Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem

GENEROUS
DONOR’S MUSICAL GIFT

Lovers of Gabriel Fauré’s
Requiem will be heartened to hear that it will be performed on October 20, 2013
by the choir of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Studio City. Underwritten
by a $5,000 grant from an anonymous donor, the performance includes a
professional orchestra and organ in addition to the augmented choir. As a gift
to the community the concert is free, but it does provide an opportunity for
members to memorialize lost loved ones by having their names included in the program
for a donation of $25 to the church and its many community services. Names
to be included in the program must be received by October 1, 2013. For
reservations and more information, please contact Kirk Prather at
818-424-2155. 

Nancy Holland, the church’s
musical director and doctoral candidate at USC’s Thornton School of Music, said,
“I’m thrilled. The funding windfall has made it possible for us to make this a
first class production. Our sanctuary is a jewel box with wonderful acoustics.
If you love this composition as much as me you should be here early.”

Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem Mass
(1888) reflects a view of the end of mortal life that is very different from
that presented by Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, or Verdi.  While the press referred to his Requiem as a
“lullaby of death,” Fauré referred to the requiems of Berlioz and Verdi, with
their descriptions of wrath and hellfire, as “thunderous fanfares.”  Conversely, he saw death as a happy deliverance,
an aspiration towards happiness above rather than as a painful experience.
Fauré saw death as a welcome event: 
thunder could have no place in his Requiem. One would expect a Fauré
requiem to be different.  “Having been a
church organist and choirmaster for more than a decade at the time,” Fauré
wrote, “I have instinctively sought to escape from what is thought right and
proper. After all the years of accompanying burial services on the organ, I

wanted to write something different.”

Music Director Holland selected
her unique orchestra from among graduate students of the USC Thornton School of
Music. The church choir is complemented with principle singers and soloists
from the USC Chamber Singers, the JPL Chorus, and Pasadena Pro Musica.

Nancy Holland is a candidate
for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Sacred and Choral Music at
USC’s Thornton School of Music. This concert will be her third recital, servingto fulfill the requirement for an Instrumental Conducting minor. Her most
recent recital, Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, also with chorus and orchestra,
was performed by Pasadena Pro Music in November, 2011. She has conducted
school, church, and community choirs in California and Massachusetts, and she
holds degrees from Swarthmore College, Stanford University, Middlebury College,
the New England Conservatory of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music.

In a capsule
Requiem by Gabriel
Faure with orchestra
Sunday
Afternoon, October 20, 2013, 4 p.m.

Pre-concert
Lecture 3:30 p.m. by musicologist Rob Meurer, Reception following concert


Unitarian
Universalist Church of Studio City 12355
Moorpark Street, Studio City, California 91604


Tickets
are free (maximum 4 per person) and seating is open. For ticket reservations
call 818-424-2155.