Kicking off Dessoff’s centennial season is Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, led by Malcolm J. Merriweather, on Saturday, November 2, 2024 at 4:00 pm at The Town Hall. As the inaugural program of the 100th anniversary season, Dessoff is inviting all Dessoff Alumni to join on stage for this beloved work. In addition, Dessoff will welcome back former conductors Kent Tritle and Christopher Shepard who will be conducting some of the Requiem movements.
Dessoff is thrilled to offer an Anniversary Ticket in honor of our centenary season. The Anniversary ticket grants access to front orchestra or loge seating. $50 of the Anniversary Ticket price is considered a donation. The Dessoff Choirs is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Ticket Prices:
Senior/Student: $27
General Admission: $42
Preferred Seating: $52
Anniversary Ticket: $102
Tickets for the Brahms Requiem concert are purchased via The Town Hall, and are subject to additional processing fees from The Town Hall and Ticketmaster.
This program is significant as Brahms and Otto Dessoff (founder Margarete Dessoff’s father) were friends. Brahms provided Dessoff the opportunity to conduct the premiere of his Symphony No. 1, and Dessoff dedicated his String Quartet in F, Op. 7 to Brahms. Further, The Town Hall has been an important partner to The Dessoff Choirs, as the group has performed at the venue over 50 times since its initial concert in 1926.
Johannes Brahms
PROGRAM
Requiem
The Dessoff Choirs & Orchestra
Malcolm J. Merriweather, conductor
Kent Tritle, guest conductor
Christopher Shepard, guest conductor
Will Liverman, baritone
Joélle Harvey, soprano
Joélle Harvey
Will Liverman
Joélle Harvey
A native of Bolivar, New York, American soprano Joélle Harvey has built a reputation as one of the finest singers of her generation, performing major roles on stages such as the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House, Zürich Opera, Teatro La Fenice and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
Harvey begins a richly-varied 2024-2025 season with Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque for Haydn’s Creation, returning to Chicago later in the season for the composer’s Paukenmesse with the Chicago Symphony (Manfred Honeck conducting). She sings Mozart’s Requiem with the St. Louis Symphony (Stéphane Denève), a program of Poulenc and Ravel in a return to the Milwaukee Symphony, and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony Resurrection for conductor Robin Ticciati’s final season with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The season promises performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Houston Symphony, selections from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Cincinnati Symphony, Bach’s Easter Oratorio & Magnificat with the Cleveland Orchestra and St. John Passion with Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Bernard Labadie, and Handel cantatas with Boston’s Handel & Haydn Society and Jonathan Cohen. During the summer of 2025, she returns to the role of Anne Trulove in Chas Rader-Shieber’s new production of The Rake’s Progress at Des Moines Opera Opera. Future seasons include leading roles with the Bayerische Staatsoper and Santa Fe Opera.
The soprano began the 2023-2024 season with an appearance at London’s Wigmore Hall, performing the role of Tirsi in Handel’s Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, with Harry Bicket leading The English Concert. She sang Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, North Carolina Symphony and Handel & Haydn Society, and Faure’s Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra. Season debuts included the Houston Symphony, for Orff’s Carmina Burana, and the New World Symphony, for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Notably, Harvey joined two long-tenured Music Directors for their farewell seasons: Louis Langrée, leading the Cincinnati Symphony in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, and the Kansas City Symphony’s Michael Stern, in performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.
Will Liverman
Called “a voice for this historic moment” (Washington Post), GRAMMY Award-winning baritone Will Liverman is the recipient of the 2022 Beverly Sills Artist Award and the co-creator of The Factotum – “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News) – which premiered at the Lyric Opera Chicago in 2023.
This season Liverman returns to the Metropolitan Opera in the title role of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. He was previously seen at the Met opening its 21-22 season in a celebrated “breakout performance” (New York Times) as Charles in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones, which won the 2023 GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording.
Liverman’s 2023-24 season further includes productions with Opera Philadelphia for the world premiere of Rene Orth’s 10 Days in a Madhouse and the Met Opera for Roméo et Juliette. In concert, he joins the Lexington Philharmonic for the orchestrated world premiere of Shawn E. Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches, Houston Symphony’s Carmina Burana, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for Brahms’ A German Requiem, The Washington Chorus’ Elijah Reimagined, Tanglewood, Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys, Nu Deco Ensemble, and Experiential Orchestra, plus Dayton Opera, Caramoor, Cincinnati Song Initiative, and Ithaca College for vocal recitals. He serves as Artistic Advisor for Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall.
Cedille Records released Liverman’s Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist Paul Sanchez in February 2021. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical chart and was nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
Liverman is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School (M.M.) and Wheaton College in Illinois (B.M.). www.willliverman.com.