Viva Vivaldi! May 22, 2011

Viva la Musica! choir and orchestra, recently returned from performances in Prague and Dresden, present concerts May 21 in Redwood City and May 22 in Palo Alto. Viva Vivaldi features instrumental and choral works by Italian Baroque composer, Antonio Vivaldi, whose effervescent and impassioned music remains a perennial favorite with concert lovers.
The program includes Vivaldi concertos for unusual pairings of instruments-a concerto for strings is followed by a concerto for two oboes, one for two trumpets, and one for four keyboards-as well as a ravishing new choral-orchestral work, Vivaldi's third Dixit Dominus, recently discovered, as yet little heard, and perhaps his most adventuresome and colorful setting of the dramatic Psalm 109 text. The Dixit features 5 vocal soloists, choir, and orchestra. To close, the choir sings an eclectic set: a beautiful American folk song, The Water is Wide; then We Remember Them, a moving setting of a Jewish memorial text, this performance inspired by the choir's recent visit to the World War II concentration camp Terezin, just outside of Prague; and a contemporary, upbeat, and sassy setting of a Kyrie by Glenn McClure with Caribbean steel drums, percussion, and piano.
The illustrious line up of soloists, the longest in Viva's history, is a celebratory close to the organizations 10th anniversary season: oboists Peter Lemberg and Debbie Busch, trumpeters Guy Clark and Laura Shea-Clark, sopranos Elspeth Franks and Carla von Merz, contralto Yumi Thomas, tenors Corey Head and Samuel Palmer, steel drummer Joe Kelly, and pianists Anna Khaydarova, Tim Getz, Leighton Kan, and Shulamit Hoffmann, Viva la Musica's artistic director and conductor.
Pre-concert informational talks will take place one half hour before each performance.
Ticket orders received up to one week prior to concerts will be mailed to patrons. After that, ticket orders will be held at will call.

Official Website: http://www.vivalamusica.org