Handel's 'Messiah' coming to Weidner Center

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Chorale and Concert Choir present George Frideric Handel’s Messiah on Sunday, Dec. 7, in the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts.

Prof. Randall Meder conducts the UW-Green Bay Chorale, Concert Choir and the Green Bay Symphony Choir with Chamber Orchestra starting at 7:30 p.m. in a joint production inside one of the Midwest’s best performance halls.

The performance will feature Part I of Messiah, as well as Handel’s Concerto Grosso in G.

Messiah, an oratorio—a large-scale piece written for chorus, soloists and orchestra—is Handel’s best-known work. Composed in the early 1740s, Messiah is one of the most popular choral/orchestral works of all time. Although the text is sacred (drawn from the King James Bible), it was intended for performance in the concert hall rather than the church.

Featured soloists include:

• Karen Schrock, soprano, a graduate of Green Bay Southwest High School currently living in New York.
• Karen Leigh-Post, mezzo-soprano, music faculty member at Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton.
• Robert Glaubitz, tenor, music faculty member at UW-Green Bay.
• Michael Rosewall, bass, a music faculty member at St. Norbert College in De Pere.

Tickets for Messiah are $12 in advance or $14 at the door. Call (800) 328-8587 or visit www.uwgb.edu/tickets to order.

Video Transcript

(MUSIC PLAYING “Hallelujah”)

Prof. Randall Meder
UW-Green Bay Director of Choral Activities

The UW-Green Bay Choral and Concert Choir, and the Green Bay Symphony Chorus are coming together for a performance of Handel’s Messiah on Dec. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Weidner Center. And we will have guest soloists from UW-Green Bay, St. Norbert College and also the Lawrence Conservatory.

We’ll be performing this with a guest chamber orchestra. It will be a full orchestra with strings, and brass and woodwinds, and percussion also organ and harpsichord. We’re bringing a lot of people in the community together to put on this performance.

Handel wrote Messiah in about a month. It’s a very long work. It’s probably his most famous oratorio. He wrote it in a very short period of time. What he did was he set it up in three separate sections. There’s a Christmas section, an Easter section and one that’s termed as “Redemption.” So parts I, II and III are separate parts. We’re performing Part I, plus the chorus from of Part II, which is the “Hallelujah” chorus, which is more than likely the most famous piece of choral orchestral music in all of history.

It’s one of the most important choral orchestral works in the repertory. It’s probably one of the most often performed works. We’ve, since I’ve been here, we have not done this piece, or really anything like this. So it’s a unique opportunity for the students at UW-Green Bay, as well as the community ensemble—which I also conduct, the Green Bay Symphony Choir—to come together and perform a work that requires the services of not only the singers, the soloists and also an orchestra. You need a big room to do this so it was something that we really felt was a good opportunity to take advantage of and perform in the Weidner Center where we’ll be having the program there.

The benefits are, it’s beautiful music. There’s a lot that people will recognize. Certainly choruses like “Hallelujah” and some of the solos people, I’m sure, will recognize. The music has been used for many, many years in advertising, so it’s really a part of our secular culture and as we get around to the holiday season, you’ll hear tunes from this all of the time.

TEXT
Handel’s Messiah
Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Weidner Center for the Performing Arts at UW-Green Bay
www.uwgb.edu/tickets
(800) 328-8587

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