FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Meg Whalen – (704) 714-5114
megw@charlottesymphony.org
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Director of Public Relations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 31, 2010
Oratorio Singers to Perform Rachmaninoff Vespers
Friday, May 7 @ 7:30 p.m.
Myers Park Baptist Church Sanctuary
Tickets: $10
704-972-2000
The Oratorio Singers of Charlotte will perform Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, Op. 37 in a special one-night-only concert at Myers Park Baptist Church on Friday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m. The beautiful a cappella work will be sung in the original Russian (Church Slavonic) language and conducted by Oratorio Singers Director Scott Allen Jarrett.
From the late 1800s until the Russian Revolution in 1917, several Russian composers took a particular interest in developing classical choral music that was uniquely Russian, using ancient and medieval chants from the Russian Orthodox Church as their source and inspiration. The best known of these works is Rachmaninoff's rich and mystical Vespers, Op. 37, based upon music from the sunset and sunrise Orthodox services. Rachmaninoff composed this music in 1915, on the eve of the Russian Revolution and political events that would lead to a decades-long ban on playing any kind of religious music in concert.
Tickets to the performance are just $10 and are available through the Charlotte Symphony Ticket Office, 704-972-2000, and at the door.
The 130-member Oratorio Singers of Charlotte, the official chorus of the Charlotte Symphony, was founded in 1952. Membership is by audition. For more information, visit www.charlottesymphony.org.
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