RCCNY Celebrates Rachmaninoff’s 140th Birthday
Sunday, April 28, 3:00 p.m.
Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church
921 Madison Avenue (at 73rd St.)
*This concert will also be held April 24th
Tickets at the door: $25; $20 students & seniors
20% discount online through April 21
For ticket information, visit rccny.org
Perfect Timing!
April 2013 is Russian-American History Month in New York State – and by happy coincidence it’s also the 140-year anniversary of the birth of Sergey Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff. The great composer was born on April 1, 1873, in the Novgorod province of Russia, and later took America as his second homeland. Celebrating this anniversary is important for Russia and America, especially for New York City, where he lived and performed.
RCCNY celebrates Rachmannoff’s remarkable and multifaceted inner world. We invite you to experience his mighty spirit in selections from “Vespers” and “Choral Concerto,” the mysterious melancholy of his famous “Vocalise,” the miraculous transformation of the soul and its renewal in the cantata “Spring,” and the deep emotions and poetic images of nature in “Six Choruses for Women’s Voices.”
CONCERT PROGRAM:
Celebrating Rachmaninoff: Sacred and Secular
Theotokos, Ever-Vigilant in Prayer, sacred choral concerto
Selections from Vespers: Bless the Lord, O My Soul; Gladsome Light;
Rejoice, O Virgin
Vocalise, for cello, piano and chorus (arr. Mikhail Zeiger)
(Adrian Daurov, cello; Mikhail Zeiger, piano)
Six Choruses for Women’s Voices
Spring, cantata for baritone and chorus
Vagarshak Oganyan, baritone; Mikhail Zeiger, piano
These concerts are supported, in part, by the Fund for Creative Communities, administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
THE RUSSIAN CHAMBER CHORUS OF NEW YORK (RCCNY) was founded in 1984 by Artistic Director and Conductor Nikolai Kachanov. Over its twenty-eight Year history, the chorus has become America’s preeminent Russian vocal ensemble and a highly admired ambassador of the Russian creative spirit. RCCNY is known for stylistic versatility, richness of sound, subtlety of expression and heartfelt singing. RCCNY’S mission is to build a bridge between the rich Russian choral tradition and today’s American audiences.
RCCNY performed in Carnegie Hall in Stars of the Kirov Celebrate Russia Day, in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Kirov Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, under the direction of Yuri Temirkanov. Earlier Carnegie Hall appearances include performances with the Czech Philharmonic under Vladimir Ashkenazy, with the Moscow Virtuosi under Vladimir Spivakov, and at the Moscow 850th Anniversary Gala and with the American-Russian Youth Orchestra under Leon Botstein. The chorus also appeared on the nationally acclaimed NPR radio program “A Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor. Materials about chorus were published in the Moscow magazine “Melodiya” and in the publications at the Moscow State Conservatory.
“Splendid…radiant and sonorous” (The New York Times)
For more information: rccny.org or call 212-928-1402