The Ohio Boychoir to present rare choral work in Cleveland (01/21/96)

The Ohio Boychoir to present rare choral work in Cleveland

PARMA, Ohio - The Ohio Boychoir's concert on February 18 at the Cathedral of St. John will feature J. Michael Haydn's "Vespers for the Holy Innocents." This is only the second time since Haydn's death that this large-scale work will be sung by a boychoir in accord with the composer's intent. The first presentation, in 1982, was also by the Ohio Boychoir.

The three solo parts featured in this work will be sung by Christina Price, Elaine Stockmeier and Lucia Leszczuk.

Also on the program, which begins at 3 p.m., will be Benjamin Britten's "Missa Brevis in D." The concert is free with donations accepted. The cathedral is located in downtown Cleveland at the corner of Superior Avenue and East Ninth Street. Free parking is available in the cathedral garage on the southeast corner of Rockwell and East Ninth Street.

"Vespers for the Holy Innocents" was a musicological discovery by Alexander Musichuk, the choir's director. A great effort was made to locate a published score without success. After a lot of research, Michael Haydn's score was discovered in the National Szechenyi Library in Budapest. Much drawn-out correspondence in English and Hungarian followed before the music arrived in the form of Haydn's hard-to read original manuscripts on 35mm microfilm. With a few student helpers, Mr. Musichuk transcribed Haydn's confusing score into modern musical notation.

Michael Haydn was the konzertmeister to the archbishop of Salzburg, Austria, 213 years ago. Among the 100 musicians under his responsibility were 15 choirboys. He composed the "Vespers" to honor these young singers. The work is composed for three treble voices, three soloists, a string ensemble and organ.

Both Mr. Musichuk and Ms. Leszczuk are Ukrainians. Ms. Leszczuk already has a very prominent history of musical appearances in the greater Cleveland area and abroad. She spent a summer in Graz, Austria in the AIMS program. She is a regular member of the Cleveland Opera Company, where she appears as soloist, as well as the Lyric Opera of Cleveland and the Pennsylvania Opera Festival.

She appeared in the world premiere of Edward London's "Death of Lincoln." She sang with the Royal Flanders Philharmonic in Belgium and Amsterdam. She was alto soloist in Prokofiev's "Alexander Nevsky" with the 1989 F Cleveland Orchestra European Tour.

Mr. Musichuk, founder-director of the Ohio Boychoir, took the choir to Ukraine in 1989 and 1991. The choir was one of the first American groups to tour Ukraine after cultural exchanges were resumed with the former Soviet Union.

Last summer, the Ohio Boychoir was awarded a coveted gold award at the International Music Festival in Munich.

| Home Page |