Coker College Singers to perform Mozart and Haydn with Chamber Orchestra

A performance of Mozart’s “Requiem” and Haydn’s “Te Deum,” presented by Coker College Music and performed by the Coker Singers and chamber orchestra, will take place at 7 p.m. Sunday at First Presbyterian Church in Hartsville.  Admission is free, and the public is invited to attend.

“Requiem” will feature performances by soprano Serena Hill, alto Elizabeth Woodard, tenor Zach Marshal and bass Jacob Will. The chamber orchestra accompanying the Coker Singers will include 19 musicians from the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, Ronda McElveen will accompany the Coker Singers on piano for “Te Deum.”

The concert is being conducted by Dr. William Carswell, associate professor of music and director of the 35-member Coker Singers. Founded in 1908, the Coker Singers is the premiere choral ensemble of Coker College. In addition to appearances throughout the South, recent engagements include performances at the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie Hall and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.

Composed in 1799, Haydn’s “Te Deum” is a choral drama in three parts commissioned from Empress Marie Therese, the wife of Franz I of Austria. It was first performed in 1800 in honor of Lord Nelson’s visit to Eisenstadt, Austria, seat of the noble Esterhazy family.

“‘Te Deum’ is a choral work throughout without the solo sections that are heard in Haydn’s masses and other sacred works,” said Carswell.

Carswell said that the history of Mozart’s “Requiem” is less well-known due in part to the popular film “Amadeus.” In the movie, the dying Mozart spends his last hours in 1791 working frantically to finish the composition. In truth, “Requiem” was more than likely completed after Mozart’s death through the efforts of his wife, Constanze, and his friend and pupil, Franz Xavier Süssmayer, Carswell added.

“Whatever the details and whatever he intended, after two centuries of performance before awed audiences, the majestic impassioned ‘Requiem’ has become a memorial to the incomparable musical genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,” said Carswell.