Under the leadership of Conductor Laureate Thomas O’Connor, the Pro Musica Orchestra is joined by Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico and soprano Sherezade Panthaki, alto Meg Bragle, tenor Thomas Cooley, and bass-baritone Douglas Williams in presenting Mozart’s final masterpiece, his Requiem. Composer Joseph Haydn (1731–1809) praised Mozart's dramatic and expressive range in this piece, remarking that had Mozart “written nothing else but his string quartets and his Requiem, this alone would have made him immortal.” These 75-minute concerts begin with Anna Clyne’s poignant Within Her Arms, a tribute to her late mother.
Arrive one hour before each concert to explore the music with KHFM’s Brent Stevens and Conductor Laureate Thomas O’Connor. Included with ticket purchase.
photo: Christina Kernohan
Women of Distinction Initiative Santa Fe Pro Musica presents the music of Anna Clyne as part of their Women of Distinction Initiative that features women engaged in various facets of the classical music industry.
PROGRAM
ANNA CLYNE Within Her Arms
MOZART Requiem, K. 626 (completed and edited by Robert D. Levin)
TICKETS: $25–$65
Tickets available through the Pro Musica Box Office at 505.988.4640 X 1000 or online at https://tickets.sfpromusica.org/8647
RELATED EVENT: Lecture, Thursday, April 18 at 10 am | St. John’s United Methodist Church
RENESAN Institute for Lifelong Learning hosts Pro Musica Conductor Laureate Thomas O’Connor in a conversation about Mozart’s Requiem, a masterpiece shrouded in mystery. Registration and fee required through RENESAN at the link below. https://reg135.imperisoft.com/renesan/ProgramDetail/3331373136/Registration.aspx
ARTISTS:
photo: Fernanda Monteiro
Meg Bragle, alto, is Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and directs the Collegium Musicum, Opera and Musical Theater workshops. A leading interpreter of baroque and classical repertoire, Ms. Bragle has appeared with many orchestras across North America, including the Philadelphia, Houston, Seattle, Toronto, Atlanta, National, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Colorado symphonies, the National Arts Center Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, and Calgary Philharmonic, among others. She is also an accomplished recording artist with over a dozen recordings to her credit. "Bragle sang beautifully—she has a supple, expressive voice and an exceptionally intelligent musicality” (Theaterscene.net).
photo: Paul Foster-Williams
Thomas Cooley, tenor, is praised by The New York Times as a “sweet, penetrating lyric tenor with aching sensitivity” and by the San Francisco Classical Voice as “an indomitable musical force.” Especially acclaimed for his agility and skill in baroque music, he is in demand as an interpreter of the works of Bach and Handel. He has sung internationally in recitals, opera, the symphonies of Atlanta, St. Louis, National, Minnesota, the chamber orchestras of St. Paul and Los Angeles, and with ensembles from Quebec to Copenhagen, Bavaria, Leipzig, and Osaka.
photo: Anne Staveley
Thomas O’Connor, Conductor Laureate, is co-founder, interim executive director, and former principal oboist of Santa Fe Pro Musica. Originally from Los Alamos, he studied at the University of New Mexico and the Kansas City Conservatory of Music before moving to Santa Fe to play for 15 summers with the opera orchestra. He has also performed with American Bach Soloists and Philharmonia Baroque (San Francisco), Boston Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society, Oregon Bach Festival, Oregon Festival of American Music, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Smithsonian Chamber Players (sharing with them a GRAMMY nomination), and many others.
photo: David Fung
Sherezade Panthaki, soprano, is originally from India. She formerly taught at the Yale School of Music, and is currently head of the vocal program at Mount Holyoke College. She has an international career with a specialty in early music and oratorio performances, and has performed with the philharmonics of New York and Los Angeles, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), Bach Collegium Japan, Wiener Akademie (Austria), Hannover Radiophilharmonie (Germany), Boston Early Music Festival, Tafelmusik (Canada), and others. “Soprano Panthaki had breathtaking technique in her melismatic sections and her voice soared in its upper range (Toronto Concert Reviews).
photo: Florian Grey
Douglas Williams, bass-baritone, has developed a strong presence in Europe, including performances with the Berlin and Munich philharmonics, L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Dutch National Opera, Salzburg Mozarteum, and recordings with Deutsche Grammophon. In the U.S. he has performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group at Lincoln Center, with the symphonies and orchestras of the National, Nashville, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Detroit, and Houston, at the Grant Park and Tanglewood music festivals, and at the Guggenheim Museum, among others. Originally from Connecticut, Williams trained at the New England Conservatory and the Yale School of Music.
photo: Jason Collins
Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico
Under the artistic leadership of Maxine Thévenot, Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico is a professional choral ensemble of highly trained vocal artists who reside in New Mexico. Founded in 2007, the Albuquerque-based ensemble is committed to performing not only the great works of the past, both sacred and secular, but also works by contemporary American and Latinx composers. They perform the full-spectrum of choral music, from a cappella to large-scale orchestral-choral works, and have collaborated with New Mexico’s finest orchestras, including Santa Fe Pro Musica, the New Mexico Philharmonic, and Performance Santa Fe.