INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION for our "GREAT BRITTEN" CONCERT

Our concert of the music of Benjamin Britten this November has attracted notice on the website for the Britten Centennial. Here's the screenshot. The website includes a great deal of interesting information about the composer, as well as an exhaustive listing of celebratory performances this year and next throughout the world.

Tickets to our GREAT BRITTEN concert may be purchased from any chorus or orchestra member and will be available for purchase online shortly.

ANNOUNCING our 2013-2014 SEASON

The Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
David Katz, founding music director
Rebecca Patterson, chorus director
is pleased to announce our 2013-14 season of classical concerts.

Series Event: GREAT BRITTEN

Benjamin Britten

Celebrating the centenary of England's brilliant master, Benjamin Britten
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 7:30
Saint James Episcopal Cathedral, Wabash & Huron

CBA Chorus: Britten—Ceremony of Carols
Ben Melsky, harp soloist

Ben Melsky

CBASO: Britten—Sinfonia da Requiem

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THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED:
Series Event: MINIATURE MASTERPIECES 

Sara Su Jones

Sara Su Jones, violin, and Tatyana Stepanova, piano
with commentary by Dennis Moore of 98.7 WFMT
Sunday, January 26, 2014 at 5pm 

NOTE LOCATION: Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University
430 S Michigan Ave, 7th floor

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Series Event: HALF & HALF

Wednesday March 12, 2014 at 7:30
Saint James Episcopal Cathedral, Wabash & Huron

CBA Chorus:
presenting selections from its upcoming New York City tour, where it will join with the New York Bar Chorus. 

CBASO:
Berlioz—Roman Carnival Overture
Brahms—Variations on a Theme of Haydn (Saint Anthony)

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Series Event: THE HAPPIEST CONCERT on EARTH

 

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 7:30 

Saint James Episcopal Cathedral, Wabash & Huron

CBASO:
PDQ Bach—Unbegun Symphony

CBASO & Chorus, pianist Neil Posner
and winners of The American Prize Oratorio Award:
Beethoven—Choral Fantasy

Neil Posner

CBASO & Chorus, additional brass, winners of The American Prize Oratorio Award
with special audio effects by Jack Vishneski
Tchaikovsky—1812 Overture
in the version with chorus (sung in Russian)

The American Prize National Non-Profit Competitions in the Performing Arts

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Reduced price advanced purchase tickets go on sale later this month at:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/profile/80112

MUSIC for a SACRED SPACE: Wed, May 15th at 7:30 pm

PLEASE JOIN US for our season finale, MUSIC for a SACRED SPACE, featuring the Mozart "Jupiter" Symphony and Te Deums by Joseph Haydn and Anton Bruckner, the last featuring winners of The American Prize in Voice Chicago Oratorio Award. 

You can purchase tickets by clicking this link.

TIME to PARTY! and raise fund for a great cause...

Click here for tickets to the annual Barristers Big Band Benefit Ball.

AWARD-WINNING VOCAL SOLOISTS for May concert announced

The American Prize is pleased to announce the 2013 winners of the Chicago Oratorio Award. These four individuals will appear under the baton of Maestro David Katz in concert with the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, performing Bruckner's Te Deum on May 15, 2013 at St James Episcopal Cathedral, Chicago.

This is the second year that the CBASO has used TAP to help select its vocal soloists. You can read more about The American Prize, the national nonprofit competitions in the performing arts, by following this link.

Tickets for the concert may be purchased online here.

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CHICAGO ORATORIO AWARD WINNERS, 2013

Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano

Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano, performs frequently as soloist in the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany. In Chicago she has performed with Baroque Band, the Apollo Chorus, the Newberry Consort, Handel Week Festival, Fulcrum Point, Ars Musica and Music of the Baroque. From 2005 until 2007 Josefien was part of the Young Opera Ensemble of Cologne. Her operatic roles include Serpina (La Serva Padrona), Amor (Orfeo ed Euridice) and Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), and Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine. She sang Aci in the Haymarket Opera Company’s acclaimed premiere of Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo and Tirsi in Clori, Tirsi e Fileno. Recent engagements include Bach/Pergolesi Stabat Mater (with Camerata Amsterdam), Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Stabat Mater, Handel's La Resurrezione and Dixit Dominus (Baroque Band), the Faure Requiem with Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, and the world premiere of Jacob TV’s The News, a multi-media reality opera, in Pittsburgh. See also www.josefienstoppelenburg.com

Emily Marvosh, contralto

Emily Marvosh, contralto, is gaining recognition as a skilled performer of oratorio and opera, with a “flexible technique and ripe color,” and “smooth, apparently effortless vocal display.” She has recently appeared as a soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society, Opera Boston, Boston Lyric Opera, and Longwood Opera; she is also a frequent soloist with the Marsh Chapel Bach Cantata Series. Forays into new music include world premieres with Juventas New Music and Intermezzo Chamber Opera.  She is a founding member of the Lorelei Ensemble, promoting new music for women.  Of a recent Lorelei world premiere, one critic wrote, “Marvosh, whose stage presence was a joy to behold, offered a tone that had the velvety soulfulness of a cello…” Solo appearances in 2012-2013 include the Charlotte Symphony (Messiah), Handel and Haydn Society (Magnificat), Brookline Symphony (Sea Pictures), and the Chorus of Westerly (Mozart’s Requiem).  She holds degrees from Central Michigan University and Boston University.  www.emilymarvosh.com

Christian Ketter, tenor

Tenor, Christian Ketter returns in summer 2013 to Music By The Lake for a staged gala concert as Prince Karl Franz in Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince. This past year’s performances included tenor soloist in DuBois’ Les sept paroles du Christ and Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël; Willy Loman in Rizzer’s operatic adaptation of Death of a Salesman at the Chicago Cultural Center. In addition, Mr. Ketter was privileged this past year to be musically coached and staged by American composer Carlisle Floyd in a concert celebrating his operatic works. Mr. Ketter was an International Finalist in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition. 2012, National Winner of the American Prize in Opera; Shirley Rabb Winston Scholarships in Voice Grand Prize Winner; National Finalist in the Shreveport Opera Competition; Harold Haugh finalist-young artist award; 3rd National Finalist for Hal Leonard Vocal Competition. Mr. Ketter has studied under and sung in masterclasses with renowned artists: legendary stage director Tito Capobianco; soprano, Diana Soviero; baritone, Nathan Gunn; Maestro Enrique Patrón de Rueda; the Metropolitan Opera’s Joan Dornemann; film conductor David Friedman; Verdi Baritone Sherrill Milnes; and heldentenor Carl Lawrenz.

Conor Angell, baritone

Born and reared in Ireland, baritone Conor Angell recently completed his doctoral degree in voice at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. This fall, he joined the faculty of the Greatbatch School of Music, Houghton College, where he teaches voice and directs the lyric theater. With IU Opera Theater, he appeared in performances of A View from the Bridge, Il barbiere di Siviglia, The Tale of Lady Thi Kinh and Gianni Schicchi. Previously, Angell was a studio artist at Kentucky Opera, singing roles in Werther, Pirates of Penzance, Verdi’s Otello, Telemann's Don Quichotte and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. Other operatic credits include roles in Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, La bohème, Rigoletto, Susannah, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Madama Butterfly, and La vida breve. Angell has sung at the Opera North and Brevard Music Center summer festivals. He completed his master’s degree at UNC-Greensboro and his bachelor’s degree at Taylor University. Angell has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Indiana and North Carolina in oratorio and concert works.

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SUNDAY, APRIL 14th at 3:00 PM

SPRING SONG: A CHAMBER CONCERT
Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 3pm
St James Cathedral, Wabash @ Huron

Reduced price tickets online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/e/265265
Tickets at the door $15.

A concert of chamber music featuring small ensembles from the CBA Symphony and Chorus.
PROGRAM to INCLUDE:
Quintette Pour Instruments a Vent   Paul Taffanel

FAIR USE WOODWIND QUINTET
Judith Grubner, flute
Beth Lodal, oboe,
John Vishneski, clarinet
Michael McVickar, horn
Katherine Erwin, bassoon

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Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34   Sergei Prokofiev

THE WEST OAKLAND AVENUE CHAMBER PLAYERS
Tony Krempa, Violin I
Emily A. Chen, Violin II
Gregory Zinkl, Viola
Douglas Wilber, Cello
Shannon Shin, Clarinet
Jeffrey Masten, Piano

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Praeludium and Allegro   Fritz Kreisler
Alexandra Newman, violin
Neil Posner, piano

Fruhlingsblumen ("Spring Flowers")   Carl Reinecke
Sara Su Jones, voice
Alexandra Newman, violin
Neil Posner, piano

Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44   Robert Schumann
Movement 1: Allegro brillante
Sara Su Jones, violin
Alexandra Newman, violin
Madeleine Walsh, viola
Natasha White, cello
Neil Posner, piano

Five Concert Waltzes   Jack M. Jarrett
for one piano four hands
Janet Eckhardt and Suzanne Poulos

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"Lift Thine Eyes" (Elijah)   Mendelssohn
Allison Gans Ensemble

"Nigra sum"   Pablo Casals
Carole Hays Ensemble

"Il core vi dono" (Cosi Fan Tutte)   Mozart
Linda Westin and Dale Nichols

"Widmung"   Schumann
Tom Hazinski

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MUSIC FROM LINCOLN'S TIME
I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land   Dan D. Emmett
Lincoln's Funeral March   Charles Hess, arr. Joanne Burne.
Mary Todd Lincoln Polka   Francis Scala, arr. Michael D. Poulos, Esq.

"A very musical spring"—APRIL & MAY CONCERTS & EVENTS—tickets on sale now!

TICKETS for ANY and ALL: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/profile/80112

TICKETS ON SALE for our MARCH 6th CONCERT

FOLLOW THIS LINK TO PURCHASE TICKETS and scroll down to the concert title.

THIS WEEKEND in SPRINGFIELD the CBA Chorus and Orchestra present:

Sing Bruckner's TE DEUM in Chicago—Four $500 contracts

CHICAGO ORATORIO AWARD—deadline approaching

Four $500 prizes, one each for soprano, mezzo-soprano (alto), tenor, baritone (bass), will be awarded as performance fees to soloists selected to appear under the baton of Maestro David Katz in concert with the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, performing Bruckner's Te Deum on May 15, 2013 at St James Episcopal Cathedral, Chicago. (Dress rehearsal Tuesday evening, May 14, 2013, same location.)

This additional opportunity is offered as part of The American Prize in Vocal Performance / Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Awards national competition and is open to 2013 applicants in the professional and college/university categories, only.

Each winner will receive a $500 all-inclusive fee (no additional housing, travel or per diem), payment to be made on the day of the performance. Although the Chicago Oratorio Award is an additional contest open to all professional and college/university applicants for The American Prize in Vocal Performance, 2013, it is geared primarily to those who live within comfortable travel distance of Chicago and who can make their own housing arrangements.

Complete information, application forms and requirements: http://www.theamericanprize.org/vocalperf.html

Automatic postmark deadline extensions to Monday, February 25, 2013 are available to those email by that date with their intention to apply: theamericanprize@gmail.com

A vocal score to the Bruckner may downloaded here:
http://www.theamericanprize.org/opera.html
(see link, middle of the page)

Questions? theamericanprize@gmail.com

CARMINA finale on YouTUBE

We are very pleased to announce that the thrilling finale of Carl Orff's CARMINA BURANA, as performed by the CBASO & Chorus (and Friends) at Orchestra Hall, Chicago, has now been posted to YouTUBE, where participating musicians and other details may be found:

Click the link below and enjoy!
CBA Symphony and CBA Chorus CARMINA