Winter Concert
Presenting Choral Works of Eric Whitacre, Ben Allaway, Norman Luboff, and the Christmas Oratorio of Camille Saint-Saëns (for chorus, soloists, and ensemble)
The concert will be conducted by Music Director Richard Stout
Soloists: Jane Thorngren, soprano; Jessica Vadney, mezzo; Cristóbal Arias, tenor; and Blake Austin Brooks, bass
Donation: $20 (adults); $15 (seniors and students)
Subway: A train to 181st street (exit to 181st Street)
Bus: M4/M100/Bx7/Bx13/Bx36 to 178th / 179th Street
For further information please call (212) 928-7916
A note from the Music Director:
We are happy to present the Christmas Oratorio of Camille Saint-Saëns, plus other seasonal favorites. In December of 1858, the composer of the Oratorio wrote six movements in twelve days, and performed them on December 25th. He had added four more movements to the work by 1863. A full orchestral accompaniment was planned, but the exchequer said “not enough money for winds,” so Saint-Saëns scored the wind parts for organ.
The work has remained a favorite. It incorporates some influences of Bach, Handel, and Beethoven. It pays homage to the tradition in the telling of the Christmas story from Luke, going back to Schütz. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (really six cantatas grouped together) is reflected in the pastorale movements and meditative arias. (Saint-Saëns loved Bach’s cantatas so much that he arranged several cantata movements for piano solo.) We hear the influence of Handel in the string tremolo pictorialization, at the announcing of the gathering of the heavenly host. Some of the writing in Beethoven’s quartets is echoed in the string figurations of the sixth movement. Even a melodic fragment that appears in the finale of Mozart’s Symphony no. 41. Its origins are found in the Latin hymn Lucis Creator. The mostly homophonic last chorus recalls the chorales Bach used to close many of his church cantatas. But each of these references to previous composers is expressed in Saint-Saëns’ own voice and temperament.
About Our Soloists:
After growing up on a farm in Pilot Mound, Iowa, Jane Thorngren over time, found herself appearing extensively as a soprano in leading operatic roles and on concert stages throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, The French West Indies, Europe, South America and Asia. She made her New York debut at the Metropolitan Opera House with Covent Garden’s Royal Ballet as soprano soloist in Poulenc’s Gloria. She was a principal soprano in Mainz, Germany, for three years. She has been heard in two Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts with New York City Opera: in the title role of The Merry Widow and as Musetta in the Emmy - winning La Bohème. In addition to her long career in opera, her extensive oratorio experience includes appearances with the symphonies of Pittsburgh, Seattle, Phoenix, Savannah, Hartford, Denver, Toronto and Ottawa, and chamber orchestras of New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Stamford as well as orchestras in Germany, The Netherlands, France, Japan, Hong Kong and Armenia. She has recorded a collection of art songs on her own CD, This and My Heart, and is featured on Morton Lauridsen’s CD Northwest Journey among other recordings. Jane holds degrees in music from Drake University and the University of Southern California.
Praised for her versatility and agility, American soprano Jessica Vadney has performed internationally in Europe, South America, and across the United States. Most recently she has been seen in productions with Utopia Opera, New York Opera Theater, and has won 2nd Place in the Rachmaninoff Music Competition 2017. Recent appearances include: Soprano 2 soloist in Mozart (C Minor Mass) with Collegiate Singers of NY, covering Fosca (Passions) with Utopia Opera, and scenes from Norma with Opera After Hours. Past roles include: Marguerite (Faust), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Elle (La voix humaine), Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Mary (Ballad of Baby Doe), First Woman (Die Zauberflöte), Fiordiligi/Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Soloist in Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Poulenc’s Gloria, and Fauré’s Requiem.
Tenor Cristóbal Arias is based in New York. Recent operatic appearances include his debut at La MaMa as Moses in Finberg and Einhorn’s Exagoge, Paris in Offenbach’s La belle Hélène, Camille in Lehár’s The Merry Widow, and Misael in Britten’s The Burning Fiery Furnace.
Concert works include Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, The Evangelist in J.S. Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium and tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem. In addition to the standard repertoire, Arias has a passion for presenting the work of living composers and American composers. Being of Colombian and Peruvian descent, he is passionate about presenting Spanish-language works.
Arias is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with the late Sanford Sylvan. He grew up in Washington Heights, and was a member of The Cornerstone Chorale as a teenager. He is proud to be joining the group tonight for this performance.
In the 2024-2025 season bass-baritone Blake Austin Brooks appears in the Madison Sounds Concert series as the bass soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass, Haydn's Creation, Mozart's Great Mass in C minor and as the title character in concert presentations of highlights from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. During the 2023-2024 season he appeared with the Bard Summerscape opera chorus in the first major American production of Saint-Saëns’ Henri VIII, Opera On Tap/Kinesis Project’s Capacity, or: The Work of Crackling (reprised from the premiere performances in 2022), as well as OoT’s Friday the 13th Halloween show, Broken Chord at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Dvořák’s Requiem with the American Symphony Orchestra. He also sang on the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Aaron Zigman’s Émigré with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, as well as its U.S. premiere with the NY Philharmonic. Last season Blake sang the role of Fourth Shepherd in Strauss’ Daphne, presented by the ASO at Carnegie Hall, with Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale as the bass soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, was baritone soloist in Fauré’s Requiem at Grace Church NYC, and bass soloist in Bach’s Cantata 115 with Cornerstone Chorale. Other 2022-23 season highlights: debut with the NY Philharmonic Chorus at the gala reopening of David Geffen Hall, joining Maestro Joe Hisaishi at Radio City Music Hall for “Symphonic Concert: Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki,” and Downtown Voices at Trinity Church Wall Street. Over the past decade, since moving from Iowa, Blake has performed with the Center for Contemporary Opera, The American Symphony Orchestra, the American Lyric Theater, MasterVoices, PROTOTYPE Festival, Vertical Player Repertory, and New York Opera Exchange.