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Conspirare Closes Season With "Brilliant Baroque, Sublime Silences"

Updated: Wednesday, May 9 2012, 03:57 AM CDT
Austin-based professional choir Conspirare offers a rare opportunity to hear - in the same concert - music by George Frideric Handel and Arvo Pärt for their season finale on June 9th.   Performing two masterworks by composers the Conspriare audiences have often requested, the "Handel & Pärt:  Brilliant Baroque, Sublime Silences" will be sung at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church.

"The program includes Handel’s dynamic Dixit Dominus and Pärt’s spacious Berliner Messe.  The two masterworks are complemented by the meditative "On the Beach at Night" - a short piece by Andrew Imbrie set to a text by iconic poet Walt Whitman.

Led by Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson, the Conspirare singers and a string orchestra will explore the uniquely-colored and contrasting soundscapes of voices and strings created by the Baroque master Handel and his contemporary counterparts.  Two contrasting performances of the same musical program will be offered, with an early 5:30 p.m. performance for the light of day and a late 9 p.m. performance for the dramatically-lit concert atmosphere.

“Brilliant Baroque, Sublime Silences” will also be performed in Victoria, Texas on Friday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the Victoria Fine Arts Center.  Presented in collaboration with the Victoria Bach Festival, tickets for the Victoria performance are available at www.VictoriaBachFestival.org or by calling (361) 570-5788.
    
Tickets for the two Austin performances on June 9 are $28.  A free pre-concert talk by Margaret Perry will be offered before each performance.
    
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church is located at 8134 Mesa Drive.  For reservations and more information, call (512) 474-5664 or visit www.Conspirare.org.
 
(Photo by Karen Sachar)Conspirare Closes Season With "Brilliant Baroque, Sublime Silences"