Welcome to Ars Musica’s 53rd season – featuring some of the most glorious and thrilling choral music ever written. You’ll enjoy a captivating mix of music spanning over 1,000 years.
We start the season off with a concert of music by titans of the Classical era, Mozart and Schubert, including the famous Requiem, which to this day is still shrouded in mystery and intrigue. In December don’t miss our signature holiday concert, featuring the angelic voices of the New Jersey State Children’s Chorus. And join us for a magical evening at the opera in March as we present stunning arias and choruses from your favorite dramas.
Our final concert, “A Total Embrace”, will pay homage to Leonard Bernstein in his centenary year, including performances of his most popular works for chorus, orchestra, and soloists.
Ars Musica Chorale is one of the oldest and finest choral groups in Bergen County. In this day and age we need music and community more than ever. Allow yourself to be swept away by the power and emotion of 80 voices performing some of the world’s greatest melodies. We can’t wait to welcome you!
Classical Splendor: works for chorus and orchestra by Schubert and Mozart, including the Requiem
Saturday, November 10, 2018, 7 PM
West Side Presbyterian Church, Ridgewood
We start the season off with a concert of music by titans of the Classical Era, Mozart and Schubert, including the famous Requiem, which to this day is still shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Composed during the final months of Mozart’s life, it was unfinished at the time of his death and later finished by his student Süssmayr. The concert begins with another work from Mozart’s final year, the overture to the opera The Magic Flute, a tour de force for orchestra. It’s followed by Franz Schubert’s Mass in G, a work brimming with energy and sublime melodies. The first half concludes with Mozart’s choral miniature, Ave Verum Corpus. The grand finale is Mozart’s powerful, spiritual, fury-filled Requiem, performed with a stunning cast of soloists.
Repertoire:
- Mozart Overture to the Magic Flute (7’),
- Schubert: Mass in G (22’),
- Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus (3’), and the
- Requiem (47’).
Artists: Encore Young Artists, the Adelphi Orchestra
An Ars Musica Holiday
Saturday, December 8, 2018, 7 PM
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Ridgewood
Join us for our signature Ars Musica Holiday, featuring the angelic voices of the New Jersey State Children’s Chorus. Let us take you on a journey of music composed over a thousand years, including favorite Christmas carols, spirituals, Hanukkah songs, and music to get you into the festive holiday spirit. We’ll hear works by Eric Whitacre, John Rutter, Benjamin Britten, as well as new compositions and arrangements by our Music Director, James Kennerley.
Artists: Encore Young Artists, New Jersey State Children’s Chorus, Ars Musica festival brass and percussion ensemble.
The Magic of Opera: celebrated arias and choruses from the world’s greatest operas!
Sunday, March 10, 2019, 4 PM
West Side Presbyterian Church, Ridgewood
Imagine a performance of all your favorite opera arias and choruses performed in a single concert! Ars Musica’s 80 voices, together with stellar vocal soloists from our Encore Young Artists Program, will take you on a dramatic, musical journey through the greatest opera excerpts. You’ll enjoy choruses and arias from operas by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, including The Magic Flute, Carmen, Nabucco, Turandot, and the Triumphal March from Aïda.
Artists: Encore Young Artists
A Total Embrace: Bernstein at 100
Saturday, May 18, 2019, 7 PM
West Side Presbyterian Church, Ridgewood
Our final concert of the season takes the form of a spectacular celebration of the music of Leonard Bernstein in his centennial year. Ars Musica will present a wide-ranging selection of the composer’s most popular works for chorus and orchestra, accompanied by the award-winning Adelphi Orchestra, together with our Encore Young Artist soloists and the New Jersey State Children’s Chorus.
Works performed will include the Chichester Psalms, movements from MASS, choruses from The Lark, Missa Brevis, and extracts from West Side Story, Candide, and much more. Don’t miss this celebration of one of the most prolific and revolutionary composers of the twentieth century.
Artists: Encore Young Artists, the New Jersey State Children’s Chorus, the Adelphi Orchestra
“Life without music is unthinkable. Life without music is academic. That is why my contact with music is a total embrace.” – Leonard Bernstein
