The Northminster Chancel Choir, Orchestra, and guest soprano Sherezade Panthaki will offer “Requiems and Alleluias,” 4:00 pm Sunday, March 27th in the sanctuary of Northminster Presbyterian Church. The concert features Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C minor.
In 1770, Haydn experienced the death of two people close to him, one being his infant daughter. In a feverish rush of creative power, he completed the work in just two weeks’ time, December 1771. Haydn’s lingering emotions surely influenced the depth and passionate intensity present in Requiem in C Minor.
The performance welcomes Sherezade Panthaki, a trailblazing voice of early music, who will perform two Antonio Vivaldi motets: In furore iustissimae, irae and Nulla in mundo pax sincera. Both works’ high tessitura and athletic vocal writing are only for the bravest of sopranos! Based in New York City, Ms. Panthaki has sung with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bach Collegium Japan, the National Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony and numerous others. Firmly at home in the Baroque oratorios, operas and cantatas of Handel, Bach, and Vivaldi, she is also widely acclaimed for her interpretations of Brahms’ Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Poulenc’s Gloria. Born and raised in India, Ms. Panthaki holds an Artist Diploma from Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, a Master’s degree from the University of Illinois, and a Bachelor’s degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Rounding out the program will be two shorter pieces: Eliza Gilkyson’s Requiem, for chorus and piano; and Paul Basler’s Alleluia (from Songs of Faith) for chorus, percussion, piano, and French horn.
Concert length: 70 minutes
Admission: free