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HER 2020 - 2021 SEASON RE-IMAGINED Celebrating the Impact of Women on the World Live Performances April 30 - May 2, 2021 Online Video Concert May 21 - June 4, 2021Medieval love lyrics, exuberant drinking songs, sinners’ ‘confessions,’ hymns to gambling and gluttony, a litany to Lady Luck, sensuality in song...who wrote this work?! THE GODDESS CARMINA BURANA! True Concord Choir, Soloists & Chamber Players Composer Carl Orff took verses from a collection of 13th-century poems, discovered in the early 20th century in an abbey near Munich, Germany. And the poets? They called themselves “goliards” (mostly defrocked monks and minstrels), said to have been better known for their rioting, gambling and intemperance than for their scholarship. The poems amount to an uninhibited celebration of the pleasures of life, bed, bawdiness and particularly, love. Carl Orff’s authorized chamber version for choir, 2 pianists, percussion & soloists Orff’s settings throb with youth and unrestrained exuberance, using simple melodies and pulsing rhythms. You may know the version for full orchestra and large choirs. True Concord brings you into the action with this colorful chamber version. The tenor voice of a tortured swan roasting over a fire… Some of the most breathtaking 40 seconds ever written for a soprano… The Rock Anthem of the Classical World… The capricious goddess Fortuna is often depicted as blind — All feel her arbitrary caresses in their lives. “If all the World were mine, from the sea to the Rhine, I would do without it, if the Queen of England would lie in my arms. Hey!” - Goliard poem from Carmina Buranapresents THE GODDESS CARMINA BURANA! Eric Holtan, Founding Music Director Corporate Season Sponsor Associate Corporate Season Sponsor Season Sponsors Andrew & Cammie Watson Associate Season Sponsor Frances S. Richardson Spring Season Sponsor Carol des Cognets PARTNERS April 30 Performance Co-Sponsors Carolyn Andersen Garry & Marty Bond May 1 Performance Sponsors Patrica & Reidar Bjorhovde May 2 Performance Co-Sponsor Julia PernetEQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITYTHE GODDESS - CARMINA BURANA PROGRAM Carmina Burana Carl Orff (1895-1982) Arr. Wilhelm Killmayer Hugh Russell, baritone Chelsea Helm, soprano Patrick Muehleise, tenor Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi O Fortuna Fortune plango volnera I. Primo vere Veris leta facies Omnia Sol temperat Ecce gratum Uf dem anger Tanz Floret silva nobilis Chramer, gip die varwe mir Reie Swaz hie gat umbe Chume, chum, geselle min Swaz hie gat umbe Were diu werlt alle min II. In Taberna Estuans interius Olim lacus colueram Ego sum abbas In taberna quando sumusIII. Cour d’amours Amor volat undique Dies, nox et omnia Stetit puella Circa mea pectora Si puer cum puellula Veni, veni, venias In trutina Tempus est ilcundum Dulcissime Blanziflor et Helena Ave formosissima Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi O Fortuna Carl Orff 1975. Photo courtesy of OZM, Orf.de. "Music begins inside human beings, and so must any instruction. Not at the instrument, not with the first finger, nor with the first position — not with this or that chord. The starting point is one's own stillness, listening to oneself...to one's own heart- beat and breathing." - Carl OrffTHE GODDESS - CARMINA BURANA SOLOISTS Hugh Russell, baritone Baritone Hugh Russell has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), Cincinnati Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony, among many others. He has been honored to work with many eminent conductors, including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jaap van Zweden, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Manfred Honeck, Edo de Waart, Kent Nagano, Donald Runnicles, Steuart Bedford, Michael Christie, Hans Graf, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and Rossen Milanov. Operatically, he has been featured in productions at Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Atlanta Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Arizona Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Vancouver Opera, Calgary Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Manitoba Opera, the Wexford Festival, and Angers-Nantes Opera. Hugh has also been featured in recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and in many appearances with the New York Festival of Song. As a pianist, he has been featured in performance with Stephanie Blythe at a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Seattle Opera, and has also been featured in performance with Christine Brewer for Illinois Humanities. He received a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Brandon University, studying with Professor Sylvia Richardson, a Master of Music in Performance and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, studying with Professor Dale Moore, and an Artist Diploma from Oberlin Conservatory, studying with Professor Richard Miller. He concluded his formal studies with a two-year Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera.Chelsea Helm, soprano An active choral artist, Ms. Helm appears this season with GRAMMY®-winning Conspirare, GRAMMY® nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and GRAMMY® nominated Seraphic Fire. Last season she enjoyed performances with the Bach Society of Houston, the Calvin Oratorio Society of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was a Vocal Fellow with the Charlotte Bach Festival, under the direction of Scott Allen Jarrett. A Michigan native, Ms. Helm has appeared as a concert soloist with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Muskegon Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Festival Orchestra, and with University Orchestras at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and the University of Wisconsin La-Crosse. Favorite performances include the Mozart Requiem and Orff’s Carmina Burana. With a special affinity for new music and contemporary premieres, Ms. Helm has created numerous roles in chamber works for live theatrical and digital mediums. Recently, she was featured in Houston Grand Opera’s NOW, Episode 2 from their Star-Cross’d series of short-form operas, premiered on YouTube, and written by Avner Dorman with libretto by John Grimmett. She also created the title role in Lolly Willowes, a contemporary chamber musical that premiered at MATCH Houston in 2019, composed by Michael Alec Rose and based on the novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Ms. Helm holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and Music Education from Western Michigan University. Also a WMU Gold Company alumna, Ms. Helm recorded a Downbeat award- winning album with vocal jazz quartet the Four Corners. She cherishes opportunities to sneak jazz singing into her predominantly classical performing schedule, and has recently enjoyed features with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, including last year’s Late Night with Chelsea Helm and the Bert Dalton Trio, a program spotlight during the 2019 Summer Festival. Ms. Helm is now based in New York City and can be heard with The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Chamber Choir and as a chorister and soloist with Holy Trinity Lutheran’s Bach Vespers series.Next >