
This concert features the Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, alongside Edson Hymns and Fuguing Tunes. This suite of postcolonial American hymns by composers Lewis Edson and his son Lewis Edson Jr., contemporaries of Mozart, was orchestrated by Henry Cowell who was living in Shady, New York, outside Woodstock, where the father-and-son composers had also settled in the early 19th century.
Rounding out the program is An Anthem for Thanksgiving by William Billings (1746-1800), considered the first American choral composer. Juxtaposing the Requiem, one of the greatest European choral compositions, with traditional American songs written in the same era contrasts the courtly European style with American music of the colonists.
Online tickets sales for Sunday, June 21 are closed. There are plenty of seats for Saturday, or you may try the box office on Sunday 15 minutes prior to start of concert.
(Ticket prices are $30 general admission in advance,
$35 at the door; $10 student.)