Crystal Glenn

On Sunday, March 17 at 4 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium, Princeton Pro Musica (PPM) Chorus and Orchestra returns to Mozart’s Requiem, presented alongside a new companion work by Baltimore-based composer Jasmine Barnes, Portraits: Douglass & Tubman. This concert will also feature guest artists from the Glassbrook Vocal Ensemble, directed by Chaequan Anderson, performing a set of works by Vincente Lusitano, Margaret Bonds, and Nathaniel Dett, some of the most celebrated Black composers across the history of music.

It is well known that Mozart did not live to complete his Requiem. Though the version completed by Franz Süssmayer is more frequently performed, Princeton Pro Musica will present the edition by pianist and Mozart scholar Robert Levin. His alternate completion “observes the character, texture, voice leading, continuity, and structure of Mozart’s music. The traditional version has been retained insofar as it agrees with idiomatic Mozartean practice,” said PPM Artistic Director Ryan Brandau.

In a PBS interview, Barnes said that when asked to write a companion piece to the Mozart, she thought about the significance of Mozart to the world. She then turned to Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman and realized that while Mozart didn’t live to finish his work, the work of Douglass and Tubman is never done. Requiem is about death; Portraits is about honoring life — the lives of the two famous abolitionists.

Guest artists in the Mozart work are Crystal Glenn, soprano; Sylivia Leith, mezzo-soprano; Alex Longnecker, tenor; and Mark Hightower, bass. Chaequan Anderson, artistic director and founder of Glassbrook Vocal
Ensemble, is an active choral conductor and music educator. Now in his 12th year with Princeton Pro Musica, Brandau will lead the full Princeton Pro Musica Chorus and Orchestra in the Mozart and Barnes.

Soprano Rochelle Ellis will host Barnes for a pre-concert chat about her music. The event is free to all ticket-holders and will begin at 3 p.m. Visit Princetonpromusica.org or call (609) 683-5122 for tickets.