Chorus pro Musica’s annual holiday celebration

Dec. 5, 2009 - PRLog -- Chorus pro Musica, led by new Music Director Betsy Burleigh, presents its annual holiday season celebration on Friday, December 18 at 8 pm at Old South Church in Copley Square, Boston [645 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116].  Entitled “Shepherds, Follow the Star,” the concert includes music from all ages inspired by the story of the simple shepherds who suddenly witnessed a great star shining in the east.  Repertoire ranges from chant to Gabrieli to Mendelssohn to Poulenc to Spirituals—and some modern classics. Selections include Berlioz’s “The Shepherd’s Farewell,” Alfred Burt’s “Star Carol,” and “The Shepherds’ Chorus” from Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors.  Joining the celebration is the Triton Brass Quintet, which performs independently as well as accompanying the chorus.  The celebration also includes the annual holiday traditions of a candlelight processional and carol singing with the audience.

Concert tickets for the December 18 performance at Old South Church are $20, $30 and $45, with discounts available on selected seats for groups, students, seniors and WGBH members.  Reserved seats may be selected and tickets purchased at www.choruspromusica.org, or by phone (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) at 800-658-4CPM (800-658-4276).  For wheelchair-accessible seats, call 617-267-7442.

The chorus's 61st season continues on Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 4 pm at John Hancock Hall, Boston, when Chorus pro Musica joins with the New England Philharmonic and the Zamir Chorale of Boston to present Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service), and also performs the world premiere of a new work by composer Andrew Rindfleisch that was commissioned by the chorus.  The performance is a part of the first Boston Jewish Music Festival, and commemorates the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. Regular-price tickets for the March 14 concert are $25, $40 and $50.

The season concludes on Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 3 pm at NEC’s Jordan Hall with works celebrating Spring, Love and the Tavern, including Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and Dominick Argento’s Odi et amo (I Hate and I Love).  The performance will feature Carl Orff’s own arrangement of Carmina Burana for two pianos and percussion. Regular-price tickets for the June 6 concert are $27, $42 and $57; the price includes a $2 restoration fee for Jordan Hall.

Three-concert subscriptions are still available at 10% off single-ticket prices, and may be purchased at www.choruspromusica.org, or by phone (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) at 800-658-4CPM (800-658-4276).

Chorus pro Musica also appears this season on January 24, 2010 at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, Federico Cortese, Music Director, in W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni, as part of a continuing partnership with BYSO that is not part of the chorus’s subscription series.

Chorus pro Musica is a distinguished, independent Boston-based chorus recognized for versatility and excellence in performing traditional, adventurous and seldom-heard works.  The chorus was founded in 1949 by the late Alfred Nash Patterson and quickly built a superb reputation for its professional-level musical standards and innovative programming.  These strengths have led to collaborations with such organizations as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with opera companies including the Opera Company of Boston and Commonwealth Opera.

Betsy Burleigh, in her debut season as Music Director, has been Music Director since 2005 of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, a renowned 115-voice chorus founded in 1908 that is the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's chorus of choice.  She recently moved to Boston from Cleveland where she was Assistant Director of Choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra and a full professor at Cleveland State University.  For five years she served as Chorus Master for Cleveland Opera.

Ms. Burleigh is an active conductor, and has led the Pittsburgh Symphony, Opera Cleveland, the Akron Symphony, and the Canton Symphony Orchestras. She conducted the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus on an Emmy award-winning benefit concert for the 9/11 Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, and received the Northern Ohio Live Achievement Award for music direction of Viktor Ullman’s opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis with Cleveland Public Theater.  In February 2009 she conducted the Mendelssohn Chamber Chorus on the Library of Congress concert series in Washington, D.C.

She is no stranger to Boston: She was Music Director of The Master Singers from 1985-1991 and Music Director for the Longy Chamber Singers and the Cambridge Madrigal Singers, among other positions.  She holds a doctorate in choral conducting from Indiana University and a masters degree from the New England Conservatory of Music.

http://www.sueauclairpromotions.com/Sue_Auclair_Promotion...