Bob Jones University Commemorates Verdi’s 200th Birthday with REQUIEM Performance

GREENVILLE, SC – March 1, 2013 – Bob Jones University (BJU) will present Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem in Rodeheaver Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 1. Four guest soloists will accompany nearly 300 instrumentalists and choristers.  The performance, in honor of Giuseppe Verdi’s 200th birthday, is open to the public, and tickets are available at bju.edu/tickets or by calling (864) 770-1372.

Verdi’s Requiem is world-renowned as one of Verdi’s greatest and most dramatic works, said Darren Lawson, dean of the School of Fine Arts and Communication for BJU. We are thrilled to have four outstanding guest soloists to perform alongside our musicians to celebrate this great composer.

The well-known piece features the BJU Symphonic Orchestra and Choirs in a 90-minute performance alongside Hope Koehler, soprano, LaToya Lain, mezzo-soprano, Issachah Savage, tenor and Patrick Blackwell, bass. The performance is directed by Dr. Warren Cook, who serves as the director of choral activities at BJU.

Cook said, This choral masterpiece is one of the most powerful settings of this dramatic liturgical text.  Verdi altered the presentation of the traditional liturgical texts to suit his dramatic purposes and to revel in the glories of Italian culture, leading to the oft debated and unresolved question. Is the Requiem a liturgical masterpiece, or a grand and un-staged opera? For the performer and listener, this question matters less and less as the quietness, overwhelming force and incredible beauty of the music astonishes the senses and fires the imagination.

Several of the featured soloists are members of the American Spiritual Ensemble who performed last year at Bob Jones University as part of our Artist Series.

Koehler, soprano, whose voice has been heralded as having the richness of Marilyn Horne at the bottom and the clarion clarity of Leontyne Price at the top has appeared with many opera companies and orchestras, such as Nashville Opera, Tennessee Opera Theatre, Blair Opera Theatre, MTSU Opera Theatre, University Opera Theatre in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Northland Opera Theatre Experience, Lyric Opera of the North, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Lexington Symphony Orchestra, and Itasca Symphony Orchestra. At the Northland Opera Theatre in Duluth, Minnesota, she has appeared in the title roles of Tosca, Carmen, Fidelio and Madama Butterfly.  Koehler serves on the faculties of the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria and is the associate professor of voice at West Virginia University.

Lain, a mezzo-soprano, was an assistant professor of voice at Oakwood College, a position she held in the middle of the first decade of this century. She has performed in a number of operas. A partial listing of roles would include Tituba in The Crucible, Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, Baba in The Medium, Dame Quickly in Falstaff, Zita in Gianni Schhicchi, and Polinesso in Ariodante. She won first place in a National Association of Teachers of Singing competition in Michigan, was a finalist for the Classical Singer Magazine auditions, and was selected to participate in the Chautauqua Opera Young Artists Program.  She holds a Masters degree from the  University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and a D.M.A. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Savage, tenor, has been described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as one of America’s most promising young talents.  The Washington Post describes him as a golden tenor with both dramatic and lyrical qualities.  He is the recipient of many prestigious awards and prizes and most recently won first place in the Wagner Division of the 2012 Liederkranz and top prize in the Marcello Giordani Competition.  In addition to numerous other roles, Savage has sung the title role of Richard Wagner’s Rienzi with the Opera Orchestra of New York and Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with the Reportory Opera Company of Washington, In December, Savage will make his company debut in the title role of Otello in Teatro della Fortuna, Italy.

Blackwell, bass, studied with Enrico DiGuiseppe at the Juilliard School on full scholarship. He began his career as a young artist with the Santa Fe Opera, Houston Opera Studio, the Merola Opera Program, Opera Music Theatre International with Jerome Hines and the Aspen Opera Theatre Center. He has performed with many companies including the New Jersey State Opera, Florentine Opera, Augusta Opera, Western Opera Theatre and the Fort Worth Opera.  With the New Jersey State Opera Concert Gala, he has performed as the King in Aida and Melitone in La Forza del destino.  He has made his Carnegie Hall debut as the bass soloist in the world premiere of Earnestine Rogers Robinson’s Crucifixion.  This season, Blackwell will add to his impressive repertoire in opera, oratorio and musical theater, the role of Porgy in Porgy and Bess with Union Avenue Opera of St. Louis where he will also sing as Sarastro in Die Zauberflote.