North-east audiences will have the chance to hear one of the world’s greatest composers and one of Aberdeen’s finest chamber choirs later this month as the University of Aberdeen hosts some truly musical delights.
The first event being held this weekend (Sunday, November 4) will continue the University Music's focus on the voice and will be delivered by the Con Anima Chamber Choir. They will give a powerful and moving concert featuring the Aberdeen premiere of Professor Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna which will be in the presence of the world-renowned composer himself.
Professor Lauridsen has composed a beautifully rich work for choir and organ which will be performed alongside William Byrd's Mass in Five Parts. The concert will also include music by Thomas Tallis and a new piece by Dr Paul Mealor, Senior Lecturer in Music & University Concerts Coordinator.
The event will take place in St Andrew's Cathedral at 7.45pm. Tickets cost £7.50 each; concessions £5.00; students and children £2.00. These are available to be purchased in advance from the Aberdeen Box Office or at the door on the evening.
Ahead of this weekend's concert, Dr Mealor said: "Professor Morten Lauridsen is one of the greatest composers of our time and we are delighted to be hosting a visit from him to the University of Aberdeen. This will in fact be his first visit to Scotland so we hope to provide him with the warmest of welcomes.
"Professor Lauridsen (Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California) has created some of the most beautiful music for choirs. He will be working with students and discussing his beautiful, life-affirming music throughout the week whilst he is in the Granite City."
On Tuesday, November 6, the American composer will discuss some of the inspiration behind his deeply moving, spiritually uplifting music in conversation with Dr Mealor. The event, Morten Lauridsen Composer Portrait, will include performances of Professor Lauridsen's music, which will be given by the Con Anima Chamber Choir.
This event will take place in the University's King's College Chapel at 7.45pm. Tickets cost £5.00 each; concessions £3.00; students and children £2.00. These are available to be purchased in advance from the Aberdeen Box Office or at the door on the evening.
Professor Mealor added: "Professor Lauridsen occupies a permanent place in the standard vocal repertoire of the Twentieth Century. His seven vocal cycles - Les Chansons des Roses (Rilke), Mid-Winter Songs (Graves), Cuatro Canciones (Lorca), A Winter Come (Moss), Madrigali: Six "FireSongs" on Renaissance Italian Poems, Nocturnes, and Lux Aeterna - and his series of sacred a cappella motets (O Magnum Mysterium, Ave Maria, O Nata Lux, Ubi Caritas et Amor and Ave Dulcissima Maria) are featured regularly in concert by distinguished ensembles throughout the world.
"From 1993 Professor Lauridsen's music rapidly increased in international popularity, and by the century's end he had eclipsed Randall Thompson as the most frequently performed American choral composer.
"I truly delighted that the University of Aberdeen's Music series continues to attract such world-renowned and distinguished professionals such as Professor Lauridsen."