Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799)
Edward Higginbottom
Kimwana Doner
Ginger Jones-Robinson
January 29, 2015 Charleston SC
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The Charleston Symphony Orchestra (CSO) Spiritual Ensemble, under the direction of guest conductor Edward Higginbottom, a leading British choral conductor, organist, and scholar,
will performs the complete Mozart
Requiem Saturday, February 28, 2015, 6:00pm at St. Philips Episcopal Church, 142 Church Street, Charleston.
Celebrating African-American History Month (February), this
Requiem performance honors Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, an early 18th
century black composer and contemporary of Mozart. The performance aims
to shine light on the illustrious history and musical story of the
world’s earliest black composers’
contribution to the classical music canon.
“The genesis for the inspiration in creating the
Colour of Music Festival was the introduction of St. Georges to Charleston audiences. His legacy is fitting as we honor
Black History Month. We are most privileged to return to St.
Philips under the baton of an internationally-known scholar and
conductor to perform this masterwork,” says Lee Pringle, President CSO
Spiritual Ensemble and event producer.
"I am
greatly honored to present this choral masterpiece here in Charleston,
with a multicultural chamber orchestra and ensemble. I eagerly look
forward to working with such talented musicians,
including an exciting quartet of emerging vocal soloists," added Edward
Higginbottom, conductor.
Featured soloists will include Kimwana Doner, soprano; Ginger Jones-Robinson,
mezzo soprano; John Felder, tenor and Bryan Barr, bass.
Mozart’s
Requiem
Featuring the CSO Spiritual Ensemble
Guest Conductor Edward Higginbottom and guest soloists
St Philips Episcopal Church, 142 Church Street, Charleston
6:00pm
Tickets:
$35 adults; $25 seniors; $10 students with ID
About
Edward Higginbottom
Director, New College Choir, Oxford England
Edward Higginbottom is currently
Emeritus Organist and Fellow, New College Oxford Emeritus Professor of Choral Music, University of Oxford in England.
His work as a choral
director established New College as an ensemble of the first rank,
winner of numerous accolades and awards, covering a repertory stretching
from the early 16th century to the contemporary.
He
has taken the Choir around the world, encouraged musical commissions,
engaged in neglected repertories, championed standard classics, made
some 120 CDs, collaborated
with leading musicians in the Baroque field, and set up a new record
label Novum.
Higginbottom is an established scholar of French Baroque music, having contributed to Grove’s Dictionary of Music.
His special interests extend to historical
approaches to performance, but also to the contemporary issues of how
modern choral institutions best thrive. He was an advisor to the French
government on the recovery of their tradition of maîtrises and directed
a summer academy of choir direction in Grasse
during the 1990s. The French government has recognized these
contributions to French culture in the decoration
Commandeur de l’ordre des arts et des lettres.
Higginbottom
became the first ever Professor of Choral Music at the University of
Oxford (2008), in recognition of his distinction as a choral director,
and as the primary
mover behind a discography of unusual depth and variety. He built up
an anthology of English Church Music in some 20 issues, ranging from
Taverner to Howells, via, Tallis, Byrd, Tomkins, Gibbons, Purcell,
Croft, Greene, Boyce, Wesley, Parry. Renaissance
collections touched on de Monte and du Caurroy, as well as the more
famous Lassus and Palestrina. French music is represented in recordings
of grands motets by Desmarest, Lalande and Mondonville. On the Avie
label intriguing collections of 20th-century American
music are to be found, as well as a CD of contemporary British music.
Recording for Erato brought his work to a worldwide audience, with
collections of choral music of broad appeal (Agnus Dei). This success was followed up with similar projects with
Decca (Bluebird and Illumina.)
As
a lecturer in the Oxford Faculty of Music he has taught subjects as
varied as 16th-century counterpoint, analysis, Sibelius, French baroque
aesthetics and early keyboard
music. He is now an emeritus professor of Oxford University and of New
College and is an honorary fellow of the Royal School of Church Music,
the Guild of Church Musicians. He holds honorary membership of the
Royal Academy of Music, London, and is a recipient
of the Medal of the Royal College of Organists.
Earlier
in his career he was active as an organist, as organ scholar at Corpus
Christi College Cambridge, and a John Stewart of Rannoch Scholar in
Sacred Music.
About the CSO Spiritual Ensemble
The CSO Spiritual
Ensemble is a 30-member repertory vocal group based in Charleston
focusing on African-American spirituals, sacred and classical music. The
Ensemble’s core musical offering honors the devout
musical tradition that African-Americans formed as slaves after
arriving in this country and in particular its relevant history in South
Carolina. The spiritual has shaped and inspired the evolution of
classically trained African-American composers and arrangers.
