Concerts

The Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club will be giving four major concerts on their musical tour of China in March 2008. You will find all the information you need to get to our shows, learn about our programs, and purchase tickets below.

Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem in Beijing

The Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club from the United States join the International Festival Chorus of Beijing in a performance of Johannes Brahms’s choral masterpiece Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) on Saturday, March 15th 2008 at 8:00pm, in the Forbidden City Concert Hall. Located within the Forbidden City complex in the heart of Beijing, this performance will be an excellent opportunity for the students to showcase their talents to an audience of up to 1400 people.

The International Festival Chorus (IFC) is the brain-child of Beijing-based British conductor Nicholas Smith and singers James Baer and Nancy Fraser. Focusing on large-scale choral works, such as Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil and the China première of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, the IFC performs three concerts a year at the Forbidden City Concert Hall. Each season ends with a performance of Handel’s Messiah the first Saturday in December. In 2003 the IFC was the first group of international singers to perform Chinese composer Xian Xinghai’s master choral work Yellow River Cantata in China. With singers from twenty-three different countries, the chorus is a truly international group and a place where both expatriates and local Chinese can come together to share their passion for music. Having performed in over seven languages, including English, Chinese, German, Italian and Church Slavonic, the IFC serves as a platform to showcase global musical excellence.

Composed in 1867, Ein deutsches Requiem was Brahms’s first large-scale work,  and its success propelled him into international celebrity. 

Brahms compiled his own text for the Requiem, drawing on Biblical selections in German translations chosen for their literary quality, while deliberately avoiding sectarian bias.  The piece, as Brahms put it, is a Requiem to comfort the living rather than to pray for the dead, less a work of religion than of humanity: “I would very gladly omit the ‘German’… and simply put ‘of Mankind’,” he wrote. 

Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem in Shanghai

The Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club from the United States join the International Festival Chorus of Shanghai in a performance of Johannes Brahms’s choral masterpiece Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) on Saturday, March 22nd 2008 at 8:00pm, in the Oriental Arts Center. Located across the Huangpu River from the historical Bund of Shanghai, this venue is one of the most impressive China has to offer, both architecturally and acoustically.

The International Festival Chorus (IFC Shanghai) was founded in 2003 as the sister group of the Beijing International Festival Chorus, under the musical direction of Nicholas Smith. Now in its fourth season, under the baton of its chorus master Julian Rippon, IFC Shanghai aims to bring together experienced singers based in Shanghai to give high-standard performances of choral works three times a year. The backgrounds of the members of IFC Shanghai are as diverse as the number of nationalities included in the group, and include diplomats, lawyers, teachers, writers, doctors, engineers, consultants and students. What binds them together is their love of singing, and the group is liable to break into song at every available opportunity.

Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem in Hong Kong

The Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club from the United States join the Hong Kong Bach Choir and Orchestra in a performance of Johannes Brahms’s choral masterpiece Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) on Easter Monday, 24 March 2008 at 8:00 pm, in the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Concert Hall.

The concert comes at the end of an extensive tour by the Cornell Chorus and Glee Club, which will take them first to Beijing and Shanghai. Led by Professor Scott Tucker, the Priscilla Edwards Browning Director of Choral Music at Cornell, the Chorus and Glee Club are two of the university’s oldest student-run organizations, with extensive performing and touring experience since 1868 and 1921, respectively.  Among America’s top collegiate choirs, each of the two groups is composed of 60 students. The mixed-voice touring choir will feature 80 singers chosen by rigorous audition.

The Cornell choirs will also present, in the first part of the Tsuen Wan concert, a portion of their touring a cappella program, which includes works by Franz Biebl, Stephen Chatman, Augusta Read Thomas, and Béla Bartók, in addition to a specially commissioned piece by acclaimed Chinese composer Chen Yi and Cornell’s Pulitzer Prize winner, Steven Stucky.

The Hong Kong Bach Choir is one of Hong Kong's longest established choral groups. Formed in 1970, the original Choir was an ensemble of 15 singers assembled for a single performance of a Bach cantata. Over the years its membership has expanded greatly; it now has a multi-national membership of more than 80 singers. The Choir presents three programs in major venues each year.

Since 1992, the Choir has been under the musical leadership of Jerome Hoberman, with whom it has sung a diverse range of music. It has the widest repertoire of any choir in Hong Kong, ranging from the 16th century to the present day, and including a significant number of newly-commissioned works. 

Composed in 1867, Ein deutsches Requiem was Brahms’s first large-scale work, and its success propelled him into international celebrity. 

Brahms compiled his own text for the Requiem, drawing on Biblical selections in German translations chosen for their literary quality, while deliberately avoiding sectarian bias.  The piece, as Brahms put it, is a Requiem to comfort the living rather than to pray for the dead, less a work of religion than of humanity: “I would very gladly omit the ‘German’… and simply put ‘of Mankind’,” he wrote.

Brahms’s inspiration for writing his Requiem may have been the death of his mentor Robert Schumann.  Before completing it, he endured the loss of his own beloved mother, which led directly to the composition of an additional movement – now the fifth, out of a total of seven – a sublime soprano solo. 

Soloists for the Brahms are soprano Yuki Ip and baritone Brian Montgomery. 

Tickets will be available from URBTIX outlets beginning 24 February 2008, priced at $240, $180 and $100.  Half-price tickets are offered for full-time students, senior citizens, people with disabilities and CSSA recipients. There is a 5% discount for purchase of 10-19 tickets, and 10% discount for purchase of 20 or more tickets. For ticket reservations and credit card booking, please call 2734-9009 and 2111-5999 respectively.  Online booking are available at www.urbtix.hk. 

For further information, contact Raymond Choi on 9659-8687, (e-mail chairperson@bachchoir.org.hk), or visit the official choir website at www.bachchoir.org.hk.

St. John’s Cathedral Service and Concert in Hong Kong

At the personal invitation from the choirmaster at St. John’s Cathedral in Hong Kong, the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club will serve as the choir for their Evensong service on Easter Sunday, March 23rd 2008. The group will take part in the service itself, singing liturgical works chosen for the occasion. The Cornell choirs will also present, following worship, a concert consisting of selections from their a cappella program, including works by Franz Biebl, Stephen Chatman, Augusta Read Thomas, and Béla Bartók, in addition to a specially commissioned piece by acclaimed Chinese composer Chen Yi and Cornell’s Pulitzer Prize winner, Steven Stucky. 

Located just down the hill from the Victoria Peak tram station and surrounded by the many tall office buildings of Hong Kong, St. John’s Cathedral provides a stunning combination of nature and modernity. This concert will surely be a highlight of the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club’s visit to the city.

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