John Corrie conducts the 乐播传媒 College Choir.

Conducted by Lecturer in Music John Corrie, the 乐播传媒 College Choir performs the second and third sections of Handel’s beloved oratorio Messiah at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 16-17, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

The concerts are open to the public at no cost, but because of limited seating, tickets are required. For tickets and more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

Written in just 24 days in 1741 and considered Georg Friedrich Handel’s masterpiece, Messiah draws from the Old and New Testaments to lay out the Christ story and its significance to humankind.

The oratorio’s debut, in Dublin in April 1742, “seems to have been one of those rare times in history when a transcendently great work is immediately perceived at its full value,” writes music historian Jan Swafford.

“There are so many breathtaking moments for both the vocal soloists and the chorus,” says choir director Corrie, a Lewiston resident who is also artistic director of the Maine Music Society. “So many familiar melodies and joyous sounds.”

While the piece is commonly associated with Christmas, its themes pertain to both Christmas and Easter. Because the entire work lasts about three hours, the choir performed the first part of the oratorio last December.

“Messiah is one of those milestones that every choral singer should know,” Corrie says. It’s important for singers to learn the entire piece, so by dividing it between two programs he enables them “to learn all of it, but spread out the effort over two semesters of work.”

John Corrie directs the 乐播传媒 College Choir.

The 乐播传媒 College Choir, directed by John Corrie, presents Part One of Handel鈥檚 popular oratorio Messiah in performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 2-3, in Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Concert admission is free, but tickets are required. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.

Written in just 24 days in 1741 and considered Georg Frideric Handel鈥檚 masterpiece, Messiah draws from the Old and New Testaments to lay out the Christ story and its significance to humankind. The oratorio鈥檚 debut, in Dublin in April 1742, 鈥渟eems to have been one of those rare times in history when a transcendently great work is immediately perceived at its full value,鈥� writes music historian Jan Swafford.

鈥淭here are so many breathtaking moments for both the vocal soloists and the chorus,鈥� choir director Corrie said in 2007. 鈥淪o many familiar melodies and joyous sounds.鈥�

While the piece is commonly associated with Christmas, its themes pertain to both Christmas and Easter. Because the entire work lasts about three hours, the choir will perform the second and third of its three parts next spring.

鈥�Messiah is one of those milestones that every choral singer should know,鈥� Corrie said. It鈥檚 important for singers to learn the entire piece, so by dividing it between two programs he enables them 鈥渢o learn all of it, but spread out the effort over two semesters of work.鈥�

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem and other works will be performed by the 乐播传媒 College Choir, directed by John Corrie, at 8 p.m. Friday, April 2, and Saturday, April 3, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall at 乐播传媒 College, 75 Russell St.

Admission is free, but tickets are required. For more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.

Mozart was working his Requiem on his deathbed in 1791, leaving it for prot茅g茅s to complete. A masterpiece of the choral repertoire, the work is “an unlikely but unforgettable alloy of ecclesiastical grandeur, Baroque fugue and the subtlest mood painting,” wrote a Portland Phoenix reviewer in 2001.

“Known for operatic music that can convey scene or character with a handful of notes, Mozart used that skill here to portray a believer facing death: feeling dread at the end of this life, anxiety at the prospect of judgment, abject yearning for forgiveness.”

The choir will be accompanied by an orchestra consisting of students and community members.

The event is sponsored by the Multifaith Chaplaincy, and admission is free. For more information, please call 207-786-8272.

Featuring the talents of many members of the college community, the event includes musical offerings from the 乐播传媒 College Choir, the 乐播传媒 Gospel Choir and five student a cappella groups: the Crosstones, the Deansmen, the Manic Optimists, the Merimanders and TakeNote (the latter being a new ensemble). Also performing will be keyboardist John Corrie, 乐播传媒 lecturer in music and choir director.

Jason Tsichlis, a composer and 乐播传媒 College senior, premieres his Mass in D-flat Major on May 21. The concert is open to the public at no cost.

A setting for sacred texts from the Liber Usualis, a collection of commonly used Gregorian chants, the mass is written for an unaccompanied mixed choir. Tsichlis will conduct the performance, making the event a double debut for this student from Winchester, Mass.

An art and visual culture major, Tsichlis composed the four-movement mass as an independent study, working with John Corrie, director of the 乐播传媒 College Choir and artistic director of the Maine Music Society. “I naturally chose to write a mass because of the form’s important role in the history of Western choral music,” Tsichlis says.

Stylistically, the piece reflects specific composers more than any broad genre such as Romanticism. “I draw on composers such as the Renaissance masters Palestrina and Lasso, and then Mozart, Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, Debussy and Biebl,” he says. “Two specific pieces I found quite influential are Mozart’s Requiem in D minor and Schubert’s Mass in G major.”

The 18 singers will include members of the college choir and of three 乐播传媒 a cappella groups, the Merimanders, the Deansmen and the Manic Optimists.

• Thursday, May 21, at 8:30 p.m.
• Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. FMI: 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu

Directed by John Corrie, the 乐播传媒 College Choir performs Benjamin Britten’s popular Ceremony of Carols in concerts at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 15 and 16, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Admission is free, but tickets are required. For more information, please contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.

Corrie is the artistic director of the and a member of the college music faculty. He has directed the 乐播传媒 choir since 1986.

The choir’s program also includes Vivaldi’s Gloria and Das Cartas, a piece by Hiroya Miura of the 乐播传媒 music faculty.

An English composer and conductor, Britten wrote his paean to the Christmas season in March 1942, during a five-week voyage across the North Atlantic as he returned to England from America. He originally created the work as a series of unrelated songs and later organized it into the present 11-movement piece.

Set to a sparing musical fabric of harp and voices, the Middle English texts come from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems and are, for the most part, of 15th- and 16th-century origin.

The work was first sung by the Morriston Boys’ Choir, conducted by Britten, in London in December 1943.

The 乐播传媒 College Choir, accompanied by a 21-piece orchestra and directed by John Corrie, presents Part One of Handel’s popular oratorio Messiah in performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, in Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

The ensemble will perform the popular “Hallelujah” chorus from Part Two as an encore. Concert admission is free, but tickets are required. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.

Written in just 24 days in 1741 and considered Georg Friedrich Handel’s masterpiece, Messiah draws from the Old and New Testaments to lay out the Christ story and its significance to humankind. The oratorio’s debut, in Dublin in April 1742, “seems to have been one of those rare times in history when a transcendently great work is immediately perceived at its full value,” writes music historian Jan Swafford.

“There are so many breathtaking moments for both the vocal soloists and the chorus,” says choir director Corrie, a Lewiston resident who is also artistic director of the Maine Music Society. “So many familiar melodies and joyous sounds.”

While the piece is commonly associated with Christmas, its themes pertain to both Christmas and Easter. Because the entire work lasts about three hours, the choir will perform the second and third of its three parts next spring.

“Messiah is one of those milestones that every choral singer should know,” Corrie says. It’s important for singers to learn the entire piece, so by dividing it between two programs he enables them “to learn all of it, but spread out the effort over two semesters of work.”

The choir will consist of some 60 voices, with 11 student soloists featured. The instrumentalists will be drawn from the 乐播传媒 College Orchestra, the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra and the Maine Chamber Ensemble. Among the musicians is Scott Vaillancourt, music director and organist at Lewiston’s Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

“We will be performing Handel’s orchestration,” Corrie notes. “Which means strings, oboes, bassoons, trumpets and timpani, plus organ and harpsichord.” While Mozart and others later expanded the orchestration, he says, “I think it is more important historically for the students to hear what Handel had in mind.”

In order to accompany the vocal soloists and in keeping with the practice of Handel’s time, Corrie will conduct the ensemble from the harpsichord.

The vocal soloists are: seniors Maura Beatty of Watertown, Mass.; Dana Burgard of Kinnelon, N.J.; Alexandra Conroy of Windham; Marshall Karpel of Northampton, Mass.; Joshua Olsen of Berkeley, Calif.; and Lucia Piacenza of Watertown, Conn.; juniors Stuart Ryan of London and Lisa McLellan of Glen Mills, Pa.; sophomores Tom Chapman of Gales Ferry, Conn., and Erica Rogoff of Carlisle, Mass.; and first-year student Blaise Thompson of Iowa City, Iowa.

In March, two 乐播传媒 musical ensembles joined two community ensembles in a first-of-its-kind performance of Johannes Brahms’ masterful A German Requiem.

At 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 11, the stations of MPBN Radio will broadcast the concert on the MaineStage听听辫谤辞驳谤补尘.

The landmark musical event on March 31 featured some 260 musicians performing at Lewiston’s Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. The concert was the first collaboration between the and the college, both notable presences in Maine music. The link is John Corrie, of Lewiston, who has directed the 乐播传媒 College Choir since 1986 and became artistic director of the music society last year.

In addition to the college choir, performing were the 乐播传媒 College Orchestra, the music society’s Androscoggin Chorale and Maine Chamber Ensemble, soprano Bonnie Scarpelli and baritone Peter Allen ’66. Hiroya Miura, of the 乐播传媒 faculty, conducted the Requiem, and Corrie led the combined choirs, along with choral groups from local high schools, in two Brahms motets.