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