Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra, Dorothy Savitch, Music Director
Program:
Barber: Knoxville, Summer of 1915 - with soprano Katherine Wessinger
Barber: First Essay for Orchestra
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Katherine Wessinger:
Praised by The New York Times as a soprano with a “genuinely angelic voice,” Katherine Wessinger brings freshness and uncommon musicality to a wide repertoire on the concert, opera, and recital stage. Highlights of the 2013-14 season include Barber Knoxville, Summer 1915 with Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale and Orchestra, Carmina Burana with the Mansfield University Festival Chorus, and Bach Cantatas 147 and 156 with the St. Andrew Chorale and Orchestra.
Ms. Wessinger made three important debuts in New York City to start the 2012-13 season. She began the season as soprano soloist in Mozart’s Solemn Vespers and Bach’s Magnificat in D Major at the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series conducted by K. Scott Warren. The New York Times said that she “sang her aria, ‘Quia respexit humilitatem,’ with stricken dignity.” Ms. Wessinger was soprano soloist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Canticum Novum led by Harold Rosenbaum, and, most dramatically, made her Carnegie Hall debut stepping in on one day’s notice to sing Gabriel in Haydn’s Creation with the New York Virtuoso Singers and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, also conducted by Harold Rosenbaum. The New York Times wrote that she “sang with charm and grace” and that her “clear voice was beautifully suited to Gabriel’s music.”
A frequent soloist with the St. Andrew Music Society and Orchestra led by Andrew Henderson, Ms. Wessinger sang Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer in spring 2012 and was soprano soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in spring 2013. With the St. Andrew Music Society, Ms. Wessinger sang the New York City premiere of the recently discovered Handel Gloria. She has sung internationally with the Italy and USA Alba Music Festival, performing Mahler Symphony No. 4, Del Tredici Dracula, and Bach Cantata No. 51 under the direction of Jeffrey Silberschlag, and at the River Concert Series under the direction of Larry Vote. Other solo performances include the Rutter Requiem with director Tom Hall, and Handel’s Messiah and part V of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the renowned Handel Choir of Baltimore. Katherine has also performed Handel’s Messiah with J. Reilly Lewis at Clarendon United Methodist Church in Arlington, VA, and with Henry Lowe at The Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore, MD.
In addition to her work as a concert soloist, Katherine performs opera from the Baroque through the 21st century. Her operatic performances have included Rhomilda in Handel’s Xerxes, Bystrouska in Janaceck’s The Cunning Little Vixen, sung in Czech, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Karolina in Smetana’sTwo Widow’s, and Birdsong in Mozart’s The Impressario.