AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA GIVES RARE PERFORMANCE OF DVOŘÁK’S REQUIEM AT CARNEGIE HALL

JANUARY 25, 2024

Soloists are Soprano Leah Hawkins, Mezzo-Soprano Lindsay Ammann, Tenor Joshua Blue, and Bass Stefan Egerstrom with the Bard Festival Chorale

New York, NY, December 18, 2023 — Music Director Leon Botstein leads the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and the Bard Festival Chorale in Antonin Dvořák’s Requiem on Thursday, January 25, at Carnegie Hall. Featuring one of the composer’s lesser-known choral jewels, the performance provides a rare opportunity to hear a work nowhere nearly as well known or performed as Dvořák’s late symphonies or other choral works, such as his Stabat Mater.

The guest soloists are soprano Leah Hawkins, a 2023 Marian Anderson award-winner who appeared this season in The Metropolitan Opera’s production of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X; mezzo-soprano Lindsay Ammann, who can be heard on the Met Opera’s Grammy Award-winning Götterdämmerung recording; tenor Joshua Blue, who performed as Peter in the Met’s production of Porgy and Bess: and bass Stefan Egerstrom, who made his Met debut last season as Fourth Nobleman in the new François Girard production of Lohengrin.

Dvořák: Requiem
Thursday, January 25, 2024, 8 pm, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Conductor’s Notes Q&A at 7 pm
American Symphony Orchestra
Leon Botstein, conductor
Leah Hawkins, soprano
Lindsay Ammann, mezzo-soprano
Joshua Blue, tenor
Stefan Egerstrom, bass
Bard Festival Chorale
James Bagwell, choral director

Antonín Dvořák: Requiem, Op. 89
Antonin Dvořák’s Requiem was commissioned and given its successful premiere by the Birmingham Music Festival in 1891 with Dvořák on the podium, one year before he embarked on his American adventure. As the commission asked for a large choral work, the composer’s London publisher Alfred Littleton suggested that he try writing a Requiem. Dvořák’s resulting version of the Latin Mass for the Dead is one of the largest of the myriad settings of this traditional text. The work is close to Fauré’s or Cherubini’s contributions to the genre in its often-introspective mood and its overall lyricism. The use of a four-note chromatic motive in almost all sections unifies the piece thematically. While rich in invention, its examination of the mysteries of life and death make Dvořák’s Requiem more deserving of further exploration in the public sphere than it has previously received.

Tickets: Priced at $25–$65, tickets are available at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800, or visiting the box office at 57th St. and 7th Ave.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The ASO’s Vanguard Series is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

 Images: Leah Hawkins ©Kerry Hallihan, Lindsay Ammann ©Rod Evans, Joshua Blue ©Caitlin Odham, Stefan Egerstrom ©Holli Egerstrom.

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