KSO Presents Messiah, Premiere of Olsson's Mass
Submitted by the Department of Fine Arts
The Department of Fine Arts will present selections from Handel's Messiah,
plus the premiere performance of Milton Olsson's Mass, on Sunday, December
10, at 3:00 p.m. in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Olsson will
conduct the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra and the Concert Choir, with soloists
Inetta Harris, Lorna March, Anthony Beacco, and Wayne Hanmer.
The KSO has presented Handel's Messiah to enthusiastic audiences every
three or four years since 1978. This year's performance includes all of
Part I, the Christmas section, with such well-known choruses as "And the
Glory of the Lord," "For unto Us a Child Is Born," and "His Yoke Is Easy."
Solos include the opening tenor recitative and aria, "Comfort Ye My People,"
and "Ev'ry Valley Shall Be Exalted," the bass aria, "The People that Walked
in Darkness," and the beautiful mezzo and soprano aria, "He Shall Feed
His Flock." The "Halleluia" chorus will conclude the concert, with the
audience invited to join the singing.
The four soloists are well-known to local audiences. Harris is choirmaster
for Echoes from Heaven Gospel Choir and an active recitalist and soloist.
March has been featured in Pine Mountain Music Festival operas, in addition
to many oratorio concerts. Hanmer has been principal soloist for the Marquette
Choral Society for more than twenty years, is choir director at Messiah
Lutheran Church in Marquette, and teaches in the Gwinn Public Schools.
Beacco is music director and organist for St. Louis the King Catholic
Church, Marquette, and director of choral and instrumental music at Westwood
High School, Ishpeming.
The premiere of Olsson's Mass is part of the on-going celebration of
the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Olsson, chair of the fine arts
department, conducts the Concert Choir and joint KSO/choir concerts.
Of his newest work, Olsson says, "The idea of composing a Mass has always
been appealing to me, especially since my work orchestrating the Mass
in A by the nineteenth-century composer Gustav Gundlach." The Mass began
as a stand-alone, unaccompanied setting of the Agnus Dei which the Concert
Choir performed locally and on its Eastern European concert tour in 1999.
"The choir and audiences seemed to enjoy the piece, and I began to think
about expanding it to a full Mass," Olsson says.
He completed the choral music first, thinking the Mass would be unaccompanied,
but wasn't satisfied. "I kept hearing other, non-vocal sonorities in my
mind and came to the conclusion that it needed orchestra. So, it eventually
evolved into its present form: a complete setting of the Ordinary of the
Mass for chorus and orchestra, a work that can be performed in concert
or within the Roman liturgy."
Olsson says the Mass is a bit more conservative than some of his previous
compositions. "My goal in setting the texts of the Ordinary was to capture
their mysticism, drama, and emotion in a musical language that was familiar
but fresh. I wanted to compose a serious piece that embraces the joy of
our new performance hall. I wanted it to be a composition that says life
is good, that we can dream, and that sometimes fantasies become realities.
It is my gift to the performers and the audience in celebration of the
opening of the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts."
Tickets for the December 10 performance of Messiah and the Olsson Mass
are available from Rozsa Center Ticketing Services, other Michigan Tech
box offices, the Calumet Theatre, and on the Web at http://www.tickets.mtu.edu
for $14 general, $5 students.
