Berkshire Choral Festival

 Opens season on Saturday July 19th with Brahms's Requiem, Sheffield, MA
 
The Requiem, which has become Brahms’s most popular choral work, is based on Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible.  This achingly beautiful piece was conceived at the death of the composer’s friend and mentor, Robert Schumann, and completed a decade later following the death of Brahms’s mother.
 

 
Sheffield, Massachusetts, July 10, 2014 - The Berkshire Choral Festival kicks off its thirty-third season in Sheffield, MA on July 19th with A German Requiem by Johannes Brahms.  Rollo Dilworth, associate professor of choral music at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music, will lead the 200-voice Festival Chorus and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

The Requiem, which has become Brahms’s most popular choral work, is based on Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible.  This achingly beautiful piece was conceived at the death of the composer’s friend and mentor, Robert Schumann, and completed a decade later following the death of Brahms’s mother. 
 
The 7:30 p.m. concert will be held in the air-conditioned Jackman L. Stewart Center on the campus of Berkshire School at 245 North Undermountain Road in Sheffield. It will be preceded at 6:15 by a free talk by University of Massachusetts musicologist Dr. Laura Stanfield Pritchard.
 
Ticket prices range from $20 to $45.00. Tickets for the concert may be purchased by phone at (413) 229-1999, at www.choralfest.org or at the door.
 
Concert-goers are welcome to picnic on the campus prior to the performance, and the snack bar, which benefits the Sheffield Kiwanis scholarship fund, will be open before the concert and during intermission.
 
The Festival continues on July 26 with Bach’s St. John Passion conducted by Tom Hall, music director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society and concludes on August 2nd with Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius conducted by Kent Tritle, music director of  the Oratorio Society of New York. 
 
For further information, call (413) 229-1999 or visit www.choralfest.org.
 
ABOUT THE BERKSHIRE CHORAL FESTIVAL:
Based in Sheffield, Massachusetts, the Berkshire Choral Festival (BCF) was founded in 1982 as a not-for-profit educational institution with a unique purpose: to provide amateur singers with professional-level choral immersion experiences. During weeklong singing vacations at culturally rich US and international locations, knowledgeable amateurs study, rehearse, and perform masterpieces of the choral repertoire under the direction of world-class conductors, with professional symphony orchestras. In-depth workshops and courses with our professional staff round out the educational experience.

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