Thomas Beveridge ’59 conducts Mendelssoh's Elijah at the GMU Center for the Arts

New Dominion Chorale and orchestra present Felix Mendelssohn’s dramatic oratorio, Elijah, at 4:00 p.m., Saturday, May 5, 2012, in the concert hall at the George Mason University Center for the Arts on the Fairfax campus of GMU.

 

This is New Dominion’s first appearance at the GMU Center for the Arts Concert Hall and this production will make full use of its impressive space, not only on stage but throughout the hall, with 200 choral singers, an orchestra of 50 professional instrumentalists, vocal soloists and an octet of eight solo voices from the professional vocal ensemble, Chantry.

 

Singing the title role of Elijah will be the noted American baritone, Timothy LeFebvre, who is well-known for his portrayal of the prophet. The other principal soloists are Esther Heideman, soprano, an accomplished Metropolitan Opera soloist who is making her second appearance with New Dominion Chorale; Laura Zuiderveen, alto, a popular choral and opera soloist who is making her third appearance with NDC; and Issachah Savage, tenor, a Morgan State and Catholic University graduate who is a rising star on opera and concert stages and just took first prize in the Wagner division of the Liederkranz Foundation’s 2012 vocal competition. All are well-known in the Washington area and throughout the United States.

 

Elijah, first performed in 1846 in Birmingham, England, to “hysterical applause,” and later in London for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, is Mendelssohn’s vibrant and powerful account of the Old Testament prophet’s trials and tribulations. Mendelssohn’s depiction of Elijah’s struggle to establish Jehovah as the God of Israel in the face of the powerful prophets of the god Baal is peopled with many characters: the prophet Obadiah, the Widow, Queen Jezebel, the Youth, and King Ahab. In addition, there are choirs of angels, sung at this concert by the vocalists of Chantry, who will perform from the balcony of the concert hall.

 

New Dominion Chorale, formed in 1991, is a “singers’ cooperative” whose 200 members come from throughout the Washington are and provide all the administrative support required to run an organization of this size and scope. The Chorale consistently draws critical praise for performances of varied, demanding choral works.

 

Tickets for “Elijah” are $30; $25 for seniors; $20 for members of groups of ten or more; and $5 for students and children. Tickets are available online at www.newdominion.org or at the door. Parking is free.

 

Artistic Director Thomas Beveridge

Thomas Beveridge, Artistic Director of New Dominion Chorale, has had a distinguished career in music. He has been recognized for his multi-faceted abilities: singer, oboist, keyboard player, composer, arranger, teacher, conductor. He attended Harvard College, studying composition with Randall Thompson and Walter Piston, and choral conducting with G. Wallace Woodworth. Vocal study was at the Longy School of Music with Mme. Olga Averino and, later, with Mme. Mascia Predit. He studied composition and conducting in France with the legendary Nadia Boulanger.

His career as a professional singer has included performances at the Yehudi Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, with the National Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Choral Arts Society, U.S. Army Band and Chorus, the Boston Opera Group, New England Bach Festival, the Cathedral Choral Society, the New Amsterdam Singers, the Bethlehem Bach Choir, and the Philadelphia Singers. He has appeared in solo recital throughout the U.S., including Carnegie Recital Hall, Symphony Space in New York City, the Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery, the Library of Congress, and in three entire concerts of his own songs at the National Gallery of Art.

Mr. Beveridge is a prolific composer and arranger. Many of his over 500 compositions and arrangements have been published, and he has received distinguished commissions from Harvard University, Harvard Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, and the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation at the Library of Congress. His works have been recorded on numerous labels, including Turnabout/Vox, Centaur, RCA, and Crystal. The Gothic Records compact disc Masters in This Hall, conducted by Mr. Beveridge, was called "one of the finest releases of 1993," by Newhouse News Service. More recently, Over the Sea to Skye received rave reviews from The Washington Post and national record magazines. The compact disc, The Spirit of Freedom: Patriotic Songs & Service Hymns, was released in March 1999, with a review remarking on "the energy, expressiveness, superb balance and verbal clarity" that is a hallmark of Mr. Beveridge's choral conducting.

Thomas Beveridge's Yizkor Requiem, which received its world premiere in 1994, was hailed as "a major American work" in the press. That performance by New Dominion Chorale was singled out by Joseph McLellan, chief music critic of The Washington Post, as "one of the music season's most memorable events" in the Post's 1994 "Arts Roundup." Subsequent performances of Yizkor Requiem have been at Orchestra Hall (Chicago), Merkin Hall (New York) and at the Kennedy Center, with the Choral Arts Society and members of the National Symphony, conducted by Norman Scribner. A CD recording of that performance is available on the Naxos label. A recording by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, will be released in 2005 by Milken Archive. NDC has performed the Yizkor Requiem before an audience of 1500 at Washington Hebrew Congregation and subsequently at a special performance in Gaston Hall at Georgetown University. In October of 2000 the Chorale performed Yizkor Requiem at Washington National Cathedral as a gift to the public.

In November 2002, Mr. Beveridge's Symphony of Peace was premiered by the New Dominion Chorale. The symphony has been well received and The Washington Post noted that Mr. Beveridge is a "musician whose conducting skills are as impressive as his compositions"

Mr. Beveridge has been Director of Choral Activities at George Mason University and Chorus Master of the Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center. He has appeared at the Kennedy Center as guest conductor of the Washington Chamber Symphony and at the Kennedy Center's popular Messiah sing-along. He was guest assistant conductor in the Choral Arts Society's performance of Kneiffel's Chapter Eight at the Washington National Cathedral with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, released on the Teldec label. He also has appeared as guest conductor of the National Gallery Orchestra.

Mr. Beveridge currently is also Artistic Director of the National Men's Chorus and Director of Music at Western Presbyterian Church in Washington.