Five Choirs Giving Preview of Upcoming Carnegie Hall Performance April 25, 2010

Five choirs will offer a local preview of their May debut performance in New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall when they sing Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass” on Sunday, April 25.

The concert will take place at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of Fairview High School, 7460 McCray Road.

The Young People’s Chorus of Erie Chorale, Penn State Behrend’s Concert Choir and Chamber Singers, the Erie Philharmonic Choir and the North East High School Choir will perform one of Haydn’s most important liturgical compositions under the direction of Dr. Jason Bishop, director of choral activities at Penn State Behrend. The Austrian composer’s “Missa in Angustiis,” or “Mass for Troubled Times,” was written in 1798, during Napoleon’s march across Europe. After Napoleon’s defeat that summer at the hands of Britain’s Admiral Horatio Nelson, the mass was popularly renamed in Nelson’s honor.

Also on the program will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19 featuring pianist Dr. Sarah Kahl, a member of Penn State Behrend’s music faculty.

Bishop and the five choirs have been invited to perform “Lord Nelson Mass” with full orchestral accompaniment in the Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall on Sunday, May 23. Proceeds from the April 25 performance will help underwrite travel expenses for Young People’s Chorus of Erie and North East High School Choir members making the trip to New York City for this once-in-a-lifetime singing opportunity.

Tickets for the performance are $20 for adults and $5 for students. Tickets will be sold at the door if the performance does not sell out in advance, and a limited number of free tickets will be made available to families in need. Tickets can be purchased from the Young People’s Chorus of Erie office, phone 814-898-6789 or e-mail info@ypcerie.org.