Conductors David Hoose and Scott Allen Jarrett lead BU Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a concert featuring soloists Amanda Pabyan, William Hite, and David Kravitz, with
Boston Children’s Chorus, conducted by Michele Adams —
Monday, November 24, 2014 at Symphony Hall
Boston, MA – Boston University College of Fine Arts presents Benjamin Britten’s monumental War Requiem, a work that combines the eternal sacred text of the Latin Requiem Mass with passages by World War I-era poet Wilfred Owen — Monday, November 24th at Symphony Hall.
Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at Symphony Hall
Performing Benjamin Britten’s ‘War Requiem’
Date and Time: Monday, November 24th, 8pm
David Hoose and Scott Allen Jarrett, conducting
With Soloists Amanda Pabyan (soprano), William Hite (tenor), and David Kravitz (baritone)
Accompanied by Boston Children’s Chorus, conducted by Michele Adams, Assistant Artistic Director
Venue: Symphony Hall (301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston)
Box Office: bso.org | 617.262.1200
Tickets: $25 general public; two free tickets with CFA Membership, one free ticket with student ID at the door, day of performance, subject to availability.
“Speaking to us from over fifty years ago, the War Requiem’s themes of conflict and reconciliation still hold meaning for us today,” says Scott Allen Jarrett, Director of Choral Activities ad interim, at Boston University College of Fine Arts. “Britten quotes war poet Wilfred Owen on the title page of the score:
‘My subject is War, and the pity of War.
The poetry is in the pity …
All a poet can do today is warn.’”
Like many of Britten’s works, the War Requiem deals with the loss of innocence and the indifference of people towards one another. Known as the definitive musical pacifist statement of the 20th century, Britten’s War Requiem exists on three physically separated musical planes: a large orchestra and chorus with soprano soloist, a chamber orchestra with tenor and baritone soloists, and a distant children’s choir. In the 1962 premiere, the soloists were from England, Russia, and Germany, a powerful statement of unity from countries so recently at war with one another. Led by Conductors David Hoose and Scott Allen Jarrett, the BU Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, accompanied by soprano soloist and CFA School of Music alumnus, Amanda Pabyan (CFA ’02), tenor soloist, William Hite, and baritone soloist, David Kravitz, will commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Great War through this special performance of Britten’s Requiem. The Boston Children’s Chorus, conducted by Michele Adams, will also perform.
In marking its 60th anniversary, Boston University College of Fine Arts invites the BU and global community in a creative discussion and call to action around the 2014–2015 Keyword: INTERSECT, presenting a year of programming that examines how forms of expression, disciplines of study, sociological constructs, and race and gender intertwine. The War Requiem, itself, has roots in the College’s history; Phyllis Curtin, Dean Emerita of Art and beloved American classical soprano, sang the American premiere at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on July 27, 1963, under the direction of Erich Leinsdor. Considered one of the most important pieces Curtin ever performed, her performance received rave reviews in The Boston Globe.
A featured event of the Keyword Initiative, this concert will broadcast live on the School of Music website and will be archived in the School of Music’s Virtual Concert Hall:
bu.edu/cfa/music/virtual-concert-hall.
The Keyword Initiative is funded in part by Nancy Livingston (COSM ‘69) and her husband, Fred Levin, through the Shenson Foundation, in memory of Ben and A. Jess Shenson.
Institutional Biography
Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized private research university with more than 30,000 students participating in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. BU consists of 17 colleges and schools along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes which are central to the school’s research and teaching mission. The Boston University College of Fine Arts was created in 1954 to bring together the School of Music, the School of Theatre, and the School of Visual Arts. The University’s vision was to create a community of artists in a conservatory-style school offering professional training in the arts to both undergraduate and graduate students, complemented by a liberal arts curriculum for undergraduate students. Since those early days, education at the College of Fine Arts has begun on the BU campus and extended into the city of Boston, a rich center of cultural, artistic and intellectual activity.
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