West Side Oratorio Choir, Children's Choir and Orchestra,
Joanne Harris Rodland, Conductor
N.J. City University Concert Chorale, Dr. Robert Prowse, Director
Mark Bleeke, Evangelist
Edward Brewer, Harpsichord;
Scott Kluksdahl, Cello
Admission is free. Child care provided for pre-school children. Free-will offering taken.
March 21, 2010, is the 325th anniversary of Bach's birth. How else does one celebrate this genius of all time but with the incomparable St. Matthew Passion? No musician before or since has had such influence on music, sacred or secular. But it is to this particular work that all eyes turn when choosing his masterpiece. Leonard Bernstein called it "one of the divine dozen." We would dare to call it the first of the "divine dozen." Two choirs, a children's chorus, up to eight soloists, two full baroque orchestras and participation of the congregation itself are called for in this setting of St. Matthew, the Evangelist's, telling of the Passion of Chirst. We will perform the work in English, for us, the "language of the people," knowing that to Bach, his music was the handmaiden for the preaching of the Word.