The combined choirs at Stephen F. Austin State University along with the Orchestra of the Pines will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem KV 626 (completed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 4, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.
Conducted by Dr. Michael Murphy, this masterwork concert will feature SFA’s A Cappella Choir, Murphy, director; Choral Union and Women’s Choir, Dr. Tod Fish, director; and the Orchestra of the Pines, Dr. Gene H. Moon, director.
The performance will also feature faculty soloists Debbie Berry, Nita Hudson, Dr. Richard Berry and Dr. Chris Turner from the School of Music.
“This concert features two popular choral-orchestral works from the Classical era,” said Murphy, director of choral activities in the School of Music. “Perhaps no other work garners more mystery and intrigue than Mozart’s unfinished Requiem in D minor, K. 626. Many strange events and coincidences surrounding the commission and creation of the Requiem and Mozart’s untimely death at age 35 has provided overly dramatic license for rumors and conspiracy theories for staged productions and movies alike,” he added.
Franz Joseph Haydn’s Te Deum was composed in the same decade as the unfinished Requiem and Mozart’s death. The Te Deum was composed for the music lover and amateur singer, Empress Marie Therese.
The combined choirs and orchestra will perform Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, and the A Cappella Choir and chamber orchestra will perform Haydn’s Te Deum.
Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.
