Oratorio Society of New York
Encyclopedia
The Oratorio Society of New York is a non-profit membership organization which performs choral music in the oratorio
style. The Society was founded in 1873 by conductor Leopold Damrosch
, and it is New York City's second oldest cultural organization. The Society had a prominent role in the building of Carnegie Hall
, and it has premiered many new choral music works over the years.
Kent Tritle
was appointed as the Society's 11th music director in January 2006, succeeding longstanding director Lyndon Woodside
, who died the previous year.
's Messiah
. These have been held at Carnegie Hall
since its opening in 1891.
In 1884 Andrew Carnegie
joined the Society's board of directors, serving as its president from 1888 to 1919. Three years after joining the board (perhaps at the suggestion of his wife, Louise Whitfield Carnegie
), an alto singing with the Society, or perhaps at the suggestion of young Walter Damrosch, who had taken over as conductor of the Society after his father's death in 1885, Carnegie decided to add his support to a fund the Society had begun several years earlier, the goal of which was to build a hall suitable for the performance of choral music. He engaged a fellow board member, the architect William Tuthill
, to design the "Music Hall", now known as Carnegie Hall
. During the five-day festival in May 1891 that inaugurated the new hall, the Society performed under the batons of Walter Damrosch and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
in the first of more than a century of performances in its artistic home. Among the Society's many ground-breaking programs was one in April 1923 when, in conjunction with the experimental radio station, WEAF, the Oratorio Society presented the first choral concert broadcast from Carnegie Hall. In the years following, it was quite active in furthering the popularity of this new medium.
The Oratorio Society has premiered works as diverse as Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem
(1877), Berlioz' Roméo et Juliette
(1882), a full-concert production of Wagner's Parsifal
at the Metropolitan Opera
House (1886), Tchaikovsky's a cappella Legend and Pater Noster (1891) and Eugene Onegin
(1908), the now-standard version of The Star-Spangled Banner
(1917; it became the national anthem in 1931), Bach's Mass in B Minor (1927), Antonín Dvořák
's St. Ludmila (1993), and Benjamin Britten
's The World of the Spirit (1998), as well as works by Handel
, Liszt
, Schütz
, Schubert, Debussy, Elgar, Saint-Saëns
, and many others, including contemporary composers.
, a prestigious New York City cultural award, for its contributions to the musical life of the city. In 1977, the Society inaugurated a solo competition which was designed to encourage the art of oratorio singing and to give young singers an opportunity to advance their careers. In 2006, it was renamed the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Solo Competition in honor of Lyndon's dedication to the competition since its inception.
At its May 1998 125th anniversary concert, the Society was honored by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as: "One of the most treasured institutions of our city's musical life ... making all New York music lovers grateful for this venerable institution which helps keep our city the music capital of the world."
World Heritage Commemorative Medal.
The Society visited Budapest in June 2007 and performed a concert at the Bartók National Concert Hall in the new Palace of Arts (Budapest)
, to benefit the Franz Liszt Academy of Music
.
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
style. The Society was founded in 1873 by conductor Leopold Damrosch
Leopold Damrosch
Leopold Damrosch was a German American orchestral conductor.- Biography :Damrosch was born in Posen , Kingdom of Prussia, and began his musical education at the age of nine, learning the violin against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to become a doctor...
, and it is New York City's second oldest cultural organization. The Society had a prominent role in the building of Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, and it has premiered many new choral music works over the years.
Kent Tritle
Kent Tritle
Kent Tritle is a choral conductor and organist in New York City, United States. He is the current director of the professional chorus Musica Sacra and of the Oratorio Society of New York, and director of cathedral music and organist at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine...
was appointed as the Society's 11th music director in January 2006, succeeding longstanding director Lyndon Woodside
Lyndon Woodside
Lyndon Woodside was the 10th conductor of the Oratorio Society of New York, and resided in Leonia, New Jersey. He toured Europe and the Americas, but his home performance space was Carnegie Hall, built by Andrew Carnegie to house the Society...
, who died the previous year.
History
The Oratorio Society presented its first concert on December 3, 1873. One year later, on Christmas night, the Society began what has become an unbroken tradition of annual performances of HandelHANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
. These have been held at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
since its opening in 1891.
In 1884 Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
joined the Society's board of directors, serving as its president from 1888 to 1919. Three years after joining the board (perhaps at the suggestion of his wife, Louise Whitfield Carnegie
Louise Whitfield Carnegie
Louise Whitfield Carnegie was the wife of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.Daughter of New York City merchant John D. Whitfield, Louise was born in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan...
), an alto singing with the Society, or perhaps at the suggestion of young Walter Damrosch, who had taken over as conductor of the Society after his father's death in 1885, Carnegie decided to add his support to a fund the Society had begun several years earlier, the goal of which was to build a hall suitable for the performance of choral music. He engaged a fellow board member, the architect William Tuthill
William Tuthill
William Burnet Tuthill was an American architect celebrated for designing New York City's Carnegie Hall.- Early life, education and family :...
, to design the "Music Hall", now known as Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. During the five-day festival in May 1891 that inaugurated the new hall, the Society performed under the batons of Walter Damrosch and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
in the first of more than a century of performances in its artistic home. Among the Society's many ground-breaking programs was one in April 1923 when, in conjunction with the experimental radio station, WEAF, the Oratorio Society presented the first choral concert broadcast from Carnegie Hall. In the years following, it was quite active in furthering the popularity of this new medium.
The Oratorio Society has premiered works as diverse as Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem
Ein deutsches Requiem
A German Requiem, To Words of the Holy Scriptures, Op. 45 by Johannes Brahms, is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, and a soprano and a baritone soloist, composed between 1865 and 1868. It comprises seven movements, which together last 65 to 80 minutes, making this work Brahms's longest...
(1877), Berlioz' Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
(1882), a full-concert production of Wagner's Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
House (1886), Tchaikovsky's a cappella Legend and Pater Noster (1891) and Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
(1908), the now-standard version of The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
(1917; it became the national anthem in 1931), Bach's Mass in B Minor (1927), Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
's St. Ludmila (1993), and Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's The World of the Spirit (1998), as well as works by Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
, Liszt
Liszt
Liszt is a Hungarian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:* Franz Liszt , Hungarian composer and pianist* Adam Liszt , father of Franz Liszt* Anna Liszt , mother of Franz Liszt...
, Schütz
Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi...
, Schubert, Debussy, Elgar, Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
, and many others, including contemporary composers.
Awards and honors
On its 100th anniversary in 1973, the Society was presented with the Handel MedallionHandel Medallion
The Handel Medallion is an American award presented by the City of New York, New York. It is the city's highest award given to individuals for their contribution to the city's intellectual and cultural life.-Establishment:...
, a prestigious New York City cultural award, for its contributions to the musical life of the city. In 1977, the Society inaugurated a solo competition which was designed to encourage the art of oratorio singing and to give young singers an opportunity to advance their careers. In 2006, it was renamed the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Solo Competition in honor of Lyndon's dedication to the competition since its inception.
At its May 1998 125th anniversary concert, the Society was honored by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as: "One of the most treasured institutions of our city's musical life ... making all New York music lovers grateful for this venerable institution which helps keep our city the music capital of the world."
Tours
The Society has performed in many parts of the world, including London, Paris, Vienna, Warsaw, Munich, Salzburg, Spoleto, Beijing, St. Petersburg, Prague, Budapest, Florence, Venice, Zagreb, Helsinki, Dublin, Athens, Mexico City and San José, Costa Rica. For its four concerts in Costa Rica, held for the benefit of the Friends of Coco Island Foundation, the Society was awarded the UNESCOUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Commemorative Medal.
The Society visited Budapest in June 2007 and performed a concert at the Bartók National Concert Hall in the new Palace of Arts (Budapest)
Palace of Arts (Budapest)
The Palace of Arts is a building in Ferencváros, Budapest, Hungary, officially opened in March 2005. It is located near Lágymányosi Bridge, accessible from the southern end of Grand Boulevard with a ten-minute walk or by HÉV, or by No.1, No.2, and No.24 streetcars...
, to benefit the Franz Liszt Academy of Music
Franz Liszt Academy of Music
The Franz Liszt Academy of Music is a concert hall and music conservatory in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875...
.