The Arizona Choir isn’t just limited to traditional performance halls. The choir will bring together music and art Saturday when it performs at the Tucson Museum of Art’s grand opening of the exhibit “”The Virgin, Saints and Angels: South American Paintings 1600-1825 from the Thoma Collection.””
The 3 p.m. performance will include Roque Ceruti’s “”Missa de Lima,”” first performed in 1728 in Lima, Peru, said Dr. Bruce Chamberlain, director of the Arizona Choir.
“”It’s the first time in over 200 years this music is being performed,”” Chamberlain said. The choir will be performing five pieces.
The Arizona Choir is composed of 40 graduate students from all over the world who have come to the UA to study choral conducting and voice. An orchestra of UA graduates and local musicians will alsoperform.
The choir’s concert is part of the university’s “”International Symposium on Latin American Choral Music: Contemporary Performance and the Colonial Legacy.”” The symposium is the start of an innovative venture by the UA School of Music to support performance and knowledge of Latin American music made in the colonial period, especially that of choral music.
The symposium will draw together Latin American and American scholars, musicologists and musicians who are especially interested in Latin American music composed in the 17th and 18th centuries.
“”This symposium is designed to bring to Tucson a whole cadre of scholars from around the world who are interested in this area of music and how to get this music published and made available to a greater audience,”” Chamberlain said.
“”The music hasn’t been heard in this country before. It’s delightful and very charming,”” he added. “”It has been very challenging to make sense of the score and to make the material make sense to the performers. What’s challenging about it is the manuscript is not always very clear what the composer’s intentions are. You have to bring your own musical expertise and musical intuition so that it does sound like a unified and logical performance.””
The symposium will help bring together the music of the time period with the art of the time for museumgoers.
It’s the first time in 200 years this music is being performed.
Dr. Bruce Chamberlain director of the Arizona Choir
“”To be in the galleries and hear that music, it will be an incredible mix, a multi-sensory event. It will be really magnificent to hear the music and see the art,”” said Meredith Hayes, director of public relations and marketing at the museum. “”We are very happy to be a part of the symposium and working with the School of Music.””
The Tucson Museum of Art is at 140 N. Main AveThe performance is free with paid museum admission ($8 general, $6 seniors, $3 students).
