Cecilia Chorus of New York to Perform Handel's MESSIAH, 12/12

The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Mark Shapiro, Music Director will present Handel's Messiah on Saturday, December 12 at 8:00 PM in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan.

Written in three weeks, Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled from diverse sources by Charles Jennens. A repeat performance of Mark Shapiro's acclaimed reading of this repertory staple has been anticipated since the Chorus's very succesful performances in 2013.

Soloists for this performance will be Harvard-and Juilliard-trained soprano Liv Redpath, Opera Index Award Winning countertenor Siman Chung, also winner of the Best Countertenor prize at Barcelona's Vin?as competition, Seattle Opera tenor Theo Lebow and Daniel Miroslaw, bass.

The concert will be presented with orchestral accompaniment.

Tickets for the December 12 concert range from $25 to $85, and can be purchased online at http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2015/12/12/0800/PM/The-Cecilia-Chorus-of-New-York-with-Orchestra/, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or visiting the box office at 57th St and Seventh Ave.

For more information about these concerts, visit http://www.ceciliachorusny.org/ or call 646-638-2535.

The Cecilia Chorus of New York was the 2015 winner of the ASCAP/Chorus America Alice Parker Award: https://www.chorusamerica.org/news/2015-chorus-america-award-recipients-announced.

The Cecilia Chorus of New York is the 2015 winner of the ASCAP/Chorus America Alice Parker Award; and the 2013 third-place winner for The American Prize in Choral Performance. The Chorus, a secular organization, was founded in 1906 and has evolved into one of the finest avocational performing arts organizations in New York City. Recent performance highlights have included the commission and premiere of Tom Cipullo's Credo for a Secular City at Carnegie Hall in Spring 2014, the New York Premiere of the Mass in D (1892) by Dame Ethel Smyth and revivals of works by Peter Mennin and Isabella Leonarda, as well as the Chorus's first-ever commission/premiere for Carnegie Hall, Divis Cetera by Raphael Fusco in 2012.

Mark Shapiro was appointed the seventh Music Director of The Cecilia Chorus of New York in 2011. He is one of a handful of artistic leaders in North America to have won a prestigious ASCAP Programming Award five times, achieving the unique distinction of winning such an award with three different ensembles. His February 2015 Juilliard performance of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia was characterized in The New York Times as "insightful"; The Times has elsewhere praised his work for its "virtuosity and assurance," and "uncommon polish," and his leadership was characterized by New Jersey's Star-Ledger as "erudite and far-reaching." His bio is at http://www.ceciliachorusny.org/music-director-mark-shapiro/.