MOZART’S REQUIEM (USA, Slovenia)

Sacramento Choral Society
Ljubljana Soloists Orchestra

Conductor: Donald Kendrick
Eva Černe, soprano
Barbara Sorč, mezzosoprano
Klemen Torkar, tenor
Janko Volčanšek, bass

Ryan Enright, organ

 Programme:

 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), Requiem in D minor, K. 626

Mozart’s Requiem (completed by his disciple Süssmayr) is the author’s last work which has a status of almost mythical artwork in the music culture. An immortal opus will be performed by the renowned American Choir, a Slovene orchestral ensemble and a quartet of Slovene vocal soloists. The monumental sound concept of the performance will come into life in the acoustic dimensions of the Baroque interior of the Ljubljana Cathedral.

Sacramento Choral Society is a choir from the California City of Sacramento (USA) and one of the chief ensembles of the musical life there. During the twenty-three intense seasons the choir has performed a comprehensive and diverse list of works, including all important compositions of the oratorial repertoire.

Dr. Donald Kendrick is the founding Conductor of the Sacramento Choral Society (and Orchestra) that presents large choral orchestral performances each season in the Sacramento Community Center Theater, Memorial Auditorium and Fremont Presbyterian Church. He is also Director of Choral Activities at California State University, Sacramento, where he conducts the Concert Choir, Chamber Choir and the University Chorus. At CSUS he also directs the Graduate Degree Program in Choral Conducting that he initiated in 1986. His CSUS Choirs have performed in Europe, the United States and Canada. Kendrick is also Organist and Director of Music at Sacramento’s Sacred Heart Church where he conducts ensembles Vox Nova and ScholaCantorum. In addition, he is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Sacramento Children’s Chorus. In October 2017 Kendrick was awarded the Legend of the Arts award by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. He has prepared choruses for such leading orchestras as the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Toronto Symphony, the San Jose Symphony, the Chautauqua Symphony, the Baton Rouge Symphony, the Sacramento Symphony, and other orchestras in Canada.

He has studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music, Stanford University, and he holds a doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music. In 1989, he accepted an invitation from Boston’s celebrated Chorus Pro Musica, to serve as its third conductor in 41 years. He has appeared on the CBC as a recitalist and conductor. In May 1995, he made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem. In May 2003, he once again returned to Carnegie Hall with the SCSO to conduct a triumphant performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana. In July 2006, Kendrick led the Sacramento Choral Society and guests from the CSUS Choral Music Program on a performance tour of China, with concerts in Beijing, Tianjin, Xian, Jinan and a special performance on the Great Wall. He has led the SCSO in performances at the Vatican in Rome, Notre Dame in Paris, St. Paul’s in London and in Normandy’s American Cemetery. In the summer of 2017 Kendrick led the SCSO to the Baltics where they partnered with orchestras in Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.

Dr. Ryan Enright is the SCSO’s accompanist from November 2011. He also serves as organist at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Sacramento and is a member of the SCSO Orchestra. He also serves as accompanist for the Sacramento State University Choirs with Dr. Donald Kendrick. He made his Sacramento debut as an organ recitalist at St. John’s Lutheran Church in May 2012. In September 2012 he made his San Franciso debut in a well-received recital at St. Mary’s Cathedral; recently he gave his second organ recital in Sacramento. Enright completed his DMA in Organ Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music in 2011 and was one of sixteen finalists in the Canadian International Organ Competition held in Montréal in October 2011. A native of Montréal, Quebec, he has taken first prizes in the Royal Canadian College of Organists National Organ Playing Competition, the Quebec Organ Competition and the Canadian Music Competition. Ryan Enright is a graduate of McGill University in Montréal. His studies have taken him to Holland, France, and Italy. He served as Organ Scholar and Assistant Organist of Christ Chuch Cathedral in Montréal and was Director of Music and Organist of St. Phillip’s Church in Montréal West.

The Ljubljana Soloists Orchestra was established as a chamber ensemble in 2010 to represent talented musicians from Ljubljana and their work to the general public, and to popularize classical music among young people. The orchestra consists of gifted instrumentalists who acquired musical education in Ljubljana and are upgrading their knowledge at prestigious music establishments at home and abroad. Many of them are prize winners at national and international music competitions. In addition to high quality of the performance, the orchestra is distinguished by its great youthful enthusiasm.

The soprano Eva Černe started her singing studies at the age of 14. At the Ljubljana Academy of Music she completed her master’s degree studies with prof. Alenka Dernač Bunta. In 2014, she made her debut in the Opera of SNG Maribor as First Fairy in Dvořák’s Rusalka. She also performed at the Academy of Music (in collaboration with the Slovenian Chamber Music Theater) as Sandrina in the Piccinni’s La Cecchina. As a guest she regularly cooperates with SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana. She also plays in musicals. In May 2017, she performed the role of Maria in The Sound of Music. She is also active as a pedagogue.

The mezzosoprano Barbara Sorč first sang in the Tone Tomšič Academic Choir and then in the Chamber Choir Ave. After graduating from the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana, she enrolled at the Ljubljana Music Conservatory and later at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, where she graduated with prof. Vlatka Oršanić. She has been training at international seminars with Richard Miller, Breda Zakotnik, Snježana Bujanović Stanislav, Biserka Cvejić, Dunja Vejzović, Anthony Spiri, John Potter and others. She participated in the performances of major vocal instrumental works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Vivaldi, Saint-Saëns and Mahler. She has appeared (as a soloist) in Slovenia, Austria, Romania, Croatia and the Czech Republic. She collaborated with distinguished domestic and foreign orchestras. She was the finalist of the International Singing Competition Ondina Otta in Maribor (2005) and of the Competition of the Rome Festival (2008). In the 2005/2006, she debuted at the SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana as Smeraldina (In Love with Three oranges), followed by roles in the operas Dido and Aeneas, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il Cambiale di matrimonio, Magical Flute, Carmen, Manon Lescaut, Rusalka, etc.

The tenor Klemen Torkar started his vocal studies with Slovenian baritone Jaka Jeraša. He continued his education at the Music Conservatory in Ljubljana with prof. Marjan Trček and at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, where he completed his undergraduate studies with prof. Matjaž Robavs and master’s degree with prof. Pija Brodnik. He performed in the Slovene operetta The Mountain Flower, in Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne (as Bastien), in Gluck’s comic opera Le cadi dupé, in the fairy-tale Little Red Riding Hood by César Cui, in Piccini’s opera La Cecchina,  and in Monteverdi’s Orfeo (in the title role). He also performed in the tenor solo of Orff’s Carmina Burana and in the Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine.

The bass-baritone Janko Volčanšek graduated in 2002 at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, where he also completed his postgraduate studies in 2005. He has been training with many renowned pedagogues abroad. He is a regular guest of domestic concert- and opera stages (Slovenian Philharmonic, Cankarjev dom, SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, SNG Opera Maribor), appearing also in Croatia, Italy, Austria, Belgium etc. He has performed in more than 40 vocal-instrumental works with all major Slovene orchestras under the guidance of domestic and foreign conductors. He received national and international singing awards and the Prešeren Prize of the Academy of Music. In 2008, he debuted in Ipavec’s slovene national opera The Teharje Nobility (SLG Celje), and in 2009 he was on the stage of SNG Maribor as Jaka in Parma’s national opera Zlatorog. He also performs with SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana (as Monterone in Rigoletto, Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia etc.). Since 2002 he has also been singing in the internationally established Slovene Octet; with this distinguished ensemble he has been guesting on many world stages.

Free admission.