Press Release: American music comes to life at the Cathedral

Orpheus Choir's second concert of this year is bound to be just as thrilling as St John Passion was in March, but creating quite a different sound-world. Come and hear one of New Zealand’s finest symphonic choirs in superb form in this completely new tonal world of contemporary America, at once uplifting and serene.

On the night of Wednesday 24 June at 7.30, music lovers will be treated to an evening of spellbinding contemporary American choral music when the Orpheus Choir bring to life the compositions of Eric Whitacre and Morten Lauridsen at the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul. The evening has the support of The Embassy of the United States of America, who are very pleased to have the Choir showcasing two of their most admired choral composers.

The concert, Cloudburst, takes its name from one of the Eric Whitacre compositions in the programme. Born in 1970, Whitacre has taken the world’s choral music scene by storm with his music being feted in many countries. Cloudburst is one of his best-known pieces to date–set to the poetry of Mexican Octavio Paz–and features handbell players, piano, percussionists (including wind chimes and thunder sheets), as well as the choir. The composer says “Cloudburst is a ceremony, a celebration of the unleashed kinetic energy in all things.”

The programme includes also his brilliant Songs of Faith set to the poems of US poet E E Cummings.

For avid movie buffs this may not be the first time they’ll have heard Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, a few bars of which is featured in the film ‘Angels and Demons’, but it is the first time any New Zealand audience has heard the entire work. It is a non-liturgical work – rich, ethereal and intensely moving - and is ideally suited to the Cathedral.

Lauridsen spends his summers on a remote, rustic island off the state of Washington, with no electricity or running water. People write to tell him they can hear the serenity of the Pacific Northwest in his music. “So I’m sure [staying on the island] has had a profound effect on my music,” he acknowledges.

The second New Zealand premiere of the evening comes in the performance of Daniel Levitan’s Marimba Quartet. Levitan is a composer of numerous works for percussion ensembles regularly performed throughout the US and around the world. In the Marimba Quartet, the special acoustic of the Cathedral lends itself to a sound rarely heard live in Wellington and promises a captivating musical experience.

The Orpheus Choir, conducted by Michael Fulcher, are joined in their celebration of contemporary American music by the 2007/08 PwC Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist with NBR New Zealand Opera, soprano Barbara Graham, players from the Vector Wellington Orchestra, the Handbell Ringers from the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul and organist Richard Apperley.

Where: The Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, cnr Hill and Molesworth St, Wgtn

When: Wednesday June 24, 7.30pm

Tickets: General Admission; door sales $35, students $15. For choir discount $30 phone (04) 586 3856, go to www.orpheuschoir.org.nz or email Orpheus ticketing.

. For further information please contact:

Rosalene Fogel

Daytime ph: 04 439 3785

Mob: 021 730 773

Email: gray.fogel@xtra.co.nz