Concerts At St. Thomas Presents The Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir, 4/28

On Friday, April 28, 2017 at 7:30 pm Concerts at Saint Thomas presents the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir. As one of Europe's leading choirs, this fine choir has delighted listeners since 1924 with its interpretation of the works of major composers of the renaissance and baroque eras, as well as 20th century choral music for boys' and men's voices. Since 1959, the choir has been resident at Copenhagen Cathedral and as part of its duties performs at state occasions and during royal visits abroad.

PROGRAM

Niels W Gade (1817-1890): Morning Hymn

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594): Missa Pappae Marcelli
Kyrie / Gloria / Credo /Organ interlude / Sanctus / Benedictus / Agnus DeiI & II

INTERVAL

Morten Lauridsen (b.1943): Lux Aeterna for choir and organ

Introit /In te Domine / O nata lux / Veni sancte spiritus

Waldemar Åhlén (1894-1982): Psalm for Pentecost (Summer Psalm)

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931): Two Lyrical Evening Songs
Teach Me, Star of the Night (arr. Kim Nandfred 2015)
Lullaby (arr. John Højbye 1990)

Henry Balfourt Gardiner (1897-1950): Evening Hymn for choir and organ

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Among some of the oldest European Musical traditions are the Cathedral choirs and their choir schools. The COPENHAGEN ROYAL CHAPEL CHOIR is the only representative of this tradition in Scandinavia.

Founded in 1924 by Mogens Wöldike the choir quickly developed into a full-time institution with the boys receiving their general education alongside a full musical and vocal training in Sankt Annæ Gymnasium, the Copenhagen Municipal Choir School.

Since 1959 the choir has been resident at Copenhagen Cathedral and as part of its duties performs at state occasions and during royal visits abroad. In fact, since Ebbe Munk became director of the choir in 1991 they have undertaken concerts in leading concert halls, cathedrals and festivals all over the world. This includes leading concert managers such as Dell'Arte in South America, Wu Promotion in China and Sydney Opera House Trust in Australia.

Benjamin Britten, Raphael Kubelik, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Sir Andrew Davies, Sir Charles Mackerras, Vladimir Ashkenazy and many others have each conducted the CRCC. Contemporary Scandinavian composers including Poul Ruders, Palle Mikkelborg, Per Nørgaard, Bent Sørensen and Knut Nystedt have written works specially for them.

Le Figaro has placed the choir alongside the Vienna Boys Choir and that of King's College, Cambridge as one of the finest in Europe. They work regularly with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and have made numerous CD recordings on EMI, Vanguard, Chandos, Decca and Telefunken.

In 2000 the CRCC received the prestigious Eugene Mortimer Choir Prize by the European Cultural Foundation Pro Europa.

From 2002 the choir has been nominated Ambassadeurs de l'Union by the Fédération Européenne des Choeurs de l'Union in Brussels and in 2002 the choir received a Grammy in Danish Music Awards for the recording of Buxtehude´s Cantatas together with Dufay Collective, London. In November 2003 CRCC was honoured in Paris by l´Institut de France-Académie des Beaux-Arts with the Prix Chant choral Liliane Bettencourt 2003.

As part of its duties CRCC performs at state occasions and during royal visits abroad, such as the wedding of Their Royal Highnesses the Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Crown Princess Mary and at the christening of their firstborn, HRH Prince Christian in 2005. Also the reburial of Russian Empress Maria Fjodorovna (born Danish Princess Dagmar) in St. Petersburg.

Born in 1967, HANNE KUHLMANN studied at the Music Conservatories in Aarhus and Copenhagen, as well as in Paris and London. She was the first prize winner of the International Organ Competitions in Lahti, Finland in 1993 and in Odense, Denmark in 1996. Her concert career has taken her to some of the finest organs in Europe, such as Westminster Abbey, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and St Bavo Church in Haarlem, Holland. Some of her recent concerts was with puppeteer Svend E Kristensen, doing Petr Eben's Faust in a visual and highly dramatic performance. She is now the cathedral organist at Copenhagen Cathedral,

where she is organizing the Saturday lunchtime organ recital series, as well as regularly accompanying the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir.

EBBE MUNK was appointed both as precentor in Copenhagen Cathedral (The Church of Our Lady) and artistic director and conductor of the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir in 1991. He was the fourth in succession in the latter after Mogens Wöldike, Niels Møller and Per Enevold.

Ebbe Munk´s name had been closely associated with the prize winning chamber choir VOX DANICA, which was known especially for the performance of new Nordic music. He was also the director of SANKT ANNÆ YOUTH CHOIR which developed into one of the major youth choirs in Europe under his leadership.

Ebbe Munk´s main aim in accepting the position with COPENHAGEN ROYAL CHAPEL CHOIR was to increase the choir´s already strong position in the classical European tradition of boys choirs.

Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir had long been highly regarded both at home and abroad, both for its performances in the Palestrina tradition and also of the great classical works for mens and boys voices - pieces all composed with the special sound world of mens and boys voices in mind and a world whose traditions had been central to generations of voices at the choir school in Copenhagen.

There is a continued collaboration with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra/Copenhagen Phil, with the Danish Broadcasting Company ensembles and with regional orchestras in Denmark, and a close co-operation with the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen has also been established in recent years.

One of the most marked features of Ebbe Munk´s tenure with the choir has been the development of the performance of early music, which began as a collaboration between Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir and Concerto Copenhagen, as well as with specialist ensembles from abroad, notable the Dufay Collective in London. The recording of Buxtehude´s Cantatas was named choral release of the year in 2002 by Danish Music Awards.

This collaboration was followed by the establishing of the Cathedral Baroque Ensemble (known today as the Copenhagen Baroque Ensemble) with early music specialist instrumentalists from all over Scandinavia. This has resulted in countless concerts, from the great oratorios and passions of Händel and Bach to more intimate concerts of musical gems from Denmark, England, France, Italy and Germany.

All of this has naturally influenced the programming for the choir over the past 25 years, not least in the famous series of Friday Concerts in Copenhagen Cathedral.

Here the concert programmes have become broader and over the years more thematic, with both romantic and contemporary choral music given a greater profile. The collaboration and performances worldwide with Palle Mikkelborg have been of special importance.

The traditional annual summer concerts in Tivoli Concert Hall have opened up to a change of style and a broader concept of collaborations - Trio con Brio, Andreas Brantelid, Bo Boje Skovhus, early music artist Poul Høxbro, harpist Helen Davies, Susse Wold, the Danish String Quartet...

In 2000 Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark presented Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir and Ebbe Munk with the PRO EUROPA prize on behalf of the European Foundation for Culture...to honour the high quality and outstanding achievement of its choral singing and its artistic contribution to culture dialogue in the world".

Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir has been extremely active on the international scene over the past 25 years: not only have the choir and Ebbe Munk given concerts in cathedrals and prestigious concert halls in more than 35 different countries all over the world, but they have also been invited to return to many important centres - London, Oxford, Berlin, Paris, Toulouse, Lyon, Madrid, Rome, St. Pertersburg, Vienna, New York, Washington, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Cape Town.

Both with Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir and in a solo capacity, Ebbe Munk has given masterclasses, participated in choral festivals and served on international competition juries in places such as Princeton University, Festival des Catédrales de Picardie, the National Conservatory of Music and the Opera House in Hanoi, Nordklang in Finland, Big Sing and Teapot Summer School in New Zealand, where he succeeded Sir David Wilcocks in 2008.

In 2000 Ebbe Munk established a collaboration between cathedral choir masters in Helsinki, Turku, Uppsala, Trondheim, Oslo and Copenhagen and this has been extended to include illustrious choral institutions such as those of Escalonia de Montserrat, King´s College Cambridge, New College Oxford and the Vienna Boys Choir...

In 2003 Ebbe Munk and Copenhagen Boys Choir received the music award of the French Academy - Prix de Chant Chorale Liliane Bettencourt - in the Institut des Beaux Arts in Paris.

In 2000 Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark honoured Ebbe Munk with a knighthood (Knight of the Order of Dannebrog) and in 2015 he was elevated to Knight of the First Rank of the Order of Dannebrog.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets may be purchased at www.saintthomaschurch.org, by calling the Concerts Office at (212) 664-9360, by email atconcerts@saintthomaschurch.org or in person at the Concerts Office at One West 53rd Street at Fifth Avenue (enter through the Parish House).

Prime (assigned seating) - $75.00, Preferred (assigned seating) - $55.00.

General Admission (unreserved seating) - $40.00, Student/Senior - $30 (available the day of the concert at the door)