MANSFIELD, PA (03/23/2023) – The Mansfield University Festival Chorus will present The Coronation Mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and movements from Frostiana by Randall Thompson on Sunday, April 16, at 2:30 p.m. in Steadman Theatre.
The Coronation Mass, composed in 1779, is one of the most popular of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 17 settings of the Latin mass texts. It was most likely premiered on Easter Sunday in 1779 in the Salzburg Cathedral as Mozart was serving as court organist and composer there. The mass acquired the nickname Kronungsmesse (Coronation Mass) at the Imperial court in Vienna in the early 19th-century after becoming the preferred music for royal and imperial coronations.
Frostiana is a cycle of songs for mixed chorus and orchestra composed in 1959 by Randall Thompson with texts by Robert Frost. It was premiered in Amherst, Massachusetts, and commissioned to commemorate the town’s bicentennial in honor of its long association with Robert Frost, who had lived there for some years. The poet and the composer knew and admired each other. The Festival Chorus performance will feature five of the seven movements, including the beloved: “Choose Something Like a Star.”
The performances of these uplifting works will be conducted by Peggy Dettwiler and will feature Mansfield student and community soloists: Soprano Barbara Winters, Mezzo-Soprano Jessica Strouse, Tenor Carter Route, and Baritone Carson Witherite with an orchestra of strings, winds, brass, timpani, and keyboard.
The tickets for $10 to adults and $5 to seniors and children under 18 can be purchased at mansfield.booktix.com