions with Robert
Shaw, Helmuth Rilling, Richard Westenburg, Harold Rosenbaum, Blanche Moyse,
Sergio Comissiona, and Norman Scribner. For six seasons Seiji Ozawa chose him as
soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; this included four seasons of the
BSO's New York concerts at Carnegie Hall. He recorded Gurrelieder with
Ozawa and the BSO on the Philips label. Mr. Arnold has won the New York City
Opera Gold debut award, a Sullivan Foundation Award, and a Shoshana Foundation
award and he was presented a Career Grant by Kurt Herbert Adler on behalf of the
National Opera Institute.
His recordings include the Levin edition of the Mozart
Requiem and the Brahms orchestration of Schubert Songs; Haydn's
Lord Nelson Mass for Koch Classics; Mendelsohn's Elijah;
Bach's St. Matthew Passion, recorded at Trinity Cathedral in Portland,
Oregon; and Paul Moravec's Songs of Love and War, recorded with the
Dessoff Choirs in New York City.
Performing abroad, Mr. Arnold has
appeared with the Spoleto Festival in Italy, toured Austria and Yugoslavia in
concert, and has also performed with the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, with
L'Opera de Montreal as Amonasro in Aida, L'Opera de Quebec as the Count
in Le Nozze di Figaro, as Marcello in La Boheme at the Bath Opera
Company (England) and has been on the roster of the famed Komische Oper in
Berlin and the English National Opera. He made his debut with the Singapore
Orchestra in 1999 singing works by Haydn.
