WNYCO and School of Music “Celebrate Brahms”

The Western New York Chamber Orchestra and the Fredonia School of Music’s Masterworks Chorus will join forces as they  "Celebrate Brahms,” performing two of Johannes Brahms greatest works on Sunday, April 30 at 4 p.m. at King Concert Hall. 

Conductor/Artistic Director Glen Cortese will direct Brahms’ “A German Requiem, Op. 45” as well as the “Tragic Overture, Op. 81.” Featured soloists will include soprano Kyoung Cho and bass-baritone Won Cho.  Tickets for the concert are available at the Central Ticket Office, located at the Williams Center, or by calling 716-673-3501. This call is toll-free at (866) 441-4928. Tickets are only $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $6 for students or children.

There will be a pre-concert talk at 3 p.m. in the Rockefeller Arts Center Art Gallery Lobby. All ticket holders are welcome to attend. Maestro Cortese will lead a discussion about Brahms and the works to be performed.

The program will showcase German composer Johannes Brahms’ Tragic Overture and A German Requiem. The first selection, Tragic Overture, was written in 1880 as the more somber companion to the lighter Academic Festival Overture. The second, A German Requiem, is considered one of Brahms’ greatest works. The 1868 composition combines mixed chorus and vocal soloists with the power and range of the full chamber orchestra.

Lyric soprano, Kyoung Cho has performed numerous operas, oratorios, and concerts with companies such as Komische Kammer Opera Munich in Germany, Slovak State Opera in Slovak Republic, Washington Concert Opera, and on such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall in New York City and Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She has sung both operatic roles and oratorios. Brahms’ Requiem is one of her favorite oratorio repertoires among with Mozart’s Requiem, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s c minor Mass, Bach’s Magnificat, Messiah, and The Creation. The Buffalo News recently hailed Ms. Cho’s performance in Mozart’s c minor Mass with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra as “sublimely beautiful, transcendent, serene, dazzling, and heavenly.” Ms. Cho is a member of the voice faculty at the Fredonia School of Music.

Like his wife, Bass-Baritone Won Cho has also appeared in numerous operas, oratorios, concerts, and recitals throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Middle East, and his native Korea. Mr. Cho has sung with such companies as Opera Memphis, East Slovak State Opera, Mississippi Opera, Operafest! of New Hampshire, and Dicapo Opera of NYC. He was the third prize winner of The 31st Vincenzo Bellini International Opera Competition in Italy, first prize winner of The Artist International Music Competition in Toronto, Canada, and a Regional Finalist at The Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Audition. He is currently a member of the voice faculty at SUNY Fredonia where he is serving as the co-coordinator of the opera program, and teaches voice and opera classes.

The MasterWorks Chorus is comprised of the best vocalists from the Fredonia School of Music. Dr. Donald Lang is the director of this elite ensemble.

For more information about Western New York Chamber Orchestra, visit the ensemble online at www.wnyco.org.