The Richmond Symphony Presents Handel's MESSIAH, 12/13

For generations, RVA has been delighted by the holiday classic Handel's Messiah. Join the Richmond Symphony and Richmond Symphony Chorus, on Saturday, December 13 at 7:30pm at the Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage for this timeless favorite. The concert will be led by Associate Conductor, Keitaro Harada.

The quartet of soloists includes Sari Gruber, soprano, Magdalena Wo?r, mezzo soprano, David Portillo, tenor and Calvin Griffin, baritone.

Tickets start at $20 online at richmondsymphony.com or 1.800.514 ETIX. The concert is sponsored by The Wauford Group.

About the Richmond Symphony

Founded in 1957, the Richmond Symphony is the largest performing arts organization in Central Virginia. The organization includes an orchestra of more than 70 professional musicians, the 150-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus and more than 200 students in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra programs. Each season, more than 250,000 members of the

community enjoy concerts, radio broadcasts, and educational outreach programs. The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Richmond Symphony Chorus

James Erb organized the all-volunteer Richmond Symphony Chorus in 1971 for a December performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, under guest conductor Robert Shaw. For 36 years, Erb continued to direct and build the Chorus to reflect the Symphony's high standards. Erin Freeman assumed leadership of the Chorus at the start of its 2007-08 season. The repertoire for its selected volunteer membership has included most of the standard repertoire for chorus and orchestra: Bach's St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion and Mass in BMinor, Haydn's Creation, Beethoven's Symphony No.9 and Choral Fantasy, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Requiem settings by Mozart, Brahms, Verdi and Faure, Mahler's Symphony No.2, Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony and all of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. Over the years they have also sung shorter choral-orchestral works by Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Delius, Debussy, Barber, Britten, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen and Luigi Dallapiccola. Recent projects have included a performance and recording of Mahler Symphony No. 8 with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under the direction of JoAnn Falletta, a performance with the Richmond Symphony in the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC., and a recreation of the Chorus's inaugural performance of Missa Solemnis.

About Keitaro Harada

Keitaro Harada, conductor, is increasingly recognized at the highest levels for his artistic abilities. A student of Lorin Maazel at Castleton Festival and Fabio Luisi at Pacific Music Festival, recipient of the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood Music Festival, Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, and The Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, Harada's credentials are exemplary and, at the age of 29, his achievements are those of a seasoned conductor.

Harada began his appointment as Associate Conductor of Richmond Symphony in Fall 2014. In his continuing position of Associate Conductor for Arizona Opera, he leads their production of

La Fille du Regiment in Spring 2015. This season holds Harada's Japan debut in December with the New Japan Philharmonic.

In 2013, Harada was selected by the League of American Orchestras as one of only six conductors for the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, a prestigious showcase that occurs biennially in an effort to promote gifted, emerging conductors to orchestra industry leaders. In 2012, Harada was a semi-finalist at the 9th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Poland and also participated in the National Music Festival in Maryland. In 2011, Harada was one of ten semi-finalists invited by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony to participate in the First Chicago Symphony Orchestra Solti International Conducting Competition.

Photo Courtesy of the Richmond Symphony

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