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Through Duruflé’s exquisite Requiem complemented by madrigals and motets by Vicente Lusitano, Dessoff explores the music of the first published Black composer and the last impressionist composer.

Dessoff Dialogue - Bringing Vicente Lusitano to Life

In this Dessoff Dialogue, Dessoff's music director, Malcolm J. Merriweather spoke to Joseph McHardy about the process of bringing the remarkable music of Lusitano, a long-forgotten composer, to modern audiences. Earlier this year, Merriweather performed and recorded several Lusitano motets and madrigals with Britain's world-class Chineke! Voices under McHardy's direction.

Meet the artists:

Mezzo-soprano, Lucia Bradford is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. Ms. Bradford has performed a number of operatic roles including Carmen in Bizet’s La Tragedie de Carmen, Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, La Principessa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, The Mother in Ravel’s L’Enfant des Sortileges, Mercedes in Bizet’s Carmen, Mrs. Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff, The Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Gertrude in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, Hippolyta in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Miss Todd in Menotti’s Old Maid and the Thief, the Duchess of Plaza Toro in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, Azelia Dessalines in William Grant Still’s opera Troubled Island, Douglas Tappin’s I dream as Grandma, Mary Watkins’ Emmett Till as Mamie Till and Maria in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess

Her concert works include Mozart's Vesperae solennes de Confessore, Hadyn's Lord Nelson Mass, De Falla’s El amor Brujo, William Grant Still’s And they lynched him, Nathanial Dett’s The Ordering of Moses, Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater, Handel’s Messiah and the Mozart Requiem, Durufle Requiem, Bach B minor Mass with the Voices of Ascension, Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of N.Y.,

Ms. Bradford has had the privilege of singing at Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, Merkin Hall and touring in Russia, Budapest, Spain, the Caribbean and throughout the United States. She also enjoys performing a variety of genres including contemporary opera, jazz, gospel and blues.

Upcoming events include Handel’s Messiah with National Symphony, Porgy and Bess at Opera Carolina and North Carolina Opera, St John’s Passion, Durufle Requiem and Bach’s B minor Mass at Carnegie Hall

David Enlow is a “commanding” organist (The New Yorker), teacher, and conductor based in New York, who is active in North America and Europe. David was also hailed for his “immense virtuosity” by the Stuttgarter Zeitung and “performances full of color, passion, invention, and power” (The American Record Guide).

David was appointed Music Director of Park Avenue Synagogue in 2020, where he directs a rich tradition of Jewish liturgical music, and he continues at the Church of the Resurrection on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he arrived in 2001. The church program includes directing performances of over fifty different settings of the mass each year, sung by the church’s professional choir, with special emphasis on the works of Mozart, Haydn and their contemporaries, offered with chamber orchestra.

His solo recordings on the Pro Organo label include Pater Seraphicus, the complete major organ works of César Franck; Piano à l’Orgue, an album of piano transcriptions; and Bach on Park Avenue, recorded on the Mander organ at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York. David’s latest recording is an educational collaboration with Maestro Classics, ‘Bach and the Pipe Organ’, with materials for ages five and up. As a concerto soloist, David has appeared with orchestras in works of Poulenc, Haydn, Handel, Respighi, Bach, and Saint-Saens.

David has taught church music, improvisation, and organ repertoire classes for local, regional, and national events of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and at the Juilliard School, from which he received two degrees. David also received the Fellowship diploma, with both prizes for highest marks, from the AGO; this resulted in his joining the committee on professional certification, which sets the standards for national organist examinations and grades them. David then served two terms as Dean of the New York City Chapter AGO.

In national organ performance competitions, he received the first prizes of the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival (USA) and the Arthur Poister Competition, and has recently served as a judge for several others including the Schweitzer festival and the AGO’s national improvisation competition. David studied the organ with Paul Jacobs, John Weaver, and John Tuttle, and improvisation with Gerre Hancock.

David serves as Assistant Conductor and repetiteur to the Clarion Choir and has appeared in most all of New York’s major concert halls as an accompanist at the piano with choruses, solo singers, and in performances of chamber music. In early music, David is also organist of the Clarion Music Society, and appears with various groups at the organ, harpsichord, and fortepiano.

Thapelo Masita uses his artistic voice to amplify and uplift the arts in his country, South Africa. Thapelo was recently invited to play Dvorak Concerto with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and performed in recital at the Morgan Library and The Met Cloisters featuring a program of Bach Cello Suite No. 1 in conversation with Negro spirituals, South African hymns and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's "Lamentations" suite as part of the MetLiveArts series. Thapelo is an active freelance musician in New York City and is a frequent guest musician with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Harlem Chamber Players. These relationships have led to collaborations with artists such as Augustin Hadelich, Solange Knowles, Anna Clyne, Pulitzer Prize winners Tania León and Caroline Shaw. Masita is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, and is pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at CUNY Graduate Center where he works with Julia Lichten.

A note to our community regarding COVID-19

We are so excited to be able to welcome our audience back to in-person performances! The safety of our community is our number one priority and we have therefore implemented the following COVID-19 related safety protocols for all 22-23 Dessoff performances:

-Proof of vaccination is required for entry and will be confirmed at the door of the venue upon arrival, so please remember to bring your vaccination card or NY State Excelsior Pass.

-Masks are required for the entire duration of all Dessoff events for all members of the audience. Performers will not be masked.

There are absolutely NO exceptions to any of these rules.

Duruflé and Lusitano

Dessoff Dialogue - Bringing Vicente Lusitano to Life