Great Music at St. Bart's Kicks Off 2015 Holiday Concerts Tonight
By: BWW News Desk Dec. 15, 2015
A Joyous Christmas Concert offers choral, orchestral, and organ music of the season along with a Christmas carol sing-in; Adoration of the Magi is an intimate visual and musical celebration of the holidays in the St. Bart's Chapel; and A Concert for the New Year, a holiday gift to the city, is a late evening organ concert by William Trafka, Director of Music and Organist of St. Bartholomew's Church, and post-concert reception, that is free to the public.
Tickets may be purchased online at mmpaf.org, by phone by calling 212-378-0248, or in person at St. Bart's in Midtown Manhattan, 325 Park Avenue at 51st Street.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015, at 7:30 pm in the Church
A JOYOUS CHRISTMAS CONCERT
St. Bartholomew's Choir, Boy and Girl Choristers
William Trafka, conductor and organ
A beloved New York holiday tradition, this concert combines the choral forces of St. Bart's, New York City's largest pipe organ, and a chamber orchestra for a concert of Christmas favorites. The Christmas portion of Handel's Messiah, music from Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, and carol settings of Rutter and Sandström - with audience participation! - are performed in the candlelit splendor of St. Bartholomew's Church. The concert will also pay tribute to the late David Willcocks, former Director of the famed King's College Choir of Cambridge.
Tickets: $100 Angel Club Seating, $40, $25; Students and Seniors receive a $10 discount
Friday, December 18, 2015, at 7:30 pm in the Chapel
ADORATION OF THE MAGI
Jeff Morrissey, baritone
William Trafka, piano
Singer Jeff Morrissey and St. Bart's Music Director William Trafka present their popular Christmas program inspired by the elegant paintings found in the South Chapel of St. Bartholomew's. In 1919 Ethel Parsons Paullin and her husband Telford created the beautiful Adoration of the Magi and the 13 medallions surrounding it depicting subjects connected with the Nativity of Christ. This program brings the artwork to life, weaving passages from the Bible with Polish carols and ballads from the Southern Appalachian Mountains as well as works by Nin, Ramirez, Grainger, and Michael Head to present a visual and musical telling of the Christmas story.
WATCH: William Trafka talks about "Adoration of the Magi" on YouTube
Tickets: $25, $15 for Students and Seniors
Thursday, December 31, 2015, at 11:00 pm in the Church
A CONCERT FOR THE NEW YEAR
William Trafka, organ
In an annual St. Bart's tradition, William Trafka, Director of Music and Organist, performs a free organ concert to ring in the New Year. He will play Debussy's Première Arabesque and Elgar's Imperial March along with works by Bach and Widor on St. Bartholomew's grand Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ, one of New York's greatest musical treasures. Trafka's own transcription of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man will be played at the stroke of midnight.
A free champagne reception will follow the concert.
WATCH: A video about the St. Bart's organ on Vimeo
Admission is free
William Trafka has been Director of Music and Organist of St. Bartholomew's Church since 1995. Prior to that, he served as St. Bartholomew's Associate Organist for 10 years. He leads the St. Bartholomew's Choir and St. Bart's Singers and is the Artistic Director of the Mid-Manhattan performing Arts Foundation, overseeing the programming of Great Music at St. Bart's. He also programs and conducts St. Bartholomew's annual Summer Festival of Sacred Music.
At St. Bart's, he has conducted the premieres of several works including David Conte's September Sun and Missa Brevis, James MacMillan's Since it was the day of preparation (New York premiere), and Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi (New York premiere of the orchestral version) as well as works by ?riks Ešenvalds and Neely Bruce. As an organist, he has performed on concert series throughout the U.S. and Germany and has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, the American Symphony Orchestra, and the Fairfield Academy of Period Instruments. He has also served on the faculty of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, as Adjunct Professor of Sacred Music.
Tickets may be purchased online at mmpaf.org, by phone by calling 212-378-0248, or in person at St. Bart's in Midtown Manhattan, 325 Park Avenue at 51st Street.
Great Music at St. Bart's is produced by the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) corporation established to cultivate, promote, sponsor and develop the understanding and love of the performing arts as presented at St. Bartholomew's Church, a treasured masterpiece of architecture on the east side of Manhattan's midtown. The corporation sponsors performances of music, dance, drama, and other performing arts as well as the exhibition of works in the film and fine arts genres.
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