58 of the group’s members will perform in Czechoslovakia and Austria as part
On June 15, funded in part by the Ohio Arts Council, as part of the 250th Anniversary Mozart Festival for Prague and Salzburg and the NCR Miracle of Mozart Festival, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus Director Hank Dahlman, 58 DPOC members, and 24 family members will embark on a 12-day tour of Czechoslovakia and Austria, visiting – and performing in – some of the same places Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart once frequented.
“We of the DPOC are highly honored and excited to be representing the DPO and Dayton, by giving concerts in the three most important cities of Mozart’s life during this, the 250th anniversary celebration of his birth,” Dahlman states. “In addition, we are especially pleased that the Salzburg Cathedral selected us via taped audition to sing high mass there during this ‘summer of Mozart.’ Besides all the fun with Mozart, we’ll also be singing Dvo?ák’s music in his hometown and Bruckner’s and Haydn’s in theirs. To sing some of the most beautiful and profound music of all time in the very places where it was first performed is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we will never forget.”
On Saturday, June 17 at 5 pm in Prague’s Church of Sts. Simon and Jude, the DPOC – with the Czech Chamber Philharmonic – will perform Dvo?ák’s Te Deum, op. 103 (with DPOC soloists Kristen Jayne, soprano, and Michael Taint, baritone); Mozart’s Missa brevis in D major, KV 194 (with DPOC soloists Annette Rizer, soprano; Sallie Fisher, alto; J. Richard Schairbaum, tenor; and Justin Williams, baritone); Schumann’s Zigeunerleben, Op. 29. No. 3; Boyce’s Alleluia; Bruckner’s Pange lingua (Phrygian) Motet; and works by American composers/arrangers James Erb, Stephen Foster, Moses Hogan, and Keith Hampton. Dahlman will conduct this and all the other tour performances.
Built by the Bohemian Brethren in 1618-1620, this Renaissance church is located near the Vltava (Moldau) River, and Haydn and Mozart both performed musical works on the church’s organ. Other DPOC soloists include Stefanie Deisher, soprano; Jennifer Guettler, alto; and James Dahlman, baritone.
On Tuesday, June 20 at 7:30 pm in Vienna’s Parish Church of St. Johann Nepomuk, the DPOC will perform the same repertoire. Since medieval times, a church has been on this same site. Originally consecrated in 1782 with additions in 1846, after sustaining damage in 1945 the Church of St. Johann Nepomuk underwent restoration in 1951.
The DPOC then will move on to Füschl am See, Austria, where – on Friday, June 23 at 7:30 p.m. it will perform an outdoor concert in the Marktplatz of the same repertoire.
The DPOC will conclude its tour with a performance during High Mass on Sunday, June 25 at 11:30 a.m in the historic Salzburg Cathedral with orchestral ensemble and organ, in Salzburg, Austria – Mozart’s birthplace. For the High Mass, the DPOC will perform the Mozart Mass and works by Bruckner and Boyce. Baptized in the Salzburg Cathedral, Mozart worked there with his father, Leopold, and Johann Michael Haydn (Franz’s younger brother) before moving to Vienna. Mozart composed and premiered most of his sacred music, including the Coronation Mass, and the Missa brevis in D, in Salzburg.
Before returning home, the DPOC will make two more stops, the first at the Esterazy Estate in Vienna (Eisenstadt), Austria, home to Franz Joseph Haydn for most of his life and site of the Haydnhaus. There, plans call for the group to sing selections from last year’s Haydn Creation in the main concert hall. The final stop enroute from Vienna to Salzburg will be at St. Florian’s Abbey near Linz, home to Anton Bruckner, where plans call for the group to sing his motet Pange lingua (Phrygian).