The Normandale Community College Concert Choir will perform Mozart’s Requiem with the Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra and Twin Cities Catholic Chorale at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis on Thursday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Normandale Concert Choir Director Marc Jaros is excited for Normandale’s Concert Choir to collaborate with the Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra. They are working together on a Concerto Competition that will take place on November 18, and Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra Music Director Yuri Ivan suggested the collaboration earlier this year.
“When we met earlier this year, Yuri suggested the idea and we were excited to do it,” said Jaros. “We planned for Normandale to be a major stakeholder in it, and we made it our fall concert. “Because there is a full orchestra, we wanted to make sure we had enough voices so we put together our Concert Choir and the Twin Cities Catholic Chorale, which I also direct. We will have about 60 singers. We have been doing rehearsals with the singers and orchestra the last couple of months to prepare, and did a community concert on October 22 and will do a dress rehearsal on October 28.”
Jaros mentions that even people who are unfamiliar with Mozart Requiem in D Minor will recognize parts of it from movies and pop culture. He also mentions the history of the piece is interesting in the fact that Mozart was composting it at the end of his life, and he died before it was finished. Mozart’s wife wanted it to be completed, so she got one of his students to complete it based on Mozart’s sketches and ideas.
“Mozart wrote about half of it, and the other half was completed by his student,” said Jaros. “However, that doesn’t mean that Mozart only wrote half because he had a lot of ideas and vocal lines and the baseline already written out. In some ways, it is one of the most famous pieces. Ever since his death, it is probably one of his most performed works. Choirs and communities have done it because it is singable, passionate, works together and it is kind of perfect length at about an hour.”
Jaros is excited about this performance and enjoys exposing students to working together with outside music organizations to collaborate on performances. Normandale’s Concert Choir has performed Orchestra Hall twice in the past four years, and Jaros feels like this is another great opportunity for the the students to experience.
“I think it fits really well with Normandale’s mission as a community college to be in the community, and to partner with organizations to do big and important stuff,” said Jaros. “There are professional orchestras and choirs who are doing this, so it is an opportunity for student to sing with an orchestra, which many have not done before. What is nice about this process, has been we’ve had a number of rehearsals with the orchestra so our students have gotten a full experience preparing for this concert.”
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