Highlights of Silver Anniversary Season XXV!
Anniversaries have always been both happy and emotional for me. And quite obviously, VoxAmaDeus turning 25 will be major for both categories! It has been an amazing journey - from that frosty December 5, 1987, at Daylesford Abbey, when 12 singers draped in rented Renaissance costumes made their debut performance under my baton - to the 100+ choristers, soloists and orchestra performing Fauré, Stravinsky & Gershwin at the Kimmel Center last Good Friday, April 22, 2011, as part of PIFA (Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts).
Not to mention that the first concert season ('87-'88) consisted of three performances, all at Daylesford Abbey and all by one group (Vox Renaissance Consort) - and next season will have 23 performances by four Vox groups (Vox Renaissance Consort, Ama Deus Ensemble, Camerata Ama Deus, plus the newest one, Camerata Consort!) and "yours truly" on the keys!
Also, when we started, Reagan was the United States President; Ceausescu still ruled my native Romania with an iron fist; the Soviet Union was led by Mikhail Gorbachev; email, cell phones, iPhones, iPads, iTunes, mp3s, etc., did not exist and many of us were still young and foolish!! Scary, isn't it? But leaving all the nostalgia behind and looking forward to next season, I am delighted to entice you with a few highlights of Season XXV:
To start the season, we return on Friday, September 16 (8pm) - after a seven-year hiatus - to the majestic acoustics of the Cathedral-Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul on Logan Square in Philadelphia (Angelus with Vox Renaissance Consort) in an exalting program of Renaissance masters, for voices and instruments.
Next, on Friday, October 14 (8pm), the first of five magnificent concerts at the Kimmel Center roars off the runway with an all-Mozart program that brings two new works - never performed before by Ama Deus Ensemble: the D Major Flute Concerto (soloist Ed Schultz) and the A Major Piano Concerto No. 23 ("yours truly" on the Steinway keys and baton!), plus Mozart's final work (left unfinished due to his untimely death), his one and only Requiem. For this we have reassembled the golden quartet of soloists who appear on our 2006 critically acclaimed CD recording (including Andrea Brown, who is coming from Germany especially for this performance!)
Two days later, on Sunday, October 16 (1pm), I will perform an extraordinary recital using all of the 10,000 pipes of the newly restored grand Aeolian organ in the opulent Ball Room at Longwood Gardens! An historic revival! Very cool!
 |
| Longwood organ console |
In December we will present three performances each weekend (3 x 3 = 9 concerts!!), starting with the traditional Renaissance Noëls [Vox Renaissance Consort, December 2,3,4], then 5 (that is five!) glorious Messiahs [Ama Deus Ensemble, December 9, 10, 11, 17, 18] (including a new location this year at Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill!), and also the Yuletide concert debut (at the Kimmel Center, December 16, 8pm) of VoxAmaDeus' newest group, Camerata Consort! Camerata Consort is a blend of two distinct, existing ensembles: Vox Renaissance Consort and Camerata Ama Deus (chamber orchestra)! An inventive merger - complete with period costumes, Baroque instruments, dueling harpsichords & "live notes"! Don't miss it!
And on a personal note - the day after conducting the fifth and final Ama Deus Ensemble Messiah of 2011, I will board a British Airlines jet to my native Romania, where I will conduct the Bucharest Philharmonic chorus and orchestra in two more Messiah concerts (with Andrea Brown making her exciting debut there in the Bucharest Philharmonic Hall - called the Romanian Athenaeum - where I grew up performing hundreds of concerts, first as a pianist, then as organist and later as conductor!)
On Friday, January 6 (8pm), at the Kimmel Center, the New Year 2012 is welcomed with a specially commissioned concert, stepping outside of our traditional programming: an extraordinary all-Gershwin Gala, featuring the amazing, critically acclaimed British pianist Peter Donohoe, who will dazzle us in three of Gershwin's most celebrated piano-orchestra masterworks: the Concerto in F, the Variations on "I Got Rhythm" and the famous Rhapsody in Blue! And to close that unique and exceptional evening - and by popular demand - Kevin Deas and Julie-Ann Green will return as Porgy and Bess! Wow!
Next, another first in Vox's programming occurs during the last weekend of January (Friday & Sunday, January 27 & 29), when the traditional single Candlemas concert (at Daylesford Abbey) will be doubled (adding a performance at Old St. Joseph's Church in Olde City Philadelphia) and will showcase Vox Renaissance Consort with period instruments (including organ interludes at Daylesford Abbey!)
The spring season features an array of amazing concerts!
Camerata Ama Deus (on Baroque instruments) appears in two different programs: the first (March 2 & 4) will feature a variety of Baroque Masters and will include "yours truly" playing in two Handel organ concerti, as well as conducting; and our Associate Music Director, Bronwyn Fix-Keller soloing in the Bach F minor Harpsichord Concerto!
The second set (June 1 & 3) will be dedicated to the famous and infamous "red priest", Antonio Vivaldi, in a fireworks display of various solo, double and triple concerti (featuring violins, trumpet, oboe and recorder!). What a grand finale for an even grander Silver Anniversary Season!
But wait! Before that grandiose Venetian end to the season, Bach will return to celebrate his annual Birthday Gala (Sunday, March 18) in the intimate setting of the "Chapel-in-the-woods" of Gladwyne Presbyterian Church; and Ama Deus Ensemble will display plenty of firepower in two Friday night (8 pm) performances at the Kimmel Center: on Good Friday (April 6) with Verdi's Requiem, and on Friday of Mother's Day weekend (May 11), when Papa Beethoven returns with his famous Ninth Symphony, preceded by (another first in Vox's programs) the Viennese Grand Master's only Violin Concerto, brought to life by our one and only Concertmaster Thomas DiSarlo! Come one, come all and celebrate with us!
Meanwhile - in the calm of the summer, before the "storm begins - do have a great and enjoyable July and August. God bless.
BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!
