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John Zorn on St. Bart's Organ and More Set for Great Music at St. Bart's 2016-17 Season
By: BWW News Desk Sep. 16, 2016
The magnificent 1918 Romanesque-style church features a portal designed by Stanford White and a grand Byzantine-style interior - and two of New York's unlikely but outstanding concert spaces: the 150-seat chapel, an intimate and acoustically brilliant space that is perfectly suited for contemporary chamber music, and the majestic 1,000-seat sanctuary - outfitted with comfortable chairs enabling flexible seating - whose Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ is the largest in New York City and one of the finest examples of the American Classic Organ in the U.S.
The 11 events of the 2016-17 season of Great Music at St. Bart's continue the new programmatic focus initiated last year by MMPAF Artistic Director William K. Trafka (Director of Music and Organist of St. Bart's): to embrace a wider range of music in programs that shine in St. Bart's spaces.
The season features three programs of chamber music in the Chapel that showcase modern and new repertoire, performed by acclaimed ensembles Third Sound, ECCO East Coast Chamber Orchestra (A Thousand Cranes by Christopher Theofanidis, NY premiere), and Apple Hill String Quartet (Presences by John Harbison, world premiere).
Among the programs presented in the magnificent sanctuary are composer John Zorn, that New York treasure, performing on the famed St. Bart's organ; two vastly different interpretations of the St. John Passion: Bach's, performed by The English Concert and the Choir of New College, Oxford, conducted by Robert Quinney, and Arvo Pärt's, performed by Trafka leading the St. Bartholomew's Choir; Orff's Carmina Burana performed by the Dalton Chorale; and a screening of Charlie Chaplin's classic silent masterpiece The Gold Rush to live improvised accompaniment performed by Jason Roberts, St. Bart's Associate Organist.
These concerts join such beloved holiday events as the annual Joyous Christmas Concert, Adoration of the Magi, and Concert for the New Year. (The full season schedule follows below.)
All regular tickets to Great Music at St. Bart's are priced between $20 and $40, with discounted tickets for students and seniors available for all events. Admission to the Concert for the New Year is free.
Rounding out the St. Bart's musical offerings is a free component: the ongoing Midtown Concerts, a series of free weekly early music programs that run from September through June.
William K. Trafka has been the 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 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.
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. 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. For more information, visit mmpaf.org.
St. Bartholomew's Church was founded in January 1835. Its present building, a Byzantine style structure with an iconic dome, designed by Bertram Goodhue and completed in 1918, has had a vital presence in New York for close to a century. St. Bartholomew's also became a force in the musical life of the city and the wider church: Legendary musicians such as Leopold Stokowski, who went on to a career as one of the world's great conductors, Harold Friedell and James Litton have served the church as Organist and Choirmaster. For many decades, a world famous weekly series of Evensongs featuring performances of the great oratorios by St. Bartholomew's Choir was offered free of charge, stressing the parish's commitment to inclusion by ministering to a wide community. Great Music at St. Bart's, an outgrowth of these Evensongs, still offers the greater New York City community top shelf concert performances at very reasonable ticket prices.
GREAT MUSIC AT ST. BART'S 2016-17 SEASON:
Friday, October 21, 2016, at 7:30 pm in the Chapel
THIRD SOUND
"Forward-looking, expert ensemble" (The New Yorker) Third Sound made its U.S. debut on the Great Music at St. Bart's series in January of this year, receiving praise from New York Classical Review for the "big, colorful quality to the way they play... the results were often gorgeous." The group, comprising Sooyun Kim, flute; Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet; Karen Kim, violin; Michael Nicholas, cello; and Orion Weiss, piano - returns to launch the St. Bart's 2016-17 season with a preview of the program it is taking to the Havana Contemporary Music Festival - its second annual visit - in November: a program representing a snapshot of the contemporary American musical landscape.
Conceived from a desire to present music as a rich and dynamic continuum, Third Sound brings together an accomplished group of musicians equally skilled in - and equally passionate about - the work of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms as that of composers ranging from Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Messiaen; Carter, Wuorinen, Adams, and Reich; to emerging composers of the early 21st century. The group's members have appeared on the most prestigious series and stages around the world and garnered major honors, including the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Georg Solti Foundation Career Grant, and the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, among many others.
Tickets: $25, $15 for Students and Seniors
Tuesday, December 13, 2016, at 7:30 pm in the Church
A JOYOUS CHRISTMAS CONCERT
St. Bartholomew's Choir, Boy and Girl Choristers
William K. 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, and carol settings of Sandström, Chilcott, Willcocks and others are performed in the candlelit splendor of St. Bartholomew's Church.
Tickets: $100 Angel Club Seating, $40, $25; Students and Seniors receive a $10 discount
Friday, December 16, 2016, at 7:30 pm in the Chapel
ADORATION OF THE MAGI
Jeff Morrissey, baritone
William K. 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.
Tickets: $25, $15 for Students and Seniors
Saturday, December 31, 2016, at 11:00 pm in the Church
A CONCERT FOR THE NEW YEAR
William K. Trafka, organ
In an annual St. Bart's tradition, William Trafka, Director of Music and Organist, performs works by Bach, Böhm, Franck, and Willan 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.
Admission is free
Wednesday, February 1, 2017, at 8:30 pm in the Church
JOHN ZORN: CANDLEMAS EVE AND THE HERMETIC ORGAN
Barry Crawford, flute
Isabel Gleicher, flute
Al Lipowski, vibraharp
Sae Hashimoto, vibraharp assistant
John Zorn, organ
Modern music icon John Zorn returns to St. Bart's with a performance of The Hermetic Organ Office Nr. 15 (2017), a new chapter in his epic organ improvisation, praised by Lou Reed as one of "culmination and conquest." His 2016 work Candlemas Eve for two flutes and vibraharp will be offered on the eve of the church's feast day of Candlemas.
John Zorn performed The Hermetic Organ Office Nr. 14 last year at St. Bart's and has released a recording of that performance on his Tzadik website, www.tzadik.com (Cat. #8340): "Recorded at midnight on the eve of Halloween on the largest organ in New York City, Zorn approaches this performance as ritual, creating a mysterious mood of contrasts, colors, bells, drones, counterpoint and simultaneity."
Tickets: $25, $15 for Students and Seniors
Friday, February 17, 2017, at 7:30 pm in the Church
Jason Roberts ACCOMPANIES THE GOLD RUSH
Jason Roberts, organ
St. Bart's Associate Director of Music and Organist Jason Roberts improvises organ accompaniment to The Gold Rush, Charlie Chaplin's 1925 silent film masterpiece that features some of the most memorable scenes in cinematic history.
Over the past two years, Jason Roberts has improvised the organ accompaniment to St. Bart's screenings of The Wind starring Lillian Gish and the Buster Keaton classic Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Tickets: $20, $10 for Students and Seniors
Sunday, March 5, 2017, at 2:30 pm in the Chapel (Pre-concert talk at 1:30 pm)
THE APPLE HILL STRING QUARTET - World Premiere of Harbison's Presences
Apple Hill String Quartet (Elise Kruder, Colleen Jennings, violin; Mike Kelley, viola; Rupert Thompson, cello)
Tony Rymer, cello
Max Zeugner, bass
The Apple Hill String Quartet highlights its seventh annual program on the Great Music at St. Bart's series with the world premiere of Presences by John Harbison for string quartet, cello, and bass commissioned in memory of David Anderson, a young student cellist who studied at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in Nelson, New Hampshire, the quartet's home.
PatRick Castillo, composer and MMPAF board member, will interview John Harbison in a pre-concert talk in the Chapel at 1:30 pm.
Since its founding in 2007 the quartet has earned praise around the world for its performances of traditional and new repertoire. Central to the mission of Apple Hill is "Playing for Peace," an innovative outreach program that focuses on social change and conflict resolution through music. www.applehill.org
Tickets: $25, $15 for Students and Seniors
Tuesday, March 28, 2017, at 7:30 pm in the Church (Pre-concert talk at 6:45 pm)
J. S. Bach: ST. JOHN PASSION
THE CHOIR OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD & THE ENGLISH CONCERT
Robert Quinney, conductor
Nick Pritchard, tenor (Evangelist)
Great Music at St. Bart's presents two vastly different musical interpretations of the Passion according to St. John this Lenten season: Bach's St. John Passion on March 28 and Arvo Pärt's Passio on April 4.
The Choir of New College, Oxford, comes to the United States for the first time since the appointment of its new director, Robert Quinney, in 2014. With renowned period-instrument ensemble The English Concert, New College Choir performs J. S. Bach's timeless setting of the St. John Passion, first heard in Leipzig in 1724, and now an established masterwork of the choral repertoire.
With 16 boy choristers and 14 adults, the Choir of New College, Oxford, established in 1379, is one the most acclaimed choral ensembles in the U.K. The English Concert enjoys an unsurpassed reputation for inspiring performances of Baroque and Classical repertoire.
A pre-concert talk on Bach's St. John Passion and Pärt's Passio will be given by Michael Marissen, the Daniel Underhill Professor Emeritus of Music, Swarthmore College, at 6:45 pm in the Chapel.
Tickets: $100 Angel Club Seating, $40, $25; Students and Seniors receive a $10 discount
Combined tickets for March 28 and April 4 concerts: $115 Angel Club Seating, $55, $35 for Students and Seniors
Tuesday, April 4, 2017, at 7:30 pm in the Church
ARVO PÄRT: PASSIO
ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S CHOIR
William K. Trafka, conductor
Jeff Morrissey, Baritone (Jesus)
Ryland Angel, Tenor (Pilate)
Instrumentalists to be announced
Great Music at St. Bart's presents two vastly different musical interpretations of the Passion according to St. John this Lenten season: Bach's St. John Passion on March 28 and Arvo Pärt's Passio on April 4.
The music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has been described as mystical, hypnotic and transcendent, earning him the label "modern mystic." In recent years, his music has been among the most performed of that of any living composer. William Trafka conducts the St. Bartholomew's Choir in Pärt's Passio (1982), a setting of the Passion according to St. John in Latin, was inspired by the austerity of medieval monophonic settings of the Passion, but infused with Pärt's compelling harmonic style.
Tickets: $35, $25 for Students and Seniors
Combined tickets for March 28 and April 4 concerts: $115 Angel Club Seating, $55, $35 for Students and Seniors
Thursday, April 20, 2017, at 7:30 pm in the Chapel
ECCO (EAST COAST CHAMBER ORCHESTRA) - New York premiere of Theofanidis's A Thousand Cranes
Bringing together principal players of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) has been hailed by The Washington Post as "classical music's future." ECCO makes its Great Music at St. Bart's debut with a program featuring music by Suk, Lutoslawski, André Caplet (the harrowing Conte fantastique), and the New York premiere of A Thousand Cranes for strings and harp (2015) by Christopher Theofanidis.
In 2001, a group of musicians - colleagues and friends from leading conservatories and music festivals across the country collectively - envisioned the creation of a democratically?run, self-conducted chamber orchestra that would thrive on the pure joy and camaraderie of classical music making. This organic approach and high level of passion and commitment resulted in ECCO, a dynamic collective that combines the strength and power of a great orchestral ensemble with the personal involvement and sensitivity of superb chamber music.
Tickets: $35, $25 for Students and Seniors
Wednesday, May 17, 2017, at 7:30 pm in the Church
CARL ORFF: CARMINA BURANA
DALTON CHORALE
David Shuler, conductor
St. Bartholomew's Boy and Girl Choristers
The Dalton Chorale, under the direction of David Shuler, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a performance of Carl Orff's monumental Carmina Burana, in the version with accompaniment by two pianos and percussion. The concert will also include excerpts from The Passing of the Year by Jonathan Dove.
Originally drawn from alumni of the Dalton School on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the Dalton Chorale is now a richly diverse ensemble of serious amateur singers. The chorus specializes in large sacred works of the 18th and 19th centuries as well as new music. The Chorale will be joined by St. Bartholomew's Boy and Girl Choristers.
Tickets: $30, $20 for Students and Seniors
September 15, 2016, through June 29, 2017
Every Thursday at 1:15 pm in the Chapel
MIDTOWN CONCERTS: A FREE WEEKLY SERIES OF CONCERT OF EARLY MUSIC
Gotham Early Music Scene, in conjunction with the Mid-Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation, presents Midtown Concerts, a weekly series of 35-minute early music concerts in midtown Manhattan featuring soloists and ensembles from the U.S. and abroad.
For a schedule, visit www.gemsny.org/midtownconcerts.html
Admission is free
Tickets will be available through the Box Office at St. Bartholomew's Church, 325 Park Avenue, New York, NY, and will be available by phone, 212-378-0248, and online at www.mmpaf.org, by September 15.
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