Dett & Bernstein
R. Nathaniel DETT: The Ordering of Moses (North Carolina Premiere)
Leonard BERNSTEIN: Chichester Psalms
Thursday, September 28, 2023 – 7:30 PM
Pre-Concert Talk – 6:30 PM
Cain Center for the Arts
21348 Catawba Ave, Cornelius, NC 28031
Saturday, September 30, 2023 – 7:30 PM
Pre-Concert Talk – 6:30 PM
The Sarah Belk Gambrell Center for the Arts and Civic Engagement, Queens University of Charlotte
2319 Wellesley Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28207
Celebrating the Oratorio Singers’ and Charlotte Master Chorale’s over seven decades of performing choral-orchestral masterworks, our Legacy Concert series continues with an examination of freedom and oppression across communities featuring Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and the North Carolina premiere of R. Nathaniel Dett’s long-neglected oratorio The Ordering of Moses,a richly, emotional oratorio that offers a portrait of Moses from the burning bush to his deliverance of the Israelites. In his review of a 2022 performance in Birmingham, England, music critic Andrew Clements described the work this way:
“It’s a vivid piece of musical storytelling, a sequence of impassioned solo arias and dramatic choral numbers, always underpinned by pungent orchestral colours that progress steadily from the dark despair of the opening, strikingly coloured by cello and bassoon, to the brassy exuberance of the final moments, when Moses and his sister Miriam lead the Israelites in a celebration of their freedom.”
Anne O’Byrne, soprano
Sarah Brauer, mezzo-soprano
Jason Dungee, tenor
Marques Jerrell Ruff, bass-baritone
Charlotte Master Chorale
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra
Kenney Potter, conducting
Parking for Sarah Belk Gambrell Center is located in the North Parking Deck (2217 Wellesley Avenue), which is accessible from Wellesley Avenue via driveway next to the Levine Center for Wellness and Recreation. Limited disabled parking and loading/drop-off are located at the building’s entrance at 2319 Wellesley Avenue.