Easton Choral Arts Society will present its 40th season finale with Johannes Brahms’ commanding “German Requiem,” considered one of the greatest monuments of choral music, on Friday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 29 at 4 p.m. at Christ Church in downtown Easton.
It is a deeply moving and profound choral work, a large-scale piece for chorus, orchestra, soprano and baritone soloist. Under the direction of Artistic Director Wes Lockfaw, the chorus will be accompanied by Soprano Yulia Petrachuk, Baritone Javier Arrey, and a chamber orchestra.
Javier was born in Valdivia, Chile where he first studied piano and musical theory. Later, he studied singing with Professor Hanns Stein at the Universidad de Chile, Santiago, and choir conducting at the Teatro Municipal. He is an alumnus of Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and the Castleton Festival under Lorin Maazel, and is considered the strongest singer with a mellifluous, robust baritone. He is heralded as one of the most sought-after bel canto baritones of the new generation. In 2017, he joined the roster of The Metropolitan Opera as Schaunard in “La Bohème.”
Born in Russia, Yulia studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and is a graduate of the Bern Opera Studio in Bern, Switzerland. Her debut as a professional opera singer was with the State Theater Bern, Switzerland in 2010. According to Daniel Rigazzi, Stage Director at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, “Yulia is a special and unique artist, able to hold her own on any stage in the world.”
The “German Requiem” emerged as a deeply personal musical memorial. Johannes Brahms was innovative in his combination of styles and use of vernacular German, so different from the long-standing Latin mass for the dead. This requiem, instead of creating a Mass for the dead, was dedicated to the mourners left behind on Earth. The result was a radiant, joy-filled work in seven sections, each concluding with a mood of cheerful confidence or loving promise. Brahms’ “German Requiem” is a work of great intensity that speaks to people of all faiths and to both believers and non-believers.
