Frank Nemhauser Previews the BCI Singing Week in Lenox
LENOX | MAY 31 – JUNE 7, 2020 | SEIJI OZAWA HALL
BCI Music Director Frank Nemhauser is enthusiastic about the upcoming BCI week in Lenox featuring Trinity Wall Street’s Julian Wachner, who conducts Mozart’s “Requiem.”
“Julian Wachner is a brilliant musician and conductor - one of our most popular. He is well established in the New York City area and for many years was active in Washington D.C., Montreal, and Boston. He works with a wide-range of singers from top professionals through very talented amateurs, such as we have at BCI. Our choristers really love working with him. He’s very quick, very facile and an excellent musician.
“We also are very excited to be in on the ground floor of Tanglewood's Linde Center for Music and Learning, which is brand new. We’ll be in residence there for a week. They are wonderful facilities in which to rehearse and learn, and a short walk from beautiful Seiji Ozawa Hall, our concert venue. The Tanglewood grounds are absolutely gorgeous and the surrounding area is a feast for the eyes. It’s the Berkshires at its best.
“I thought it was time to bring the Mozart Requiem back; we haven’t performed the piece for quite a number of years. It’s so well known by so many people, but there are always choristers who haven’t sung it. For those who have, I want to say that great art lasts a long time. There’s a reason why the Mozart Requiem is still done, that Handel’s Messiah is still done, that Shakespeare is still done. The more one experiences these beloved works, the deeper one can delve and still find joy and satisfaction. Julian and I thought it would be nice to pair the Requiem with something that we’ve never performed at BCI, but a piece by a very familiar composer: J.S Bach’s Mass in F Major, one of the Missae breves. They are rarely performed by amateur choruses and are terrific pieces. “