Brazosport Choral Union to finish season with “Baroque”

Emily Newton-Mattice, left, and Kenneth Mattice will be featured guest artists at the upcoming Brazosport Choral Union performance on April 26 at The Clarion.

Brazosport Choral Union to finish season with “Baroque”

The Brazosport Choral Union will finish its 2013-14 season on Saturday, April 26 with “The Baroque Concert.” The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. at The Clarion at Brazosport Concert.

The show will feature guest artists soprano Emily Newton-Mattice and baritone Kenneth Mattice, along with the chamber orchestra.

The program includes exclusively music from the Baroque period of music.

Beginning the concert will be Henry Purcell’s “Come Ye Sons of Art,” his final of six birthday odes written for Queen Mary II of England in 1694. It will feature the soloists in eight of the 10 movements. A duet, also featuring the soloist, from Purcell’s theatre piece, “The Fairy Queen,” will follow.

The combined choir that comprise the Brazosport Choral Union will then render two pieces by the baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach. First, "Komm, süßer Tod, komm selge Ruh" (Come, sweet death, come, blessed rest), a song originally for solo voice and basso continuo from the 69 Sacred Songs and Arias that Bach contributed to Georg Christian Schemelli's “Musicalisches Gesangbuch” (BWV 478), edited in 1736, text by an anonymous author, sung a cappella, in English for this performance as a four-part choral arranged by Rhonda Sandberg. Second, from Bach’s Cantata #129, “Gelobet sei der Herr, Mein Gott “ (The Lord My God Be Praised) also sung in English.

Three works by George Fredrick Handel will complete the concert. Emily Newton-Mattice will offer “Laschia ch’io pianga,” the famous aria from the opera Rinaldo. She will continue with the choirs, singing the solo part to “Lord in the Thee Have I Trusted” from Handel’s  “Dettingen Te Deum.” The finale is “Zadok, The Priest,” with the music written for and still used in the coronation’s of the British monarchy.

Emily Newton is from Lake Jackson and is currently developing her career in Europe after a critically acclaimed debut in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Anna Nicole” in 2013 with Oper Dortmund in the continental premiere of the work.  She most recently appeared in Beethoven’s “Fidelio” as Leonore at Theater Aachen in Germany.  She has performed a wide variety of opera and concert repertoire and worked at theaters, such as The Metropolitan Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Saratoga, Opera New Jersey, Opera in the Heights, and Amarillo Opera.  After developing a strong musical foundation at Brazoswood High School, Brazosport College and St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Newton went on to complete degrees at University of North Texas and University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Praised by Opera News for his “handsome baritone (voice) displaying a glistening edge”, baritone Kenneth Mattice continues to gain accolades in his young career.  This Wisconsin native recently made his German operatic debut with Oper Dortmund as Larry King in the Continental Premier production of “Anna Nicole,” created the title character in the World Premiere of Carson Kievman’s “Hamlet” at the SoBe Institute of the Arts in Miami, performed Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas for the Macau International Music Festival and was in Bergamo, Italy to sing the role of Petruccio in Efrain Amaya’s World Premiere-production of “La Bisbetica Domata” at the Festival Internazionale della Cultura.  He has also performed with Opera San José, Baltimore Opera, Opera Delaware, Florida Opera Theater, Opera Tampa, Shreveport Opera, Opera Providence, Opera Saratoga and at the Ravinia Festival.

The choirs are under the direction of Rodney Mason, Director of Choral and Keyboard Activities at Brazosport College. The Choral Union is made up of the BC Chamber Choir, Singers and the Brazosport Civic Chorus. Emily and Kenneth will be teaching vocal master classes at Brazosport College on Monday, April 28.