Haydn Mass in B flat (“Theresienmesse”) First Hawaii Performance!
Mozart “Parto, parto”
Dvorak Te Deum

Chiho Villasenor, soprano
Laurie Rubin, mezzo-soprano    
Douglas Hall, tenor
Leslie “Buz” Tennent, baritone

Festival Chorus and Orchestra
Timothy Carney, conducting

Sunday, June 19 at 4:00 PM
Mystical Rose Oratory, Chaminade University

Haydn’s Mass in B flat Mass of 1799 was called the ‘Theresienmesse’ after the Empress Maria Theresa (pictured), an accomplished singer who is thought to have sung the soprano part in a private performance of the Mass in Vienna.

Dvorak's sparkling Te Deum was composed in 1892 for a concert celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in America.

Tickets available at the door, or from Honolulu Box Office, honoluluboxoffice.com <http://honoluluboxoffice.com> , 550-8457.

General Admission $25
Seniors, Military, $20
Students (at the door only) $5
Preferred Seating $35

About the Festival

This annual event joins singers and instrumentalists from across the state for a week-long music festival. The objective of this program is the performance of significant choral-orchestral masterworks.

Singers from many local choruses join with Hawai`i Vocal Arts Ensemble to form the Festival Chorus. The chorus rehearses for several weeks in advance of the Festival week. An orchestra of professional musicians joins for the final rehearsals and performance, held at the intimate Mystical Rose Oratory overlooking Diamond Head.

"It was such a privilege to get to participate in the festival – and the music is truly unforgettable! Thank you so very much!" -- Festival participant

"One of the best choirs that I had the privilege to sing with in a long time." -- 2005 Festival participant

"A little extra [donation] – moved by the outstanding Festival Concert!"-- Festival supporter

Past Festivals

Seventh Annual Hawaii Vocal Masterworks Festival

Romantic Choral Rarities: Schubert, Brahms, Berlioz, Fauré and the Requiem in C minor by Luigi Cherubini

Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble
Festival Chorus and Orchestra
Timothy Carney, conductor

The Festival piece is the rarely-heard, dramatic Requiem by
Luigi Cherubini, written in memory of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.  This is the 250th anniversary of Cherubini's birth.
The Requiem was greatly admired by Beethoven (it was played at his funeral), Schumann, Berlioz, and Brahms.

Cherubini’s Requiem in C minor, by turns ethereal, dramatic and ultimately transcendent, was triumphantly premiered on January 21, 1817 in a memorial concert below the abbey church of St. Denis to commemorate the anniversary of the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The bodies of the long deposed monarchs were finally being laid to rest in the crypt of St. Denis. Though held in the highest esteem by many of the greatest composers of his time, this first of Cherubini’s two Requiems fell into obscurity by the end of the 19th century.

In illuminating liner notes that accompany the album, Martin Pearlman puzzles over the mysterious fate of Cherubini’s first “mass for the dead:”

“The success of Cherubini's Requiem was immediate, and it was so overwhelming that Berlioz claimed that it gained a virtual ‘monopoly’ over memorial concerts in France. Beethoven, who called Cherubini "the greatest living composer," claimed that, if he himself should write a requiem, this one would be his only model; the work was performed at Beethoven's memorial service. For Schumann, the piece was ‘without equal.’ It is remarkable, therefore, that this beautiful work so admired by these composers, as well as by Mendelssohn, Brahms and Wagner, this requiem which the nineteenth century put on a level with the Mozart Requiem, fell into obscurity by the end of the century, along with most of the rest of Cherubini's music.”

Sixth Annual Hawaii Vocal Masterworks Festival

	Chaminade University of Honolulu and Tesoro Hawaii present the Sixth Annual Hawai‘i Vocal Masterworks Festival Music of  George Frederic Handel &  Felix Mendelssohn Featuring Ingrid Harwood, soprano &  Jennifer Lane, mezzo soprano 250th Anniversary • 2009 Music from Solomon, Jephtha, Atalanta, Theodora, and the Coronation anthem “Zadok the Priest” Felix Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, Wie der Hirt schreit (As the hart cries after cooling waters) and the “Hebrides Overture” Sunday, July 5, 2009 at 4 p.m. Mystical Rose Oratory, Chaminade University of Honolulu For tickets, call Honolulu Box Office at 550-TIKS (8457) or order  online at honoluluboxoffice.com For more information, visit hawaiivocalarts.org. • $20 General Admission • $15 Senior & Military • $5 Students Preferred Seating available for $35. Tickets will also be available for purchase at the door. “...Jennifer Lane stole the show.  Her voice is warm, velvety and resonant.”

Fifth Annual Hawaii Vocal Masterworks Festival

"The performances are crisp, harmonic, seductive—in a traditional no frills manner."
-- Wayne Harada, Honolulu Advertiser

Fourth Annual Hawaii Vocal Masterworks Festival

Fourth Annual Hawai'i Vocal Masterworks Festival
featuring Joseph Haydn's jubilant and sublime HARMONIEMESSE and
Johannes Brahms' Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny)

Third Annual Hawaii Vocal Masterworks Festival

Join us for the Hawai`i premiere of Robert Schumann's rare and sumptuous oratorio, Das Paradies Und die Peri (Paradise and the Peri). Based on a Persian legend, Schumann considered it his finest work. Featuring internationally acclaimed soprano Valerie Girard, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane , tenor Everett McCorvey , and baritone, Leslie "Buz" Tennent. Hawai'i Vocal Arts Ensemble will be joined by singers and instrumentalists from across the state to perform this masterwork for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, containing soaring melodies and thrilling harmonies.

June 25, 2006, 4:00 pm at Hawai`i Theatre