PRE-CONCERT TALK:
Join Jane Dimmock Cain before the concert for an enriching discussion entitled “Connecting with the Texts of the Brahms German Requiem.”
FULL PROGRAM:
Sprenkle’s Go Down Death dedicated to Maestro Dimmock’s mother, Anne Hortense Pruitt Dimmock
Brahms Requiem
FEATURED SOLOISTS:
Melissa Wimbish, Soprano*
Jeffrey Williams, Baritone**
STUDENT VOICE EXCHANGE:
John Carroll School***
* The soprano soloist for this concert is endowed by Maestro Dimmock & Dr. Rebecca Bascom in memory of Anne Hortense Pruitt Dimmock. ** The baritone soloist for this concert is endowed by Maestro Dimmock & Dr. Rebecca Bascom in the memory of T. Herbert Dimmock, Jr. *** The Student Voice Exchange Choir for this concert is sponsored by Preston & Nancy Athey. The concertmaster for this concert is endowed in the memory of Elijah McClain.
Learn more about our Permanent Endowment Fund HERE
Join Jane Dimmock Cain before the concert at 3:30pm in the downstairs social hall for an enriching discussion entitled “Connecting with the Texts of the Brahms German Requiem.“
This pre-concert lecture is offered FREE with a concert ticket purchase.
Organist Jane Dimmock Cain is Director of Music Emerita at Davidson College Presbyterian Church, where she served for 41 years. As music director, she played the organ and conducted or supervised ten choirs and a broad-based arts program, including four choir tours to Europe. In 2012, she served as Director of the Montreat Conferences on Worship and Music, a large national conference sponsored by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians. She has been active in the Charlotte Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, most recently serving as Dean. In her spare time, she volunteers in construction work for Habitat for Humanity.
The Bach in Baltimore Choir and Orchestra is pleased to present Brahms German Requiem, a grand and moving work for chorus, orchestra, soprano soloist, and baritone soloist. It is unique in music history. Unlike other Requiems, Brahms German Requiem is not a liturgical piece at all. It forgoes the use of both the Roman Catholic burial liturgy as well as the Protestant liturgy as found in the Lutheran lectionary. Instead, Brahms chose 15 citations from 11 books in the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha. The texts that Brahms chose are full of imagery and fit together in an overarching architectural plan.
Brahms was asked to include more explicitly religious references to this composition, but he wrote that he could not. “I confess that I would gladly omit even the word German and instead use Human.” This was his ultimate goal, to create a universal Requiem for all who experience it.
We offer this “Human Requiem” in the loving memory of all the loved ones lost during the pandemic. Sung in English. Additionally, we will perform Sprenkle’s Go Down Death, commissioned by Maestro Dimmock in memory of his mother, Anne Hortense Pruitt Dimmock.
Melissa Wimbish, soprano
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In the world-premiere of Josephine with UrbanArias, “… the afternoon belonged to Melissa Wimbish, who was creating the role of Josephine Baker … Beautifully prepared, vocally stunning, and theatrically riveting, Wimbish effortlessly held the audience in her hand throughout this one-woman show.” (Washington Post) In 2016, she made her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut after winning the prestigious NATS Artist Award. Career highlights include Mysteries of the Macabre and Candide with Baltimore Symphony, Paul’s Case with UrbanArias and Prototype Festival, Nimue in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Camelot, Carmina Burana and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Washington Ballet at The Kennedy Center, and Mozart’s Requiem with Richmond Symphony.
Her work is relentless in variety, spanning classical, contemporary, and popular styles. In the 2020-21 season, Wimbish self-directed a groundbreaking recital for the INVISION recital series and sang the roles of Alberto Gonzales in Melissa Dunphy’s Gonzales Cantata as well as Pamina in a brand new production of The Magic Flute, set to a revamped script and libretto by an all-Black creative team and cast. In addition to returning to UrbanArias for the 2021-22 season, Melissa will make her soloist debut with the Vermont Symphony, workshop Jessica Meyer’s 20 Minutes of Action with Sandbox Percussion Ensemble at Yellow Barn’s Chamber Music Residency, and compete at Stockhausen Courses in Kürten. She co-leads the Baroque pop duo, Outcalls, whose song “No King” was named one of Baltimore Sun’s Most Defining Songs of 2017. Outcalls was awarded a Baker Artist Award in 2021 and will release their third studio album, Greatest Hits, in fall 2021.
Jeffrey Williams, baritone
Jeffrey Williams has been hailed by The Baltimore Sun as “very likable, a winning performance sung with much confidence, phrasing everything stylishly,” and the Miami Herald as possessing a “commanding, sizeable, effortless, manly baritone.” He has portrayed a wide range of characters including Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Lord Ruthven in Der Vampyr, Lionel in Maid of Orleans, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Prince Yeletsky in Pique Dame, and the titular role in Figaro, among others. Williams was a Nashville Opera Mary Ragland Young Artist and a Seagle Music Colony Young Artist. He is a frequent soloist in the oratorio and concert works of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Saint-Saëns, among others. He has been part of the John Duffy Composers Institute and Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, VA, premiering operatic works of living operatic composers. Williams has received multiple awards including an Arleen Auger Memorial Fund Study Grant, the Cynthia Vernardakis Award at the Orpheus National Voice Competition, as well as being a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Mid-South Regional Finalist. He is currently on the voice faculty at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN. For more information, please visit jeffreywilliamsbaritone.com.
Elam Sprenkle, Composer
Elam Ray Sprenkle was born to a family rooted In the Mennonites of southern Pennsylvania. That explains his Biblical first name…more difficult is finding the wellspring of his versatility. A teacher of music history, theory and ideas at the Peabody Conservatory and Johns Hopkins University, a choir director, a WBJC-FM radio veteran favoring facts to opinions, an admirer of American creativity, a baseball fan straining for the Orioles’ first pitch, and a Civil War student unable to shake his upbringing near Gettysburg. But all of this would become secondary when Sprenkle drops the Ray and signs his name. That means he’s finished another composition as Elam Sprenkle, one of Maryland’s foremost composers.