"I have heard the Requiem many times, and have sung it on several occasions. I've not heard it performed better than your great group did it this evening. Balance, blend, diction, dynamics, energy--you had it all. Thank you, thank you all!"
"I just got home from witnessing a spectacular production of Mozart's Requiem. . I invited my sister. Both of us had sung it before and still love to sing along . . . under our breath, of course. It was glorious. Thank you to all of you who give up your weekend (and endless hours of rehearsal) to put on such a production. Kudos and thank you again."
"This performance of the Mozart Requiem was 'goose bump gorgeous."
The foregoing reviews, with which we are truly delighted, express the essential character of this wonderful performance. By the same token, no one has ever described the essential character of the Mozart Requiem more lucidly than our founder and music director Terrance Robert Bernard Shaw.
After noting it’s history, he urged that people (including the chorus) take notice of the marriage between text and music. He went on, “It is in this relationship that we get a true sense of Mozart’s inner self. He takes us through a dramatic journey of beauty, triumph, mercy and love, while, at the same time, expressing suffering, pain, dread, and judgment. From the Kyrie eleisonRex Tremendae, salva me! (Lord of awful majesty, save me) to the final words, Lux aetaerna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es (Let the perpetual light shine upon them, O, Lord, for Thou are forgiving), we witness a troubled genius trembling between the threat of damnation and the promise of salvation.“
Under his guidance, the chorus did indeed perform with balance, blend, diction, dynamics and energy. The Olympia Symphony Orchestra provided magnificent accompaniment, and the concert featured four wonderful OCS singers who formed the solo quartet in four of the thirteen movements. These beautiful voices were those of Jennifer Shaw, soprano, Beth Ilem, mezzo-soprano, James Alviar, tenor, and Alan Newman, bass. It was indeed a triumph, and a worthy culmination of the ninth season since the creation of the Olympia Choral Society.
Lest we forget, however, there was more to this concert than the Mozart. The first half, while not as spectacular, was no less inspired. It opened with I Dream a World (Andre J. Thomas), Amor de Mi Alma (Z. Randall Stroope), My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord (Moses Hogan), with a solo by Douglas Williams, a Tenino High School senior and our scholarship winner, and If Music Be the Food of Love (David C. Dickau). For the latter we had the pleasure of singing with the Olympia High School Concert Choir under the direction of Dan Schwartz, a group that went on to perform three numbers of their own.
All in all, it was a truly historic concert, with the Requiem surpassing anything we had done previously. It served to demonstrate exactly how far OCS had come since it's humble beginnings, and bore promise of a future with no limits.
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