The Cecilia Chorus Of New York to Present BRAHMS: A GERMAN REQUIEM AND HAILSTORK: THE WORLD CALLED
The performance will take place on April 26 at Carnegie Hall.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Apr. 11, 2025
Saturday, April 26 at 8:00 PM, The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Mark Shapiro, Music Director, will present Brahms' A German Requiem and the New York Premiere of Adolphus Hailstork's The World Called (text by Rita Dove) at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, 57th Street & 7th Avenue in Manhattan. Soloists will be Brandie Sutton, soprano and Justin Austin, baritone.
Pairing works by Johannes Brahms and the distinguished American composer Adolphus Hailstork (setting a text by former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove), this concert celebrates the meaning and purpose of our time on earth, and pays tribute to the memory of Heather Heyer in what would have been her 40th birthday year (On August 12, 2017, Heyer was murdered in the Charlottesville terrorist attack.) Her mother Susan Bro will address the audience, and honored guest Rita Dove will recite her poem from the stage. "The world called, and I answered." Program note:
Music Director Mark Shapiro writes about the piece, "I'm a longtime fan of Adolphus Hailstork. He's an unapologetically neo-Romantic composer, inexhaustibly creative, equipped with a flawless technique. Steeped in the styles and tropes of his classical forbears, he's particularly well-attuned to singing, solo as well as choral (which is its own thing). Hailstork's writing is luxuriantly melodious, carried forward by vigorous rhythm and a purposeful yet sensuous harmony.
And he writes about the Brahms, "The loss of (his) mother in 1865 affected the composer deeply and likely turned his mind toward the writing of his German Requiem, which he worked on over a period of three years... Brahms devised his own libretto, eschewing references to a specific religion in favor of a fully ecumenical spirituality; he was quoted as having wished to title this work "A Human ("menschliches") Requiem."
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