Asbury choirs to present Mozart’s ‘Requiem’
Mozart’s “Requiem” will be performed at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 13, in the Asbury Methodist Church of Uniontown. The Asbury Festival Choir and the Greater Uniontown Chorale will join choral forces under the leadership of William M. Dreucci, Asbury’s director of music. Dreucci said an ill and struggling young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had little idea that his final musical composition would perhaps be his greatest legacy to the world. When he died in 1791 at the young age of 35, he left the unfinished pages of his Requiem to his wife, Constanze.
For the next nine years, the journey of the musical masterpiece was shrouded in mystery until it was finally published as Mozart’s work in 1800. It has been hailed as Mozart’s greatest work and often compared with Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion.”
The choirs will be assisted by professional soloists and orchestra in this Palm Sunday musical prelude to the events of Holy Week.
Solo roles will be assumed by soprano, Amy Stabnau, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and featured soloist with the Pittsburgh Opera; tenor, Yugo Ikach, who received his master of music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and is a music doctorate candidate at West Virginia University; mezzo soprano, Liza Brovey Kovach, who holds bachelor and master’s degrees in vocal performance from Duquesne University and is on the voice faculty at Point Park College; bass, Peter Lightfoot, who is a winner of the National Opera Institute’s Career Bronze Medal and who recently appeared at New York’s Carnegie Hall in the Mozart Requiem under the direction of John Rutter. “Requiem” will be the final performance for the season.
Admission to the performance is by ticket only. Tickets may be purchased at any of the following outlets: Fayette Chamber Office, West Main Street, in Uniontown; Ellis Music Store, Windows by Lydia, Judy’s Do-Re-Me Music Shop, Amend’s Jewelry in the Uniontown Mall, Atkins Music Store in Connellsville, and at the White Picket Fence in Hopwood. Group discounts for 10 or more can be had by calling 724-557-1119.
Tickets will also be sold two hours before the performance at the Dunbar Street door of Asbury Church. The sanctuary doors will open to all ticket holders at 6:15 p.m. Asbury Church is located at the corner of South Beeson Avenue and Dunbar Street and is handicapped accessible.