The Camarata Chorale and Orchestra will perform Mozart’s Requiem next weekend.
The choir will be accompanied by the Camarata Orchestra, who will also perform a piano concerto at the concert, after music from the Camarata Chamber Singers.
“This concert is going to be a bit different because we‘re featuring all of our organizations this time,” said CMC director and conductor Ryan Goessl. “I think it’s going to be one of our best concerts yet.”
The requiem is one of the composer’s most famous works, but Mozart never finished it, though he had written large parts of the requiem by the time he died. It is a mystery how much of the final work completed by another composer draws on Mozart’s notes.
“One of the exciting things we are doing this time is that rather than hiring soloists, we decided to provide opportunities for soloists within the choir itself, the expat and Korean communities that are in the choir, and we have some wonderful singers,” Goessl said.
The Camarata Chorale and Orchestra (CMC)
German pianist Andreas Ehret will also play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor before the main performance.
“In my opinion, he is one of the best pianists in this country, so it should be a very exciting piano concerto,” said Goessl.
The concert will be opened by a performance by the Camarata Chamber Singers, CMC’s auditioned choir, who will be performing Bach’s “Der Geist Hilft Unser Schwachheit (The Spirit Gives Aid to our Weakness)” and “Spring” by contemporary composer Josh Shank, among other pieces.
The Camarata Chorale is an amateur singing group made of members from across the world, and it has seen its numbers swell recently.
“The choir has grown to more than 110 members, and now we are up to 69 countries represented. It‘s really great how much it has grown in the past year,” said Goessl, who added that the concert would feature a total of 210 performers.
The performance will take place at 7 p.m. on May 7 at Chungdong First Methodist Church in Seoul. To get there, leave Seoul City Hall Station exit 12 and turn left, continuing left along the palace walls until you reach the roundabout. The church is on the opposite side.
There will be a preconcert performance by the Camarata Children’s Choir at the same venue at 6:45 p.m.
Tickets are 20,000 won ($17.40) in advance or 30,000 won on the day of the event. Visit www.camaratamusic.com for bookings and more information.
By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)