Press Release - October 05, 2005, Boston, MA

Jarrett Conducts Ambitious Back Bay Chorale Season

Recently acclaimed as “the most promising young figure to emerge on the choral scene,” Music Director Scott Allen Jarrett leads the 90-member Back Bay Chorale in an ambitious and challenging new season. The musical program spans the choral music continuum from medieval to contemporary, and blends the provocative and the familiar. According to Jarrett, ”From the very start to the season finale, there isn't a weak link in any program. During the season, the Chorale will collaborate with all-star soloists, Emmanuel Music, the Majestic Brass, and the Boston Children’s Chorus. I'm thrilled about our coming season.”

The first concert on November 18 features French composer Arthur Honegger’s musically theatrical Le Roi David. Written in 1921, the piece dramatizes King David’s tumultuous life – slaying the giant, betrayed by his king, triumphant in battle, lusting for another’s wife, suffering his son’s death, offending his god, yet ultimately creating the legacy of the Kingdom of Israel. Music Director Jarrett calls this “a French feast not to be missed.” On December 17 and 18, the Back Bay Chorale will hold its annual holiday musical celebration. Performing Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols along with traditional seasonal carols, the Chorale will be joined for the first time by Boston’s youthful ambassadors of good will, the Boston Children’s Chorus, recently returned from an international tour to Japan. The third concert on March 11 celebrates the spectacular music written about the Virgin Mary, from the laudatory to the most personal. The season concludes on May 19 with Beethoven’s monumental choral masterpiece Missa Solemnis, which Beethoven in his later years considered his finest work.

During the season, the Back Bay Chorale will perform with a stellar cast of soloists, including Amanda Mace, Janna Baty, Lynn Torgrove, Claude Corbeil, and Simon Estes, as well as the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music.

Along with this diverse musical program, the Back Bay Chorale has launched its new Emerging Artists in Residence Program, designed to showcase emerging talented singers in the Greater Boston area. Through instructional and performance opportunities with the Chorale, the artists will expand their knowledge of choral music performance and artistic leadership and, in turn, lend their expertise to the Chorale. Jarrett has announced the appointment of Amanda Jellen, Andrea Coleman, and Stefan Reed as the vocal artists to be sponsored by the program, which is funded in part by an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England and generous donations by its supporters