Atlanta Master Chorale 2021-2022 Concert Season Brochure

two thousand twenty-one & twenty-two

ERIC NELSON

STEPHANIE WATKINS

JIM VERRECCHIA

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

BOARD CHAIR

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

ATLA N TA M A ST E R C H O R ALE BOARD of DIRECTORS Stephanie Watkins, Board Chair Raymond Chenault, Vice-Chair Cheryl Bachelder Charles Beaudrot, Counsel to the Board Sydney Cleland Jamie Clements Sam Hagan Tommy Herrington Marianna Magee Eric Nelson, Artistic Director

Raymond Payne Alexander (Sandy) Purdie Stan Segal Mary Slaughter Kathryn Stone, Secretary Julie Thompson, Treasurer James Verrecchia, Executive Director

A DV ISO RY BO ARD Roger Herndon Dr. James T. Laney Toni Myers

H. Hamilton Smith William & Carol Yadlosky Ellen & John Yates

2021–2022

CONCERT CALENDAR THIS AMAZING DAY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2021 | 8PM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2021 | 8PM

CHRISTMAS with

ATLANTA MASTER CHORALE

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021 | 8PM SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2021 | 8PM SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2021 | 4PM

DURUFLÉ requiem

FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022 | 8PM SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 2022 | 8PM

THE WAYS OF STARS FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2022 | 8PM SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2022 | 8PM

IMMORTAL FIRE

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022 | 8PM SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2022 | 8PM

PURCHASE TICKETS IN-PERSON, ONLINE, OR BY PHONE All concerts are held at Emory University’s Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts: 1700 North Decatur Road, Atlanta, GA, 30307 CALL 404.727.5050 OR VISIT ATLANTAMASTERCHORALE.ORG/CONCERTS Event parking is free on weekends and after 6:00 PM on weekdays in the adjacent Fishburne Parking Deck.

Patron drop-off and pick-up are available in the Allen Family Plaza on the west side of the Schwartz Center.

The Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts is a place where teaching, learning, and performance merge to create a vital arts presence for the entire community.

The concert hall was funded by and is named after Atlanta scientist Cherry Logan Emerson who earned both a BA and MA from Emory in the 1930s. It houses a 14-ton Werner Wortsman Memorial Organ built by top North American builder Daniel Jaeckel, which was installed in 2005.

Accessibility: We welcome all guests with special needs. Atlanta Master Chorale is committed to providing performances and facilities accessible to all. Please direct all accommodation requests to the Schwartz Center Box Office at 404-727-5050 or by email at boxoffice@emory.edu. For seating accommodations, please contact the Box Office at least 24 hours in advance of the event.

OUR MISSION:

TO INSPIRE AND ENRICH THE LIVES OF OUR COMMUNITY THROUGH THE PERFORMANCE OF CHORAL MUSIC, TO SING AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF CHORAL ARTISTRY, AND TO BE A STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE AMONG PERFORMING ARTS ORGANIZATIONS.

Atlanta Master Chorale has touched people’s hearts and spirits with the transformative power of choral music for more than 35 years. Renowned for our transcendent choral sound, we infuse each performance with emotional depth and a rare expressiveness as part of our mission to “inspire and enrich the lives of our community through choral artistry”. The Chorale’s exquisite blend of pitch, rhythm, text and voice reaches beyond the stage, drawing listeners into a shared space where music touches spirit.

Our awards include the prestigious 2013 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence from Chorus America and the 2014 Prudential Leadership Award for Exceptional Nonprofit Boards presented by BoardSource. We are also the recipient of a 20182019 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies and 2018 recipient of a Leadership DeKalb Community Outreach Project.

Atlanta Master Chorale has performed at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, at Carnegie Hall and at conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Music Educators National Conference (MENC), Choristers Guild, and American Guild of Organists (AGO).

We were also proud to be one of fewer than 30 choirs selected nationwide to perform at ACDA’s National Conference in Minneapolis, March 2017.

Our exciting repertoire has been called “the musical language of the deeper soul” and includes treasures drawn from a broad spectrum of choral music. The Chorale performs concerts in the Atlanta area and throughout the Southeast featuring music from nearly every period and genre including newly commissioned works. Our choral series, published by MorningStar/ECS Publishing Group, captures new repertoire premiered by the ensemble, helping to add vibrant original music to the choral field. With our dedicated board, staff and a roster of skilled volunteer choristers, Atlanta Master Chorale will continue our mission for many years to come.

THIS AMAZING DAY F RI D A Y, O C TO B E R 15 , 2 02 1 | 8 P M SA T URD A Y, O C TO B E R 1 6 , 2 02 1 | 8 PM Schwartz Center for Performing Arts $35 Adults; $30 Seniors/Groups of 10+/Emory Faculty & Staff; $10 All Students/Youth

Nineteen months! It has been nineteen months since our last performance and it is impossible to overstate how much we have missed singing for you. We are eagerly anticipating the moment when we will step onto the stage of the Schwartz Center and hear the sound of singing in that fabulous space—rather than through our ear-buds or computer speakers. It will be an amazing day, filled with music of joy and gratitude.

CHRISTMAS with

AT L ANTA MA STER CHOR A L E F RI D A Y, D E C E MB E R 10, 2 02 1 | 8 P M SA T URD A Y, DE C E MB E R 11 , 2 02 1 | 8 PM SUN D A Y, D E C E MB E R 1 2 , 2 02 1 | 4 P M Schwartz Center for Performing Arts $35 Adults; $30 Seniors/Groups of 10+/Emory Faculty & Staff; $10 All Students/Youth

Joy to the World! The music of Christmas connects past to present, sounds to memory, music to spirit. It unites us in shared expectancy and shared delight.

We sing together the carols of the season and listen in wonder for the song of the angels.

For many of you, Christmas with the Atlanta Master Chorale has become a treasured part of your holiday tradition, and you bring family, friends, neighbors, and out of town visitors to share this time with you and us. So many of you have in fact joined us that we expanded last season to three performances. We are delighted to do so again this season.

Please join us as we journey to the manger in Bethlehem and experience again the birth of a promise of new life, peace, and joy.

DURUFLÉ

requiem

F RI D A Y, JA NU ARY 2 1, 2 02 2 | 8 P M SA T URD A Y, J A N U A RY 2 2 , 2 02 2 | 8 PM Schwartz Center for Performing Arts $35 Adults; $30 Seniors/Groups of 10+/Emory Faculty & Staff; $10 All Students/Youth

Have you ever tried to answer the “desert island” question? You know the one: “If you could only have one piece of music on a desert island (or one book, or one movie), which would it be? If I had to choose one great choral work, it might very well be the Requiem of Maurice Duruflé. It is unquestionably one of the most sumptuously beautiful pieces ever written; a perfect union of melody and harmony, voices and instruments.

If I were to be asked which one singer I would like to hear—if I had to choose only one—that question I could answer easily: Jamie Barton!

We are thrilled that Jamie Barton will be joining us for our performance of the Duruflé and several other works, including the Five Mystical Songs of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Ms. Barton is the winner of the Beverly Sills Artist Award, the Richard Tucker Award, the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and she is a Grammy nominee.

She has been described by The Guardian as “a great artist, no question, with an imperturbable steadiness of tone and a nobility of utterance that invites comparison not so much with her contemporaries as with mid-20th century greats such as Kirsten Flagstad.” Jamie is a native of Georgia and sings all over the world.

She regularly performs at the Metropolitan Opera and was the featured performer on the Last Night of Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, bringing the 2019 BBC Proms festival to a close.

On January 21-22, she will bring our performance to new heights and will get our new year off to a spectacular start!

THE WAYS OF STARS F RI D A Y, MAR C H 11 , 2 02 2 | 8 P M SA T URD A Y, MA R C H 1 2 , 2 02 2 | 8 P M Schwartz Center for Performing Arts $30 Adults; $25 Seniors/Groups of 10+/Emory Faculty & Staff; $10 All Students/Youth

At our last concert in March of 2020, we performed A Silence Haunts Me, a work that explored Beethoven’s anxiety in the face of his approaching deafness.

We were so moved by the piece that we commissioned the composer, Jake Runestad, to write a choral work for us. The result of that commission, The Ways of Stars, is inspired by the life of scientist Maria Mitchell and by her description of a total solar eclipse that took place in 1869. Join us for the exciting World Premiere of this new piece and for an evening of music of the heavens.

IMMORTAL FIRE F RI D A Y, A P R I L 2 9, 2 02 2 | 8 P M SA T URD A Y, A P R I L 30, 2 02 2 | 8 P M Schwartz Center for Performing Arts $30 Adults; $25 Seniors/Groups of 10+/Emory Faculty & Staff; $10 All Students/Youth

St. Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians. The British poet, W. H. Auden wrote an extraordinary poem that asks the saint to “appear in visions to all musicians”, inspiring them with “immortal fire”. The great British composer, Benjamin Britten set this poem to music in his Hymn to St. Cecilia. In this final concert of the season, we give thanks for the many things that inspire us and fire our imagination.

Renew or purchase your

RESERVED SEATING

STAGE

1

1

A

7

West Gallery

West Orchestra B-O

West Orchestra P-W 24 A B

D E

A

115

101

B

C

C

D

D

E

E

F

Center Orchestra A-O

G H I J

16

C

B

F G H I

K

L

L

M

M

N

N

O

O

P

P

S T U

R

Center Orchestra P-V

East Orchestra B-O

J

K

R

8

S T U

V

V

W

W

1

East Gallery

16

East Orchestra P-W 24 A

129

101

West Balcony

1

2

East Loge

West Loge

1

East Balcony

F

B C D E F

Lower Level

Upper Level

SEASON PACKAGE

124

$

STUDENT / YO U T H PACKAGE

50

$

INDIVIDUAL TICKETS

CONCERTS

SENIORS, GROUPS, & EMORY AFFILIATES

S T U D E N T/ YO U T H 18 & UNDER

THIS AMAZING DAY

$

35

$

30

$

10

CHRISTMAS

$

35

$

30

$

10

DURUFLÉ

$

35

$

30

$

10

THE WAYS OF STARS

$

30

$

25

$

10

IMMORTAL FIRE

$

30

$

25

$

10

TOTAL

$165

$140

$50

A M C I S A L S O O F F E R I N G A “ BU I L D YOU R OW N ” S U B S C R I P T I O N PAC K AG E F O R T H E 202 1- 2 02 2 CONC ER T SEA SON . Y O U M AY C H O O S E A N Y 3 C O N C E RT S F O R $75.

SC HW A R TZ C EN T ER B OX O F F I C E 1 700 N D EC A T U R R D | A T L A N TA , G A 30307 404.727.5 05 0 | ATLANTAMASTERCHORALE.ORG/CONCERTS

FIND US on S O C I A L MEDIA

Don’t wait until the next concert to hear Atlanta Master Chorale!

Follow, like, and subscribe to us on these platforms to keep up with all the latest AMC news and videos!

YOUTUBE.COM/AtlantaMasterChorale FACEBOOK.COM/AtlantaMasterChorale

INSTAGRAM: @AtlantaMasterChorale

EVERY VOICE C O U N T S and E V E R Y GIFT MATTERS

SUPPORT ATLANTA MASTER CHORALE

BY MAKING A DONATION ONLINE OR BY MAIL:

AtlantaMasterChorale.org/give ATLANTA MASTER CHORALE P O B OX 1 3 3 2 0 1 ATLANTA, GA 30333