USU to present Mozart's Requiem in Salt Lake City and Logan

April 8, 2005 | LOGAN — Utah State University's department of music has assembled an ambitious musical project that will be presented in Salt Lake City and in Logan. A presentation of Mozart's "Requiem" is planned, and the work includes the combined efforts of the Utah State University Symphony Orchestra and choral ensembles, joined by faculty and alumni soloists. Faculty member Sergio Bernal directs.

Abravanel Hall, home to the Utah Symphony Orchestra, is the site of the Salt Lake performance that takes place at 6 p.m. April 17.

The Logan performance is 7:30 p.m. April 20 in Kent Concert Hall of the Chase Fine Arts Center on the Utah State campus.

Admission to the Abravanel Hall performance is free. Tickets for the Logan performance are available at the door. Adult admission is $5 and Utah State students with ID are admitted free.

"We are excited to showcase the wonderful performing abilities of our students and faculty in this great masterpice, Mozart's last work," Bernal said.

Utah State faculty members performing include Cindy Dewey, soprano, who is the director of the music department's voice program, and Cory Evans, tenor and director of the choral program. Joining them are alumni mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford and bass-baritone Michael Chipman.

Following graduation from Utah State last year, Mumford became a scholarship recipient and master's student at the renowned Yale University School of Music, Bernal said. Shortly after, she was engaged to participate in the Young Artists Program of the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Chipman has sung professionally with the Utah Opera and Lyric Opera Cleveland, and has appeared as soloist with the Utah Symphony, Honolulu Symphony and the Utah Chamber Orchestra.

The 130-voice choir featured in the performance combines the Utah State University Chamber Singers and University Chorale, as well as the Northern Utah Choral Society.

The program will also feature "Sinfonia India," a work by Mexican composer Carlos Chávez.

"It is a fantastic work by, perhaps, Mexico's most eminent composer," Bernal said. "Leonard Bernstein was a great enthusiast of Chávez's music and recorded the ‘Sinfonia India' with the New York Philharmonic."

The complete set of Chávez's six symphonies was recorded by Mexican conductor Eduardo Mata and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

"Chávez was Mata's mentor, and Mata was my mentor," Bernal said. "Mr. Mata died in a tragic accident 10 years ago. It will be an honor for me to perform the ‘Sinfonia India' and the Mozart ‘Requiem' in his memory."

The Abravanel Hall performance includes guest speakers — church leaders from various congregations -- who will provide insights, reflections and prayers related to the "Requiem" texts, Bernal continued.

In Logan, Utah State faculty historian and musicologist Eric Smigel will comment on the significance of Mozart's "Requiem," the circumstances around which it was composed and the portions of it that were completed by Mozart's pupils soon after the composer's early death at age 35.

Also joining the Logan performance are Utah State faculty soloists Leslie Timmons, flute, and Nicholas Morrison, clarinet. The two will present Jean Francaix's "Double Concerto."

"This is a charming and novel work written in 1991, the year people commemorated the 200 th anniversary of Mozart's passing," Bernal said

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