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rockford illinois entertainment guide
Date: 03/13/2008
Bach Chamber Choir 25th Anniversary Concert Handel's "Messiah" on Palm Sunday, March 16
by Press Release

Rockford’s Bach Chamber Choir will celebrate its 25th anniversary by presenting the Passion and Easter sections of Handel’s “Messiah” on Palm Sunday, March 16.

The vocal ensemble will join with chamber orchestra and soloists to perform one of Handel’s most powerful and enduring choral masterpieces.  The concert will take place at 3:00 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 200 N. 1st St., Rockford.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and will be available at the door or by calling the Bach Chamber Choir hotline at 815-633-9089. 

“From the jubilant strains of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ to the stunning soprano aria ‘I Know That My Redeemer Liveth’ to the riveting aria ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound,’ this concert will capture the drama and passion of Holy Week and commemorate 25 successful years of music making,” declared Dr. Eric A. Johnson, Bach Chamber Choir music director.

Dr. Johnson also is Director of Choral Activities at Northern Illinois University, where he directs the Concert Choir and Chamber Choir and teaches choral literature and conducting. 

“Messiah” soloists will be Nora Maynard, soprano; Orna Arania, mezzo soprano; Dennis Johnson, tenor, and Nicolai Janitzky, baritone.  

Rockford native Nora Maynard is a 2007 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where she sings with the Concert Choir.  In past years she has studied voice with Stella Rankin and Jolly Stewart; she is currently studying with John Stewart. As a high school student, Ms. Maynard was a member of the Bach Chamber Choir’s soprano section.

Orna Arania, the mezzo-soprano soloist, is an assistant professor of voice at Northern Illinois University, and a faculty member in the VoicExperience summer program for singers at Disney World, Orlando, FL.  She is considered a leading singer and choral conductor in her native country, Israel.  Since arriving in the United States, she has performed in a variety of opera productions, recitals, and oratorio concerts.  She holds the MM degree in voice and opera performance from Northwestern University where she is completing doctoral studies.

Tenor Dennis J. Johnson of Loves Park studied opera and musical theater at NIU.  He has sung with Starlight Theater, Rockford Symphony Orchestra, Rockford Pops Orchestra, Lutheran Choral Union and Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center.  He appeared in the Rockford Symphony’s production of Puccini’s “La Boheme” in 2006 and will perform in the RSO’s production of Puccini’s “Tosca” this coming May. 

Baritone and Rockford resident Nicolai Janitzky is originally from California.  He has studied at the Yale University Opera Program and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.  He recently appeared with Santa Barbara Grand Opera and San Diego Opera and will return to the San Francisco Opera this fall for the role of Tchelkalov in “Boris Godunov.”  As a recitalist, he has performed at such venues as Carnegie (Weill) Hall in New York City, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and Cleveland Institute of Music Art Song Festival. 

For the Bach Chamber Choir, the March 16 concert commemorates 25 years as a choral ensemble.  The group was founded by Wayne Hatwich and a small group of enthusiasts determined to answer the need in Rockford for a prominent chamber chorale to perform a repertoire centered around the works of J.S. Bach and other composers of the Baroque.  The choir’s first concert took place in November, 1983.

The ensemble’s season will conclude May 4 at 3:00 p.m. at St. James Catholic Church, Rockford, with “Trippin’ Through the ‘60s,” a choral journey through the centuries – including Italian madrigals of the 1560s, Baroque choruses of the 1660s, Romantic Part Songs of the 1860s, and Beatles tunes from the 1960s. 

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