Department of Music Presents Requiem of Solace

The Department of Music, in partnership with the Steinway Gallery of Charlotte and the Sorel Foundation, will present Requiem of Solace on Friday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Belk Theater, Robinson Hall. A musical meditation on death and life, the program includes Johannes Brahms’s A German Requiem, sung in a new English translation, and the premiere of Jocelyn Hagen’s “Facets” from amass.

Under the direction of Associate Professor Fred Spano, the University Chorale will perform with Sine Nomine, a local choral group founded by UNC Charlotte alumnus Dareion Malone, and soloists Alissa Deeter, soprano and associate professor of voice at UNC Charlotte, and Dennis Jesse, baritone. Guest pianists Arlene Shrut and Renate Rohlfing will perform a four-hand piano reduction of the orchestral score for the Brahms Requiem.

Brahms composed his Requiem in the late 1860s after the death of his mother. Unlike the traditional Roman Catholic Requiem or Latin Mass for the dead, which uses liturgical prayers for the text, the Brahms Requiem draws from Biblical texts and focuses on comforting those that grieve. Commissioned especially for the Requiem of Solace, contemporary composer Jocelyn Hagen excerpted and rearranged four movements from her 2011 oratorio, amass, calling the new work “Facets” from amass.

On Thursday, March 16, at 8:00 p.m. WDAV 89.9 FM classical radio will air a program that features a performance by Deeter and Shrut of music by Hagen and a conversation about the Requiem of Solace project.

Tickets for the March 17 concert are $10; $8 for students and can be purchased online or at the Robinson Hall box office.

Alissa Deeter talks about Requiem of Solace in this Inside UNC Charlotte interview: