The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra Presents Handel's MESSIAH Tonight

Tonight, December 20 marks the cultural high point of Rhode Island's holiday season as The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra joins forces with The Providence Singers, CHRISTINE NOEL, artistic director, in their eighth annual performance of George Frideric Handel's MESSIAH.

Soloists include soprano DEBORAH SELIG, mezzo-soprano REBECCA RINGLE, tenor CHARLES BLANDY and MATTHEW BURNS, bass-baritone. ANDREW CLARK, Director of Choral Activities at Harvard University and former artistic director of the Providence Singers, conducts.

The perennial favorite holiday concert features a family-friendly start time of 7:00pm tonight December 20 at The Vets in Providence. Tickets (starting at $15) are available at tickets.riphil.org, and the RI Phil box office at 401.248.7000.

Two hundred and seventy-one years after its first performance, Handel's Messiah remains the most frequently performed, most beloved work in the choral canon, featuring the "Hallelujah" chorus, "For Unto Us a Child is Born," "I Know That My RedeemerLiveth" and other favorites. Handel completed the entire composition in only 24 days, and the oratorio has been performed consistently - revised, updated, staged, and restored to its "period" form - ever since.

CHRISTINE NOEL, Artistic Director of the Providence Singers, recently conducted the Singers in Haydn's Missa in Angustiis, Mozart's Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, and Dan Forrest's Requiem for the Living and prepared the Singers for performances of Messiah, Holst's The Planets, Carmina Burana, and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with the RI Philharmonic. She is on the music faculty and serves as Director of Choral Activities at Clark University (Worcester, MA). She is also Founder and Artistic Director of the RI Children's Chorus, which has performed at conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the Music Educators' National Conference (MENC). An active festival clinician and adjudicator, she holds a Master of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from Boston University. She completed the superior level of Italian studies at the Università degli Studi di Firenze (Florence) and is a graduate of the Kodály Institute of Music in Kecskemét, Hungary.

ANDREW CLARK is the Director of Choral Activities and Senior Lecturer on Music at Harvard University. He serves as the Music Director and Conductor of the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, and teaches courses in conducting, choral literature, and music theory. Prior to his appointment at Harvard, Clark was Artistic Director of the Providence Singers and Director of Choral Activities at Tufts University. He previously held conducting posts with the Worcester Chorus, Opera Boston, Clark University, the Boston Pops Esplanade Chorus, and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. He has collaborated with the Pittsburgh and New Haven Symphonies, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Boston Philharmonic, Trinity Wall Street Choir, Stephen Sondheim, and the late Dave Brubeck, among others. Mr. Clark lives in Medford, MA, with his wife Amy Peters Clark and their daughters Amelia Grace and Eliza Jane.

Soprano DEBORAH SELIG returns to the Vets after singing Messiah in 2012. She has earned critical acclaim for her rich shimmering voice, her excellent artistic instincts, and her fine execution of the lyric soprano repertoire. Ms. Selig has performed leading operatic roles with a number of US companies including Central City Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Dayton Opera, Kentucky Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Roanoke, Mobile Opera, and Connecticut Lyric Opera. In concert, she has soloed with Albany Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Cincinnati Baroque, Cincinnati Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Erie Philharmonic, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, Handel and Haydn Society, Kentucky Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. Ms. Selig earned an Artist Diploma and Master of Music from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a summa cum laude BM/BA in Voice and English from The University of Michigan.

Bass-Baritone MATTHEW BURNS delighted the audience in 2013's Messiah. The New York Times praised his "beautiful bass-baritone voice," Opera News observed, "Matthew Burns instills in his voice all the colors needed," while the Boston Musical Intelligencer credited him with "a rare combination of comic timing, musical ability and stellar acting." In summer of 2013 he returned again to the Bard Music Festival to sing Mussorgsky's "Vaarlam's Aria" from Boris Godunov. Equally at home on the concert stage, Matthew Burns made his Carnegie Hall debut singing Handel's Messiah and his Avery Fisher Hall debut singing theZeremonienmeister in Hindemith's Das Nusch-Nuschi. Other concert and oratorio works to Mr. Burns' credit include the requiem masses of Verdi, Duruflé, and Mozart; appearing as soloist in Messiah with the Pacific Symphony; an evening of Mozart opera excerpts with the Albany Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven's Mass in C; Handel's Judas Maccabeus; and Mozart's Mass in C Minor. He has also performed in recital for Texas' Omega House AIDS Hospice.

Two of the four soloists are making their debut with the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Praised by Opera News for her "richly focused voice", young mezzo-soprano REBECCA RINGLE'S performances have brought her acclaim on operatic and concert stages. In the 2013-2014 season, she returned to the Met for Shostakovich's The Nose, appeared in concert with the National Chorale for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the Oratorio Society of New York for Handel's Messiah, the New West Symphony Orchestra for Verdi's Requiem, Ars Antiqua as a soloist in The Borrowers, and will join New Orleans Opera as Dorothée in Cendrillon. Her New York City Opera debut as Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana was hailed as "sultry" and "sweetly sung" by The Wall Street Journal and London's Financial Times. She returned to NYCO as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Dorothée in Cendrillon and to cover Rosmira inPartenope. Engagements for 2011-2012 included Handel's Messiah with Jacksonville Symphony and Augustana College and her return to the Metropolitan Opera. Rebecca Ringle holds a B.A. with Highest Honors in Comparative Literature from Oberlin College. She lives in New York City.

Tenor CHARLES BLANDY has been praised as "unfailingly, tirelessly lyrical" (Boston Globe); "a versatile tenor with agility, endless breath, and vigorous high notes" (Goldberg Early Music Magazine); and for his "clear, focused, gorgeous tenor voice" (Worcester Telegram and Gazette). In concert he has recently performed with the Portland Baroque Orchestra; the American Bach Soloists (SF, CA); and with the National Chorale at Lincoln Center. He has performed as the Evangelist in Bach's St. Johnand St. Matthew Passions with Emmanuel Music; as the title character of Britten's St. Nicolas under Raymond Leppard in Indianapolis; and has sung with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Charlotte Symphony, Cantata Singers, Berkshire Choral Festival, Pittsburgh Bach and Baroque, and the Bloomington Early Music Festival. He was a finalist in the Oratorio Society of New York solo competition. His studies have been at Tanglewood, where he was awarded the Grace B. Jackson prize for excellence; a Master's Degree from Indiana University; and at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England. He is a native of Troy, NY, and graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in religion.

THE PROVIDENCE SINGERS celebrates the choral art through concerts of masterworks and contemporary works, creative collaborations, recordings of American choral treasures, new music commissions and education programs. Led by artistic director Christine Noel, The Providence Singers presents an annual concert series and performs regularly with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. A guest appearance with the late Dave Brubeck at the 2004 Newport Jazz Festival was hailed by Mr. Brubeck as "the best performance yet" of his cantata, Gates of Justice. At the composer's invitation, The Providence Singers premiered his The Commandments and reprised Gates at Lincoln Center in 2005. Other collaborators include the Kronos Quartet at the FirstWorks Festival, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the New Haven Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, the AureaEnsemble and Boston Landmarks Orchestra, among others.

Season 70 offers symphonies by Beethoven, Prokofiev and Sibelius; concerti by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Saint-Sa?ns and Tchaikovsky; and popular favorites Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Ravel's Boléro and Orff's Carmina Burana. Twentieth-century highlights include works by Adams, Orff, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Sibelius, Strauss, Stravinsky, and Weill. The season's final concert features the world premiere of a commissioned work by the New England native composer Pierre Jalbert in honor of the Orchestra's 70th Anniversary. Several well-known guest artists will perform with the orchestra, including returning violinists Augustin Hadelich and Jennifer Koh, cellist Alban Gerhardt, mezzo-soprano Susan Lorette Dunn, and pianists Ilya Yakushev and Joyce Yang. Pianist Jon Nakamatsu will be making his debut with the Rhode Island Philharmonic. The Providence Singers, Christine Noel, artistic director, will share two performances with the Philharmonic: Handel's Messiah in December and CarminaBurana in May. The Philharmonic showcases Cirque de la Symphonie on Saturday, January 31 at 7:00pm at The Vets and appears with the Indigo Girls on Saturday, February 13 at 7:00pm at PPAC, both conducted by Resident Conductor Francisco Noya. Capping off this anniversary season, world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell appears with the Philharmonic in a Gala Celebration of Season 70! on Friday March 6 at The Vets.

The Philharmonic's season features eight Classical concerts on Saturday nights at The Vets. Four are preceded by Amica Rush Hour concerts on Friday, and four have Friday Open Rehearsals. The Amica Rush Hour Series offers an early start time - 6:30pm- on Fridays October 17, November 14, April 10 and May 8. These shorter, informal, accessible concerts feature full performances of select repertoire from the Saturday Classical concerts. Open Rehearsals, on Fridays January 16, February 20 and March 20 at 5:30pm, offer insight into the collaboration between the conductor, guest artists and orchestra musicians as they prepare for the upcoming classical concert. Subscriptions and individual concert tickets are on sale now. Call the Philharmonic box office at 401.248.7000, or visit tickets.riphil.org.

Photo Courtesy of The Rhode Island Philharmonic