Westchester Oratorio Society performs Mozart Requiem, Verdi and Britten

The Westchester Oratorio Society begins its Fifteenth Season on Saturday evening, November 19, at the Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco with a concert entitled, “For Sacred Peace."   The program will feature Mozart's "Requiem" with orchestra and soloists, Verdi's “Quattro Pezzi Sacri,” Britten's “Lacrymosa” and Mozart's “Ave Verum Corpus.”  Featured soloists for the performance will be Soprano Jane Buchi, Alto Elizabeth Thorne, Tenor Chris Ellmann, and Bass Masami Morimoto.

The Westchester Oratorio Society is in its fifth year under the baton of Benjamin Niemczyk.  A resident of New York City, Mr. Niemczyk is a founding member of C4 (Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, www.c4ensemble.org), the nation’s largest new music choral ensemble. For the "Requiem" he has put together an orchestra comprised of some of the most outstanding young musicians in the New York metropolitan area.

Also accompanying the Oratorio Society will be James Kennerly on the Church’s magnificent von Beckerath pipe organ in his third collaboration with the group.  A native of the United Kingdom, Mr. Kennerly was educated at Cambridge University where he was Organ Scholar at Jesus College and then appointed Organ Scholar of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London. 

No piece is more shrouded in mystery than the “Requiem,” which was written by Mozart literally on his deathbed and completed by his student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr based on instructions and sketches from the dying composer.  WOS will perform the version published in 1993 by Robert D. Levin, a Harvard musicologist, who is widely thought to have improved Süssmayr’s initial effort with his scholarly insights and intuitive grasp of Mozart’s idiom.

With the concert's proximity to Veteran's Day and the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11, Mr. Niemczyk draws a modern parallel by having the chorus perform the "Lachrymosa" from Benjamin Britten’s "War Requiem" immediately before Mozart’s "Lachrymosa.”  The mournful beauty of Mozart's "Lachrymosa" draws added poignancy as the last portion of the “Requiem” written by the Composer's own hand.  Britten’s "War Requiem," which was commissioned for the 1962 festival celebrating the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral rebuilt after its destruction during World War II, intertwines Latin phrases from the Mass for the Dead with the poetry of Wilfred Owen, a soldier who was killed at age 25 on the Western Front during the final days of World War I."

The Westchester Oratorio Society is known for its local performances of early music, traditional choral masterworks and contemporary pieces accompanied by professional soloists and orchestras, as well as appearances in the New York metropolitan area including with the Brooklyn Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Cathedral of St. Johns the Devine.  Open to competent volunteer singers, the group rehearses in Katonah,  NY on Tuesday evenings.  WOS can next be heard on Saturday December 10, with two performances of holiday favorites for families at Muscoot Farm in Somers, NY beginning at 5 PM.

New this year the oratorio society’s "WOS Cookin’" partnership enables concert ticket holders to receive special dining offers from participating restaurants in Mount Kisco and Chappaqua on the night of the performance.

The Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco is at 605 Millwood Rd. (Rte. 133) Mt. Kisco, NY. Tickets for the performance which begins at 8 PM are $20 for general admission $40 preferred seating and may be purchased through the group's website.  A reception for concert-goers and singers will be held immediately following the performance.  For more information call 914-763-9389, email westchesteroratorio@gmail.com or visit the website at www.westchesteroratorio.org.