Baroque Composers at Their Finest: An Evening of Music and Song

TACOMA, Wash. – Music faculty members and students at the University of Puget Sound will perform works from some of history’s most influential baroque composers at a public concert in February.

From a Bach work centered on Cain and Abel's biblical story to a Nicola Porpora piece written for the convent choirs at Venice orphanages, the concert will provide a rich night of vocal and instrumental music.

An Evening of Baroque Music will be performed Friday, Feb. 6, at 7:30 p.m., in Kilworth Memorial Chapel. The Jacobsen Series concert from the School of Music will include strings, harpsichord, and piano, with solo arias and choir. The ticket information is below.

Dawn Padula, mezzo-soprano; Maria Sampen, violin; Timothy Christie, violin; and Duane Hulbert, harpsichord, will be joined by student musicians Dorian Singers, conducted by Kathryn Lehmann.

“The two Corelli sonatas we have chosen are simply gorgeous works for two violins, cello, and harpsichord,” said Sampen. “The Bach Brandenburg Concertos are all masterpieces. The Porpora Magnificat is a gem of work for women’s voices. I love concerts like this that afford opportunities for students and faculty to perform side by side.”

Padula said that in selecting her vocal pieces, she aimed to represent the major composers of Baroque vocal literature: Handel, Bach, and Scarlatti.

“Scarlatti’s oratorio, written in Italian, centers around the story of Cain and Abel, the first children of Adam and Eve,” Padula said. “The arias I will be singing are Cain’s. The first is right before he kills Abel; the second is after he’s committed the murder and is struggling with extreme guilt, questioning whether to live or die himself.” The evening’s program includes:

Arcangelo Corelli: Trio Sonata in D Major, Opus 3, No. 2
Arcangelo Corelli: Trio Sonata in C Major, Opus 4, No. 1
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048
Nicola Porpora: Magnificat for Women’s Voices
Johann Sebastian Bach: “Qui sedes,” from Mass in B minor
Alessandro Scarlatti: Two arias from Il Primo Omicidio
George Frideric Handel: “Cara sposa,” from Rinaldo

Bach’s Mass in B minor is a large work for choir, orchestra, and soloists, sung in Latin and written toward the end of Bach’s life. “Cara Sposa,” from Handel’s Rinaldo, was the first Italian-language opera written for the London stage and demonstrates Handel’s powerful and melodic compositional style. The role of the nobleman knight Rinaldo was originally written for a soprano or contralto male singing voice, then called “castrato.” Today the role is performed by female mezzo-sopranos.

The program as a whole combines some of the most prominent musical composers of the elaborate Baroque art movement of the 17th and early-18th centuries, promising the university’s faculty and students—and South Sound audiences—a rewarding night.

The Jacobsen Series, named in honor of Leonard Jacobsen, former chair of the piano department at Puget Sound, has been running since 1984. The Jacobsen Series Scholarship Fund awards annual music scholarships to outstanding student performers and scholars. The fund is sustained entirely by season subscribers and ticket sales.

FOR TICKETS: Tickets are available online at tickets.pugetsound.edu or Wheelock Information Center, 253.879.3100. Admission is $15 for the general public; $10 for seniors (55+), students, military, and Puget Sound faculty and staff. The concert is free for current Puget Sound students. Group ticket rates are available for parties of 10 or more by calling 253.879.3555 in advance. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door.

For directions and a map of the campus: pugetsound.edu/directions
For accessibility information, please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3236, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.

Press photos of Maria Sampen and Dawn Padula can be downloaded from pugetsound.edu/pressphotos.
Photos on page: Top right: Johann Sebastian Bach, by Elias Gottlob Haussman (1748); Above left: Maria Sampen; Above right: Dawn Padula

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