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Letter from Julian WachnerDear Friends, As the new Music Director of The Washington Chorus, it’s with great pleasure that I introduce our exciting 08-09 concert season and series of special events!! The season’s offerings span from Bach’s monumental and encyclopedic Mass in B Minor and Verdi’s epic and stirring Requiem, through one of the 20th century’s great masterworks of the Russian Orthodox church: Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil – the Vespers. These masterworks are all personal favorites of mine, and it is particularly exciting to be able to share my vision and interpretation of these well known works with my new musical family, and with you – our friends and audience. We hope you’ll be able to join us this season.
In December, The Washington Chorus creates a new collaboration with Washington’s only Latino Chorus, Coral Cantigas, for a stunning celebratory series of Christmas Concerts. Featuring carols and songs from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba and Brazil - we’ll also be performing your well-loved favorites along with a few new splashy carol “sing-alongs” for brass and percussion. With our Side-by-Side High School choir joining in as well, it’s sure to be a fantastic party this December with The Washington Chorus!
An additional twist this season is the inauguration of a new program at the Atlas Theater in the vibrant H Street corridor: New Music for a New Age. This “downtown” series will feature the work of a single living composer. Exploring both choral and instrumental music, this year’s featured composer is award winning Trevor Weston and will feature Ashes, a work commissioned to commemorate the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and Ma’at Musings for chorus and percussion, based upon ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic death poetry. Rounding out the program will be an eclectic collection of Trevor’s chamber music. This is a fascinating young American composer, and his work has a unique and sophisticated musical voice. Finally, in the tradition of one of America’s greatest musical pioneers, Robert Shaw, The Washington Chorus is sponsoring two symposium weekends which will give audience members additional insight into the musicological and theoretical underpinnings of our season’s two core masterworks: the Mass in B Minor and Verdi’s Requiem. In addition to a lecture and master-class offering – we will also be presenting an annotated open rehearsal with the entire chorus and soloists. This is a wonderful way to get inside the score and to discover our creative process. Come and enjoy the classics, and join us as we discover new territory!
Julian Wachner, Music Director
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