{ Program Notes
of the Doctor in Berg’s Wozzeck with the
English National Opera in a new production and praised for his “massive vocal
presence.” Recent concert performances
have included Hans Sachs’s monologues
from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and
the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in
Rossini’s rarely-heard Moïse et Pharaon in
the title role of Moïse with the Collegiate
Chorale at Carnegie Hall.
Born and educated in Baltimore, Md.,
James Morris studied at the Peabody Conservatory and studied with Rosa Ponselle.
He continued his education at the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts where he
studied with basso Nicola Moscona.
James Morris last appeared in concert
with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
in December 1967, when he sang Messiah
conducted by Elyakum Shapira.
Baltimore Choral Arts Society
The Baltimore Choral Arts Society,
now in its 48th season, is one of Maryland’s premier cultural institutions.
The Symphonic Chorus, Full Chorus, Orchestra and Chamber Chorus
perform throughout the mid-Atlantic
region, as well as in Washington, D.C.,
New York and Europe.
For the past 17 years, WMAR Television has featured Choral Arts in an hourlong special, Christmas with Choral Arts,
which won an Emmy Award in 2006.
Music Director Tom Hall and the chorus
were also featured in a PBS documentary called Jews and Christians: A Journey
of Faith, broadcast nationwide and on
National Public Radio in 2001. On local
radio, Mr. Hall is the host of “Choral Arts
Classics,” a monthly program on WYPR
that features the Choral Arts Chorus and
Orchestra, and he is the Culture Editor
Baltimore Choral
Arts Society
32 O v ertur e |
www. bsomusic .org
on WYPR’s “Maryland Morning with
Sheilah Kast.”
Choral Arts has appeared with the National Symphony, and has made regular
appearances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Acclaimed artists collaborating with Choral Arts have included
Chanticleer, Dave Brubeck, the King’s
Singers, Peter Schickele, Sweet Honey in
the Rock and Anonymous 4.
Tom Hall is one of the most highly regarded performers in choral music today.
Appointed music director in 1982, Hall
has added more than 100 new works to
the BCAS repertoire, and he has premiered works by contemporary composers
including Peter Schickele, Libby Larsen,
Robert Sirota, James Lee, III, Rosephanye
Dunn Powell and many other internationally acclaimed composers.
Hall is also active as a guest conductor
in the U.S. and Europe, including appearances with the Handel and Haydn Society
in Boston, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the Berkshire Choral Festival,
Musica Sacra in New York and Britten
Sinfonia in Canterbury, England. Mr.
Hall has prepared choruses for Leonard
Bernstein, Robert Shaw, Helmuth Rilling
and others, and he served as the Chorus
Master of the Baltimore Opera Company
for 10 years.
BCAS last appeared with the BSO in
June 2014, performing Mendelssohn’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Music
Director Marin Alsop conducting.
The Peabody
Children’s Chorus
The Peabody Children's Chorus, founded
in 1989, is dedicated to providing age-appropriate vocal training for young people.
The Chorus brings children together to
rehearse and perform art and folk music of
multiple cultures, languages, historical periods and styles. In six ensembles rehearsing in Towson or Columbia, Md., young
people gain invaluable experience making
music in ensemble settings, and studying
ear-training and music-reading.
Four hundred children between the
ages of six and 18 participate each year in
The Peabody
Children’s Chorus
three levels of training, rehearsing high
quality treble music of advancing challenge and sophistication, and performing
in public concert at least twice a year.
The Peabody Children’s Chorus has
performed with the Baltimore Chamber
Orchestra, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra,
Concert Artists of Baltimore, Lyric Opera
Baltimore, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony
Orchestra, the Morgan State University
Choir, Peabody Conservatory’s Opera
Theater, and the Peabody Symphony
Orchestra. During the 2009/10 season
the Chorus performed in the Somerset
International Youth Choral Festival in
England and celebrated the release of the
Naxos American Classics Grammy-nominated recording of Bernstein’s Mass, upon
which it collaborated with the Baltimore
Symphony Orchestra under the baton of
Maestra Marin Alsop. In 2011, the chorus
performed at the Vatican, Rome and in
St. Mark's Cathedral, Venice and with
the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in
Carnegie Hall. In the summer of 2013,
the Chorus was featured in the Dimanches Musicaux de La Madeleine Concert
Series, Paris, performed at the American
Cemetery in Normandy, and sang mass in
Notre Dame Cathedral.
Peabody Children’s Chorus last appeared with the BSO in November 2013,
performing Britten’s War Requiem, with
Music Director Marin Alsop conducting.
About the concert:
On the Transmigration of Souls
John Adams
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, February 15,
1947; now living in Berkeley, California
When the New York Philharmonic approached John Adams in January 2002