The Prairie View A&M University Concert Chorale, under the direction of Dr. A. Jan Taylor, will travel to Germany and Poland, August 26 through September 12, 2018.

 

At the invitation of Polish conductor Mariusz Smolij, the Chorale will perform two concerts of American music with the Toruń Symphony Orchestra, in Toruń, Poland for the International Summer Festival “Music and Architecture.”  A concert version of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and Hailstork’s Four Spirituals for Two Sopranos and Choirare two of the works that are programmed for these concerts.

 

Department of Music faculty who will travel and perform with the Chorale are Dr. John L. Cornelius II,  composer and pianist; and voice faculty Leon Turner, bass-baritone; and Jolie Rocke Brown, soprano. Music Department alumna Audra Scott, soprano, will perform as a guest soloist. In addition to the performances with the Toruń Symphony Orchestra, the Chorale will present concerts in Berlin, Germany, and in the Toruń-Bygdoski region in Poland. Also featured is a recital performed by bass-baritone Mr. Turner and pianist Dr. Danny R. Kelley, Dean of the Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences. The Chorale’s tour will end with a visit to Warsaw, the capital city of Poland.

The three final concerts of the 2018 Festival will be given by the choir and solo singers of the Prairie View A&M University Concert Chorale from Texas:

  • on August 31, 2018, in the Church of the Holy Spirit, the PVAMU Concert Chorale will ender their interpretation of traditional negro spirituals music and a selection of original arrangements of the most popular gospel songs and anthems.
  • on September 1, 2018, an occasion to savor the most popular songs from America owing to the bass-baritone Leon P. Turner and the pianist Danny R. Kelley. Among the highlights of the concert will also be a solo piano arrangement of G. Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’.
  • on September 2, 2018, during the final event of this year’s edition of the Festival, a concert version of G. Gershwin’s opera ‘Porgy and Bess’ performed by the Toruń Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mariusz Smolij and the Prairie View A&M University Concert Chorale together with solo singers from America: Jolie Rocke Brown (soprano), Audra Scott (soprano), Leon P. Turner (bass-baritone ), and Chauncey D. Packer (tenor).
  • on September 9, 2018, conductor Mariusz Smolij will lead the Concert Chorale and the Capella Bydgostiensis Chamber Orchestra in a performance of the world premiere setting for chorus and orchestra, Biblical Songs by Antonín Dvořák, arranged  by PVAMU music faculty Dr. John L. Cornelius, II. Sopranos Audra Scott (PVAMU ’03) and Jolie Rocke Brown (PVAMU voice teacher) will be featured in Adolphus Hailstork’s Four Spirituals for two sopranos and chorus; The program will also include acapella  spirituals by the Chorale and George Whitefield Chadwick’s Serenade for Strings. This concert is made possible through the generous support of the Pomeranian Philharmonic and the city of Bydgoszcz.

The following is background information on the orchestra:
This year, the Toruń Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 39th anniversary. It was founded as the Toruń Chamber Music Orchestra in the artistic season of 1978/79 and performed under the auspices of the City of Toruń since 1990. The orchestra receives the funding for its activities from the City of Toruń, to which it owes its dynamic development. Since February 2006 it is officially named as the Toruń Symphony Orchestra.

 

The orchestra has gained a firm standing among many other cultural institutions in our town. This is due to the concerts performed in Toruń as well as at numerous tourneés, both in Poland and abroad. In the course of thirty-five years of their artistic activity, the orchestra played in most of the Polish cities, in many European countries (e.g. Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, France, Belarus, Lithuania), at many prestigious festivals. The orchestra is especially proud of a one-month tourneé in China, two concerts at the Opera Gala in Pamplona, as well as the concert at the Cirque Royal in Brussels (in October 2010).

 

Among the significant achievements of the Toruń Orchestra is the International Summer Festival ‘Music and Architecture’ (organized every year since 1997). Every July and August, the concerts at the festival gather large audiences in the historic interiors of Toruń monuments and present the art of eminent conductors and extraordinarily talented soloists. 

 

It is an honor that the Prairie View A&M University Concert Chorale participates in the concert series.

 

Author:  Maurice Perkins