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Special Guests
Saturday, December 21, 2002
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Philip Brunelle
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Founder and Artistic Director of the Plymouth Music
Series of Minnesota since 1969, PHILIP BRUNELLE is an internationally
renowned conductor, choral scholar and performer. He was inducted into
the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in 2001 and has won a myriad of awards
including the Kodaly Medal from the government of Hungary and the Stig
Andersson Award for contributions to Swedish music. In 1993 and 1994,
Mr. Brunelle and the Plymouth Music Series received the ASCAP-Chorus America
Award for adventuresome programming in contemporary music, in 1996 the
organization was awarded the Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral
Excellence from Choral America, in 1992 they received a Grammy Award nomination
for the Virgin Classics recording of Dominick Argentos's Te Deum and in
1988 they won the "Best Opera Recording of the Year" Gramophone
award for Britten's Paul Bunyan. Philip Brunelle has worked closely with
A Prairie Home Companion since its first show on July 6, 1974 and has
collaborated with Garrison Keillor on several CDs including Songs of
a Cat, Lake Wobegon Revisited, Young Lutheran's Guide to
the Orchestra and Now It Is Christmas Again. He conducts Musica
Sacra this evening.
MUSICA SACRA was founded by Richard Westenburg and Central Presbyterian
Church in 1968; it was the first all-professional, paid admission choral
series ever undertaken by a church. It was extremely popular and, in the
early seventies, it became independent and moved on to larger venues,
including Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although they
have an affinity for Baroque music, Musica Sacra has performed in all
styles, from the chant of Hildegard to commissioned works and premieres
from leading contemporary composers such as Britten, Rorem, Hovhaness,
Schickele and Rands. They have recorded on RCA, CBS, Vanguard, BMG and
Deutsche Grammaphon in music ranging from Handel to Brahms and Bruckner,
to Schoenberg and Meredith Monk. In October of 2001, Bravo Recordings,
a label dedicated to choral music, was launched. Five Musica Sacra recordings,
A Christmas Sing-Along, Of Eternal Light, Songs and Psalms
of the Divine, Brahms: Songs and Romances, and Hildegard
and Monk: Monk and the Abbess, were re-released as part of its initial
offering. Musica Sacra is Soprano: Jacqueline Horner, Joan Krause, Ellen
Taylor Sisson, Janine Ullyette, Cynthia Richards Wallace; Alto: Sarah
Bleasdale, Meg Bragle, B.J. Fredricks, Karen Goldfeder; Tenor: Gregory
Davidson, Jim Fredericks, Todd Frizzell, Steven Raiford; Bass: Frank Barr,
Hayes Biggs, Elliot Levine, Alan Rasmussen, Mark Wagstrom.
*Also joining us will be a string quintet and a flutist. The musicians
are: Violin I: Alexander Simionescu; Violin
II: Jenny Lind Nilsson; Viola: Susan Pray; Cello: Michael Mermagen; Bass:
Barbara Wilson; Flute: Sheryl Henze.
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