Monumental. Bracing. Powerful. Led by Artistic Director Eugene Rogers, TWC earns critical acclaim with World Premiere collaboration.

135 choral singers from three top tier choirs. 85 extraordinary orchestral musicians. Four star vocal soloists. One chorus master, one conductor, and two landmark live performances.

With one game-changing world premiere new work by one of our country’s most accomplished living composers, Adolphus Hailstork.

Composed by Mr. Hailstork on an evocative and penetrating text by Herbert Martin, The Washington Chorus joined voices with singers from the National Philharmonic Chorale and Howard University led as chorus-master by TWC’s own Artistic Director Eugene Rogers, and the National Philharmonic orchestra under music director and conductor Piotr Gajewski to bring Hailstork and Martin’s new work “A Knee on the Neck” to life in two performances for enthusiastic audiences, March 26 and 28, 2022 at the Music Center at Strathmore and Capital One Concert Hall, alongside the ineffably beautiful Mozart Requiem.

And the audience and critical response to these concerts, and the collaborative forces assembled to bring this music to life, was tremendous: critics hailed the collaborative performance of these works as “bracing,” “powerful,” and “monumental.”

“Hailstork and Martin have created a requiem that feels alive and has only just taken its first breaths. It has something to say about the immensity and intimacy of pain — and we owe one another as Americans to listen,” wrote Washington Post chief classical music critic, Michael Andor Brodeur, in a lengthy and laudatory review of the concert.
“The massive gathering of choral singers onstage — 135 in all — was, first and foremost, a welcome sight and sound. It’s been years since I’ve been enveloped by the voices of a chorus this large. Good stuff,” Brodeur continued.
“But the visual of this assembly had additional value in driving home the colossal emotional scale of this piece, which combines the intimacy of a church service with the ecstasy of a revelation. Maestro Piotr Gajewski and chorus master Eugene Rogers (also artistic director of the Washington Chorus) admirably managed the onstage masses, attaining throughout the evening a well-balanced sound — music fraught with gravitas and lightened by grace.”

In its first live and in person performance season under Artistic Director Eugene Rogers – a 2017 Sphinx Medal of Honor awardee who also serves as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Michigan and Artistic Director of EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble of the Sphinx organization – The Washington Chorus is blazing a creative trail in the Washington, DC regional community, welcoming audiences to experience the joy of discovery with music that enlightens, questions, and brings people together.

“Our TWC collaboration with the National Philharmonic and friends on the Hailstork and Mozart program is very much an expression of who we are as an organization and where we’re headed,” says TWC Executive Director Stephen Beaudoin. “With the ever-energizing leadership of our Artistic Director Eugene Rogers now in his first full live and in-person season, our growing audience can experience the full range of human emotions and the chance to connect with themselves and others through discovering dynamic new stories and sounds. We are grateful to have helped bring ‘A Knee on the Neck’ to its world premiere with such auspicious artistic collaborators and look forward to discovering unique intersections with our June 12 ‘Justice & Peace’ concert at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall for full chorus and orchestra in music of Damien Geter, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Roshanne Etezady, with Eugene on the podium.”

“The significance of Adolphus Hailstork‘s ‘A Knee on The Neck’ required all artistic hands on deck in order to lift the project up in the most authentic way,” says National Philharmonic President Jim Kelly. “With our organizational values completely aligned with our friends at The Washington Chorus, we are grateful for this collaboration. I knew early on that TWC Artistic Director Eugene Rogers and The Washington Chorus was absolutely the best choice in an artistic partner and collaborator. NatPhil‘s Music Director Piotr Gajewski met all of the demands of this work along with Eugene as they elevated its intent and purpose for the entire community to hear.”