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Event
Orchestra Seattle | Seattle Chamber Singers 2015-2016: Expect the Unexpected
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Orchestra Seattle | Seattle Chamber Singers' 46th Season
Don't you love a good book with a twist at the end? Or when seemingly simple words have incredible resonance and meaning in your life? This season, where opposites attract, we will focus on the surprising and the uncharted. We will shed new light on favorites, and unearth the little-known truths about the composers and the music. The 2015-2016 season promises to be a thrilling one, so put your conventions on a shelf and expect the unexpected.
In our 46th season, we are implementing some new initiatives, including a run-out performance of our beloved Messiah to Everett. After launching our successful local concerto and nationwide composer competitions last season, we will again bring ascending young talent to the concert stage, and perform a world premiere in May.
Our ever-expanding catalog of soloists hails from the rosters of the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Wolf Trap Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, to name a few.
Join us for a season of world-class singing and incredible music making. Whether you're new to OSSCS or part of our our loyal listener and supporter family, there's something for everyone.
SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS
Receiving your tickets: You may pick up your season tickets at will call prior to our first performance on Saturday, October 3.
Messiah: Season subscribers may attend either the 12/19 Seattle performance or the 12/20 Everett performance. (We will send each subscriber a ticket accepted at either performance.)
Youth attend free! Children ages 7-17 are welcome to attend OSSCS performances free of charge. Free youth tickets are available at the door.
Guest Pass: Each subscription comes with one guest pass, allowing you to introduce a friend or family member to OSSCS at a concert of your choosing.
SEASON AT A GLANCE
War and Peace
Saturday, October 3, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks
Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture
Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem
This performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks commemorates the 25th anniversary of Germany's reunification, which occurred on October 3, 1990. Using Russian hymns and the French Marseillaise, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture provides a blow-by-blow account of the conflict between Napoleon and the Russian Army. On the brink of World War II, British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams drew texts from the Bible and three Walt Whitman poems for his deeply moving Dona Nobis Pacem, contrasting the destructive power of war with cries for reconciliation and peace.
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Hidden Gems
Saturday, November 14, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
Sibelius Preludio for winds and brass
Nielsen Sleep
Sibelius Snöfrid
Nielsen Symphony No. 2 ("The Four Temperaments")
This program of four rarely performed works celebrates the 150th birthdays of Scandinavian composers Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen. The North American premiere of Sibelius' Preludio took place here in Seattle in 1991; his evocative melodrama Snöfrid tells of a young man's encounter with a magical female being. Nielsen's Sleep begins and ends blissfully but its central section conjures up horrific nightmares, while his Symphony No. 2, inspired by a painting he encountered in a pub, illustrates humanity's four temperaments: choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine--although infrequently performed, it is truly a gem worthy of a birthday celebration.
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Messiah
Saturday, December 19, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
First Free Methodist Church, Seattle
--or--
Sunday, December 20, 2015 at 3:00 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church, Everett
Handel Messiah, HWV 56
No other work has become more closely associated with OSSCS than Georg Frideric Handel's most celebrated oratorio, Messiah. For four decades, audiences have delighted in our complete and uncut performances. This season we offer two performances: one in Seattle and a second in Everett (subscribers may elect to attend either performance).
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Irreverent Reverence
Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.
Brahms Academic Festival Overture
OSSCS Concerto Competition winner
Fauré Requiem in D minor
Johannes Brahms never attended college but was flattered by an honorary degree from the University of Breslau. His Academic Festival Overture was a light-hearted response (incorporating well-known student drinking songs) to the school's shameless request for a musical "thank-you note." Gabriel Fauré was employed as a church musician for more than 40 years (over half his lifetime), but viewed his work as an organist and choirmaster as a means to a paycheck rather than a spiritual calling. "My Requiem was composed for nothing;for fun, if I may be permitted to say so!" he wrote. "Perhaps instinctively I sought to break loose from convention. I've been accompanying burial services at the organ for so long now! I've had it up to here with all that. I wanted to do something else."
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Sacrifice
Saturday, March 12, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.
J.S. Bach St. John Passion, BWV 245
Composer Robert Schumann called the St. John Passion "one of the most profound and perfected works of Bach." According to conductor and Bach scholar John Eliot Gardiner, "it packs a more powerful dramatic punch than any Passion setting before or since" and "is as bold and complex an amalgam of storytelling and meditation, religion and politics, music and theology as there has ever been."
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Self-Expression
Saturday, April 16, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.
Poulenc Gloria
Chopin Work for piano and orchestra TBD
Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor
Poulenc's ability to combine serious ideals with the wit and style of Parisian café society resulted in a unique musical dialect. "I've often been reproached about my 'street music' side," he once wrote. "Its genuineness has been suspected, and yet there's nothing more genuine in me." Brahms struggled for two decades in the shadow of Beethoven before completing his first symphony at age 43. The 20152016 season marks our first partnership with the Chopin Foundation of the United States: the winner of their Northwest Council competition will appear in concert with Orchestra Seattle.
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Devil May Care
Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.
Elgar Serenade for Strings in E minor
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488
OSSCS Composer Competition winner
Elgar From the Bavarian Highlands
When his publisher declared the Serenade for Strings "practically unsaleable," Edward Elgar offered it to another firm--it would become one of Elgar's most successful works, as well as one of his personal favorites. Mozart led a troubled and all-too-brief life, but in Vienna over a particularly happy and productive six months, he composed The Marriage of Figaro and three of his most brilliant piano concertos. Music director Clinton Smith will play Mozart's K. 488, conducting from the keyboard. Do you recall a fabulous vacation you took with someone you love? Elgar's From the Bavarian Highlands depicts the picturesque countryside he and his wife visited while on a vacation together. She wrote the words, he wrote the music. Life is good.
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LocationFirst Free Methodist Church (View)
3200 Third Ave W
Seattle, WA 98119
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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