BALTIMORE CHORAL ARTS ANNOUNCES ITS 2022-23 Season: Celebrating Dynamic Voices and EuroTour 2022
In its 57th season, Baltimore Choral Arts explores works of great vibrancy and fervor with our 2022-23 season: Celebrating Dynamic Voices. Our four-concert subscription series highlights our second tour under Music Director Anthony Blake Clark through Berlin, Prague, and Vienna. We are also celebrating dynamic and impactful tales told through classical music with works by Rosephanye Powell and other women composers and ending with Mendelsohn’s Elijah. We also continue to reach out and serve new Baltimore audiences with our online Choral Arts Shorts, available on our website www.BaltimoreChoralArts.org and YouTube channel.
Music Director Anthony Blake Clark states “Choral music is a unique medium within art music because of its instant ability to communicate a message. Now more than ever, we need a message of hope, joy, and unity. In 2022-2023 Baltimore Choral Arts presents another dynamic season of these hopeful messages delivered by world-class artists both from Baltimore and far beyond. I am thrilled to bring Rosephanye Powell to Baltimore to conduct her own works. We have a special relationship with Dr. Powell, whose music you can enjoy on our Christmas album. I am excited to bring the emotionally charged Scarlatti “Stabat Mater” and the triumphant masterwork “Elijah” by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to our audiences. Of course, presenting the music of Bernstein both here and in Europe is so exciting for me. I hope you’ll be able to join us for all of these programs!”
The season begins in October with EuroTour 2022: Berlin, Prague, Vienna, featuring highlights from our tour to Europe from October 14-23. The tour includes concerts under the baton of Marin Alsop with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and at the Choral Space festival in the Berliner Philharmonie. The concert in Baltimore includes works by Mendelssohn, Handel, Berlioz, and Bernstein, as well as a performance of TaReKiTa by Reena Esmail.
In December, Baltimore Choral Arts’ holiday tradition continues with favorite holiday music for chorus and orchestra, dramatic readings, and cherished sing-a-longs spreading Christmas cheer in Christmas with Choral Arts! Our new broadcast times will be announced this fall. Our non-subscription children’s program Christmas for Kids will also make its return with a new and thrilling holiday story in collaboration with Young Audiences of Maryland.
In March, Choral Arts highlights the power of women composers with the concert Her Voice. Composer, educator, performer, and conductor Rosephanye Powell returns to Choral Arts to lead the second half of this concert, having previously been featured on our Christmas at America’s First Cathedral CD/DVD with Music Director Emeritus Tom Hall. Anthony Blake Clark conducts the first half featuring Domenico Scarlatti’s famed choral masterwork.
We conclude our season of celebrating dynamic voices with one of Mendelssohn’s finest works, Elijah. In Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Choral Arts will perform this much-loved oratorio at the Murphy Fine Arts Center at Morgan State University. This masterpiece was inspired by the great religious works of Bach and Handel. The full piece will be performed with intermission in this exhilarating performance.
Full four-concert subscriptions are available now with an Early Bird discount. For more information, please visit www.BaltimoreChoralArts.org or call the box office at 410-523-7070 ext 301. Early Bird discount ends after July 1.
The Baltimore Choral Arts Society is one of Maryland's premier cultural institutions. The Symphonic Chorus, Chorus, and Chamber Singers perform throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as in Washington, D.C., New York, and in Europe. The Baltimore Choral Arts Society provides several thoughtful and impactful music education programs that serve youth in and around Baltimore. These programs include CoroLAB, a partnership with Baltimore City College’s and Overlea High School’s choral music programs; Vocal Fellows, an expanded professional development program for early-career singers; Student Composer Project, a competition for high-school and college composers; and our annual Christmas for Kids concert. Through these four primary educational programs, Choral Arts serves the very young to early-career adult musicians.
Currently embarking on his fifth season as Music Director of the nationally acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning Baltimore Choral Arts Society, conductor and composer Anthony Blake Clark enjoys a reputation as one of the freshest young voices in classical music. Anthony Blake Clark is at home in front of orchestras and choirs alike and has worked with professional and amateur ensembles in the USA and Europe, coming from the tutelage of world-renowned teachers such as Simon Halsey and Marin Alsop. During his tenure with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Anthony Blake Clark has consistently received rave reviews, both for work on the podium in his subscription concerts and his preparation of choruses for performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Symphony Orchestra, and the Peabody Preparatory Orchestra. Winner of the 2019-2020 American Prize in choral conducting, Clark’s leadership of Baltimore Choral Arts has also been acknowledged with another nomination for the American Prize for best choral performance, as well as the reception of the prestigious 2020 Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award. Recently, he led the ensemble on an enthusiastically received tour of the United Kingdom, culminating in a collaboration on Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.