ARTICLE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HUDSON CHORALE – Mendelssohn’s Magnificent ELIJAH
The Hudson Chorale concludes its 6th season on May 14, 2016 at 7:30 PM with Felix
Mendelssohn’s stirring oratorio, Elijah, based on the story of the prophet in the Old
Testament. Complete with noted professional soloists and a full 35-piece orchestra, this
monumental work will be performed in English so that the audience can fully
appreciate the composer’s interpretation of the prose. Elijah has all the markings of a
box office blockbuster: a true god, a false god, a saintly prophet, an evil ruler, angels, a
temptress, miracles, tragedy, feuding tribes, Mother Nature behaving badly, and even a
chariot of fire in the last scene! Tickets for Elijah, which will be performed in the
spacious Irvington High/Middle School Auditorium, are available now at the Hudson
Chorale’s website at HudsonChorale.org.
This is the chorus’ second concert under the baton of Ira Spaulding, who was named
permanent Music Director of the Hudson Chorale after one semester as the group’s
interim. Spaulding, a professor of vocal and choral music at City University of New York,
brings to the Hudson Chorale a career of more than 35 years abroad as a singer,
conductor, music director, and teaching artist. In 2015, Spaulding had performances in
Beirut, Lebanon, Bangkok, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and in Holland where he lived for
more than 25 years.
Maestro Spaulding has assembled an outstanding ensemble of soloists for Elijah. They
include soprano Alexandra Razskazoff, a graduate of Julliard hailed last November by
the New York Times for her “richly faceted, slinky soprano,” a singer “with all the
makings of a great recitalist.” Jessica Kimple, mezzo-soprano, returns to the Hudson
Chorale, having sung the solos in January’s Durufle Requiem to great acclaim. Ms.
Kimple has sung at the Metropolitan Opera and the Dicapo Opera Theater. Tenor Nils
Neubert, a graduate of Columbia and Juilliard, performs regularly as a soloist at Trinity
Wall Street. A Bach specialist, he has performed the Mendelssohn repertoire as well.
The role of the Prophet will be sung by bass-baritone Aaron Theno who has performed
at Glimmerglass Opera and Portland Opera. Mr. Theno, a graduate of the Manhattan
School of Music, has won prizes in the Lotte Leyna Competition and the Lyrichoregra’s
International Czech Vocal Competition.
Mendelssohn, who himself considered Elijah his greatest achievement, had this to say
about its 1846 premiere: No work of mine went so admirably the first time of
execution, or was received with such enthusiasm by both the musicians and the
audience. Since Elijah was commissioned for the Birmingham Festival in England,
Mendelssohn decided to perform its premiere in English instead of his native German.
The task of translating it was given to English poet/composer William Bartholomew who
worked on the translation and assisted in making modifications to the text and the score
to achieve a unified result.
Mendelssohn, born in 1809, was a musical prodigy who became obsessed with
oratorios at a young age. The great baroque composers Bach and Handel were his
heroes, even though they produced their oratorios in the early part of the century prior
to his birth. At the age of 20, Mendelssohn was instrumental in bringing about renewed
interest in Bach by organizing and conducting a performance of Bach’s Matthäus
Passion (St. Matthew Passion). By age 27, he had already completed his first largescale biblical oratorio, Paulus (St. Paul), but Elijah was delayed for another 10 years
due to other obligations and a search for a story and text that appealed to his
sensibilities. Based on the success of that first performance and the strong appeal this
masterwork still holds for today’s audiences, it was well worth the wait.
There will only be one opportunity to hear Hudson Chorale’s performance of Elijah:
Saturday, May 14, 2016 at the Irvington Middle/High School, 40 North Broadway,
Irvington, NY, beginning at 7:30 pm. Handicap parking is available. Following the
concert, the audience is invited to an informal reception to meet and chat with the
conductor, soloists, orchestra and chorus members, a long-standing Hudson Chorale
tradition.
Ticket Prices: Advance Sales - $25; Door - $30; Students - $10. Tickets can be
purchased by calling (914) 462-3212 or on-line at www.HudsonChorale.org.