Upcoming classical music concerts are highlighted by performances of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I was looking at our calendar for this spring, it jumped out at me that the Bach Choir may have a chance to perform one of the \u2018Passions\u2019 right around Holy Week,\u201d says Christopher Jackson, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we\u2019re performing the \u2018St. John Passion\u2019 on Palm Sunday, which is about as close as we could get to when it was initially performed on Good Friday 1724.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bach Choir of Bethlehem\u2019s \u201cSpring Concert: St. John Passion\u201d is at 4 p.m. March 29, First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Johann Sebastian Bach was Cantor and Music Director from 1723 to 1750 at the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, Germany, where one of his many duties was to provide music, which he called \u201cPassions,\u201d for the Good Friday Vespers service.<\/p>\n
A \u201cPassion\u201d is a dramatic, sacred, Protestant musical oratorio relating \u201cthe story of Jesus\u2019 death and always taken from the same general set of text no matter from which gospel it\u2019s taken, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, to describe what happened,\u201d explains Jackson.<\/p>\n
Bach wrote five \u201cPassions\u201d of which only two survive in their complete form: the \u201cSt. John Passion\u201d and \u201cSt. Matthew Passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. John Passion opens with a sense of foreboding. As events unfold and Judas betrays Christ, the Bach Choir performs the role of the crowd exclaiming their judgment until the drama ends with crucifixion and death.<\/p>\n
Four soloists play prominent roles in the performance. Dann Coakwell, tenor, is the Evangelist who sings the narration of Christ\u2019s passion, crucifixion and burial. Jonathan Woody, baritone, portrays Christ as solemn and calm as events unfold. Katelyn Grace Jackson, soprano, is the lyrical and emotional commentator reflecting on the suffering of Christ. Aryssa Burrs, mezzo-soprano, serves as the contemplative and emotional voice of the devout believer.<\/p>\n
Specializing in the Evangelist and tenor roles of J.S. Bach, Dann Coakwell frequently performs Bach\u2019s major oratorios as well as many of his Cantatas. Other prominent solo roles performed include numerous Handel oratorios, Haydn\u2019s \u201cCreation,\u201d Mozart\u2019s \u201cRequiem\u201d and \u201cMass in C minor.\u201d Coakwell received an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music-Institute of Sacred Music, Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music from Texas Tech University and Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas at Austin.<\/p>\n
Bass-Baritone Jonathan Woody is a performer and composer in New York City and across North America. An accomplished chamber musician, Woody often performs as a member of the Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street. He received degrees from McGill University and the University of Maryland, College Park.<\/p>\n
Soprano Katelyn Grace Jackson grew up in Berks County and spent a good portion of her singing career in Washington, D.C. She received a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Maryland and Master of Music in Historical Performance: Voice from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n
Mezzo-soprano Aryssa Burrs is a recent graduate of Northwestern University where she received a Master of Music in Voice and Opera Performance. She received a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and Bachelor of Music Education in Choral and General Music from the University of Maryland, College Park.<\/p>\n
Bach Choir of Bethlehem, \u201cSpring Concert: St. John Passion,\u201d 4 p.m. March 29, First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, 2344 Center St., Bethlehem. Tickets: Bach Choir office, 440 Heckewelder Place, Bethlehem; office@bach.org; 610-866-4382 ext. 110 or 115; https:\/\/bach.org\/tickets\/<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra (LVCO) invites our community to join us for a wonderful afternoon of music, featuring Philip Glass\u2019s \u2018Company for String Orchestra\u2019 and Ludwig van Beethoven\u2019s \u2018Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92,\u2019\u201d says Ryan Pereira, LVCO Orchestra Manager.<\/p>\n
The Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Nikhil Bartolomeo, presents, \u201cRelentless Motion: The Music of Beethoven & Glass,\u201d 3 p.m. March 22, Christ Lutheran Church, Allentown.<\/p>\n
\u201cRelentless Motion refers to the drive, rhythm and movement that these two pieces exhibit, showcasing delightful contrast between Glass\u2019s tense minimalism and Beethoven\u2019s grandiose depth,\u201d says Pereira.<\/p>\n
The performance opens with Philip Glass\u2019 \u201cCompany\u201d (1983), a four-movement commissioned work to accompany a staging of Irish novelist Samuel Beckett\u2019s \u201cCompany,\u201d a prose work exploring solitude while a relentless voice describes a sense of tormented confinement and despair.<\/p>\n
The work highlights the human need for companionship and \u201cdespite times of loneliness and despair in the present, the human condition always discovers a way to find company,\u201d Pereira says.<\/p>\n
The concert continues with Beethoven\u2019s \u201cSymphony No. 7,\u201d known for its overall jubilant sense with a contrasting calm and lyrical second movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point in his life, Beethoven was becoming increasingly ill and experiencing worsening hearing loss. Despite this, the symphony showcases his remarkable ability to transcend physical misery into brilliant writing, resulting in distinct musical characters across the four movements that cohere, all in dance forms from beginning to end,\u201d says Pereira.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two pieces of the program, while from entirely different musical eras, share a unique rhythmic vitality that makes them pair so well. Heard together, these works trace a striking kinship across centuries: two sound worlds that propose motion itself as meaning, an act of survival, as if to say, \u2018I move, therefore, I persist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nikhil Bartolomeo is a conductor, clarinetist and educator based in New York City. He is pursuing a Doctoral in Clarinet Performance at Stony Brook University and received a Master of Music from Boston Conservatory and Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College.<\/p>\n
Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, \u201cRelentless Motion: The Music of Beethoven & Glass,\u201d 3 p.m. March 22, Christ Lutheran Church, 1245 Hamilton St., Allentown. Tickets: https:\/\/www.lvchamberorchestra.org\/tickets<\/p>\n
\u201cClassical View\u201d is a column about classical music concerts, conductors and performers. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com<\/p>\n
Jonathan Woody<\/p>\n
Dann Coakwell<\/p>\n
Katelyn Grace Jackson<\/p>\n
Aryssa Burrs<\/p>\n
Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upcoming classical music concerts are highlighted by performances of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-144589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}