The Hamilton College and Community Oratorio Society and Orchestra will present their winter concert on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 8 p.m. at Wellin Hall in the Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts. Under the direction of G. Roberts Kolb, the program will feature Franz Schubert's Mass in E-Flat Major, D.950 and Robert Schumann's Adventlied, Op. 71. Guest soloists for this performance are Lauralyn Kolb, soprano; Rossella Ewing, contralto; Todd Greer, tenor; and Timothy LeFebvre, bass.
The son of a bookseller, Robert Schumann (1810-1856) is best known for early romanticism in music. His first career goal was to be a lawyer, and he tried law school but realized that his heart's desire was to become a piano virtuoso. A hand injury prompted his career path to change toward composition. Adventlied or Avent Song is a seasonal choral piece written for soprano, choir and orchestra.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) showed an extraordinary talent at a young age for music. He studied the piano, violin, organ, singing and harmony and composition. .By his late teens, Schubert had produced piano pieces, string quartets, his first symphony and a three-act opera. Schubert's father was a schoolmaster, and family pressure dictated that he teach in his father's school, but he continued to compose. Schubert wrote the Mass No. 6 in E-flat major in the final year of his life and it lay unperformed until a year after his death.
Lauralyn Kolb, soprano, has given more than 75 performances of major works with a variety of organizations, including the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Syracuse Symphony. Ms. Kolb has released a CD of Duke's songs for New World Records. She teaches voice at both Hamilton College and Colgate University.
Tenor Todd Greer has completed an Alder Fellowship with the San Francisco Opera, where he performed as an artist in residence for two seasons. A native of Charlotte, N.C., Greer holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Binghamton University. He was the recipient of the Richard F. Gold career grant from the Shoshana Foundation and was a prizewinner in the 1999 MacAllister Competition.
Baritone Timothy LeFebvre is a frequent performer with Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, NY. He has appeared in opera engagements with several regional companies, including Indianapolis Opera, Ithaca Opera and Saratoga Opera. He is a featured singer on a recently released CD of Beethoven folk songs, The Pulse of an Irishman.
The Hamilton College and Community Oratorio Society, founded in 1975, is an organization of approximately 120 singers and is open to any member of the community without audition. The Oratorio Society has dedicated itself to bringing together Hamilton students, faculty, staff and their families with members of the surrounding community from as far north as Old Forge and as far south as Sherburne to sing great choral masterworks, accompanied by some of the finest orchestral musicians and vocal soloists in the area. G. Roberts Kolb has been the director of this group since 1981.
Tickets for this event are $6 adult, $4 senior and student, and free with a Hamilton College student ID. All seating is general admission. For reservations or for more information, call the Performing Arts ticket office at (315) 859-4331 and leave a message.
