New Choral Society – Messiah Part I

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

More Information:

Erica Kelly

(914)725-1678

Erica@newchoralsociety.org

New Choral Society kicks off the holiday season with “Messiah Part I” featuring an all-star cast on December 3 and 5, 2021

The New Choral Society, under the direction of Dr. John T. King kicks off the holiday season with the beloved holiday favorite, Händel’s Messiah on Friday, December 3 at 8pm and Sunday, December 5 at 3pm. Both performances will take place at the acoustically beautiful sanctuary of Hitchcock Presbyterian Church in Scarsdale.

The 48-member award-winning chorus has become known throughout the tri-state area for its outstanding musical accomplishments, presenting choral masterworks for the past 28 years. Accompanying the chorus will be the professional orchestra that has played with the New Choral Society for 28 seasons and is made up of players from some of the finest orchestras in New York City and surrounds, including the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s and some of the best of Broadway.

The vocal soloists are a quartet of bright, accomplished young stars from the world of opera, Kathryn Lewek, soprano; Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano; Zach Borichevsky, tenor; and Will Liverman, baritone. All of these singers except Mr. Liverman participated in last season’s Virtual Messiah and are excited to return to perform for a live audience.

Soprano Kathryn Lewek has established herself as one of opera’s most thrilling coloratura sopranos of this generation, performing some of the most vocally challenging roles in the repertoire, joining the top-ranking operatic performers of all time.  Ms. Lewek’s interpretation of her signature role, a quintessential Mozart villain, has labelled her the current reigning Queen of the Night of the world, with over 250 performances to date, and has garnered international critical acclaim. Following her “especially brilliant” début as Ginevra in Ariodante with the Salzburger Pfingstfestspiele  in Austria where Ms. Lewek “perform[ed] a miracle” and thrilled audiences with “a rich (and richly differentiated) soprano voice [that] has not been experienced for a long time” she returned last summer in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Orphée aux Enfers “ravishingly” singing the “the raunchy, full-throttle” role of Eurydice, once again wowing critics and audiences alike for her versatility as a performer and prompting Opera Wire to exclaim her Artist of the Week and a 5 page spread in Salzburg’s official festival magazine. Ms. Lewek appears by courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford recently appeared at the Dallas Symphony in performances of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Fabio Luisi. Her future plans include returns to the Metropolitan Opera and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Mumford made her debut there as Laura in Luisa Miller, and has since appeared in more than 140 performances with the company, some of which include the Pilgrim in the new production of Kajia Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, Smeaton in the new production of Anna Bolena, and in productions of Rigoletto, Ariadne auf Naxos,  Il Trittico, Parsifal, Idomeneo, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nixon in China, The Queen of Spades,  the complete Ring Cycle, The Magic Flute, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Wozzeck.

Tenor Zach Borichevsky is “equipped with a flexible, bright voice that already has made him one of the most sought-after singers of his generation.” Mr. Borichevsky is known as a “star-level tenor” with a “precise, nuanced high-register singing and agile acting” paired with a “magical sense of complete spontaneity that comes from being in total command of the instrument.” He has created widely celebrated international performances in roles such as Rodolfo in La bohème with Finnish National Opera, Romeo in Roméo et Juliette for Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile, and Alfredo in La traviata for the Glyndebourne Festival.  He joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago to cover the title role in their production of Faust and sang his first Narraboth in Salome with the Spoleto Festival, USA.  He also performed Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus for Palm Beach Opera, reprised the role of Alfredo in La Traviata for Opera Grand Rapids, and sang the tenor solo in Verdi’s Requiem for the National Philharmonic at the Kennedy Center.

Called “a voice for this historic moment” (The Washington Post), baritone Will Liverman continues to bring his compelling performances to audiences nationwide. He recently starred in the Metropolitan Opera’s reopening production of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, in addition to reprising his roles in Akhnaten (Horemhab) and The Magic Flute (Papageno) during the Met’s 2021-2022 season. His new opera The Factotum, written together with DJ/recording artist K. Rico, was workshopped by the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Ryan Opera Center in winter 2020. The Factotum, inspired by Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, takes place in a present-day Black barbershop in Chicago and combines operatic singing with hip-hop, barbershop, gospel, funk, neo soul, and R&B music. Mr. Liverman appears by courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Hitchcock Presbyterian Church is located at 6 Greenacres Avenue in Scarsdale, and is wheelchair accessible, has free parking all around the building and boasts a sanctuary, used for concerts, that is acoustically renowned in the area.

Tickets for the single performance are available in three categories: Preferred Seating – $30; General Admission – $25; and a discounted General Admission ticket for Seniors and Students – $20. For those that are unable to join in person, a virtual ticket is available for $25 to stream for one month starting the Wednesday following the performance. To purchase tickets, please visit www.newchoralsociety.org or call the office at (914)725-1678.

This concert is made possible, in part, by the Westchester Community Foundation, a division of The New York Community Trust. Westchester Community Foundation’s mission is to connect generous people to the causes they care about and invest in transformative ideas and organizations to improve lives and strengthen our community. WCF is a division of The New York Community Trust, one of the largest community foundations in the country, with assets of approximately $2.6 billion.

This concert is also supported with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by ArtsWestchester.

About New Choral Society

The New Choral Society is a professional level community chorus, all auditioned, who perform in Scarsdale, NY. They present three concert programs each season – December through May – with an emphasis on classical choral repertoire. All programs are accompanied by professional orchestra and feature world renowned soloists. Now in their 23rd season, the New Choral Society has been the recipient of The Arts Westchester Arts Award (2014) and numerous grants.. In addition to their choral concert season, the group features their outstanding chamber orchestra in one concert each January, presenting some of the best known chamber music repertoire as well as new compositions by some of their professional musicians. Office hours: Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.