Sangamon Sun

City of St. Charles issued the following announcement on Aug. 14.

Professional chamber choir St. Charles Singers, conducted by Jeffrey Hunt, opens its 35th concert season with a three-day Mozart Festival Weekend August 24-26, joined by the Metropolis Chamber Orchestra and guest soloist, soprano Michelle Areyzaga.

Each festival day features a different concert of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, including two new installments of the choir’s Mozart Journey, its multiyear excursion through Mozart’s complete sacred choral music. All three concerts take place at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church - St. Charles, IL, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles.

The Mozart Journey XIII concert at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, August 24, will include Mozart’s Missa in C Major, K. 262, notable for its large complement of woodwind and brass instruments; “Grabmusik,” K. 42, in which an Angel (soprano) and human soul (bass) sing solos and duets; and sacramental motet “Tantum ergo” in B-flat Major, K. 142. Areyzaga will sing in “Grabmusik” and “Tantum ergo.”

The Metropolis Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Hunt, will take center stage at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 25, for an all-instrumental concert of Mozart’s orchestral music. The program will include the Overture to Mozart’s unfinished opera “Lo sposo deluso” (“The Deluded Bridegroom”), K. 430; the humorous Serenade in D Major, K. 320 (“Post Horn”); and Symphony in C Major, No. 41, K. 551 (“Jupiter”), Mozart’s final symphony and one of his greatest creations, bursting with action and musical colors.

The Mozart Festival Weekend’s finale will be the Mozart Journey XIV concert at 4 p.m. on Sunday, August 26. The program includes Mozart’s powerful Missa in C Minor, K. 427, a cantata-style Baroque mass inspired by the music of J. S. Bach; the intense Kyrie in D Minor, K. 341, whose unusual orchestration includes four horns; and arias for soprano and tenor soloists from Mozart’s oratorio “Davidde penitente,” K. 469. Areyzaga will be heard in the C-Minor Mass and the soprano aria from “Davidde penitent.”

Areyzaga sings with “a luminous radiance from top to bottom,” writes the Journal of Singing. “Beyond the exquisite sound she produces, the soprano also has a limitless palette.” The New York Times has hailed her as “an appealing, expressive” singer. The American soprano has performed as soloist with the New York Festival of Song, New York City Opera, New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago Ensemble, Chicago Master Singers, and other organizations throughout the U.S. and abroad.

A former chorister with the St. Charles Singers, Areyzaga auditioned for and earned a spot in the choir while a high school senior, becoming the ensemble’s youngest-ever member. “Her voice was remarkable,” Hunt says. “A natural gift.”

Jonathan Saylor, a music professor at Wheaton College, will present a 30-minute preconcert lecture one hour before each performance.

Original source can be found here.