'The Creation' highlights Symphony's Easter Festival

Glacier Symphony’s Easter Festival will offer Haydn’s sacred oratorio, “The Creation” a grand performance featuring orchestra, chorale and three voice soloists. Patterned after Easter Festivals held annually in Europe and around the world, the festival offers three concerts over the course of four days on April 5, 7 and 8. The music focuses on the varied and rich repertoire of music written for orchestra and chorus and features the full Glacier Symphony, orchestra and chorale under the baton of Maestro John Zoltek.

Opening the festival on Thursday, April 5, will be a Recital of Voices that features three acclaimed guest soloists; soprano Sari Gruber, tenor Brian Cheney and bass John Sweeney with piano accompaniment by Jenanne Solberg. The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Glacier High School Performance Hall. Admission is free to this opening night concert.

The Saturday, April 7 concert will be Bach Cantata No. 140 for orchestra, chorus and soloists, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture and Bruch’s beloved Kol Nidrei for solo cello and orchestra featuring Glacier Symphony principal cellist, Griffin Browne. The performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Flathead High Performance Hall, Kalispell.

Glacier Chorale conductor Micah Hunter says the singers are excited to be presenting Bach’s beautiful and challenging Wachet auf, Cantata No. 140.

“This piece requires of us a much lighter, more buoyant and flexible approach to our singing than much of the symphonic literature we sing. Cultivating this new mindset and the vocal technique that goes with it has been an enjoyable challenge for us.”

On Sunday, April 8 at 3 p.m. the music will be devoted to The Creation. Zoltek explains that Haydn was inspired to compose the work after hearing Handel’s music in London at the beginning of the 19th century.

“This is an astounding and thrilling work with text drawn directly from the book of Genesis. It is set in three distinct parts and alternates arias and duets with choruses and instrumental movements. The opening orchestra overture depicting ‘cosmic chaos prior to creation’ is remarkable in itself not to mention the incredible choral writing and tuneful narrative music for soloists.”

Hunter adds that the Creation oratorio is a pillar of sacred choral literature and for many in the chorus it will be their first time to sing it.

Soprano Sari Gruber is lauded as “nothing short of sensational” by Opera Magazine and “a real creature of the stage,” by Opera News.

Brian Cheney is hailed by KUSC Los Angeles as the “next great tenor.” A protégé of legendary tenor Jerry Hadley, he has gained international acclaim for his portrayal of characters such as Don José in Carmen, Mario Cavaradossi in Tosca, Rodolfo in La bohème, the Duke in Rigoletto, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Canio in Pagliacci.

John Sweeney was born in Great Falls and grew up on the family ranch northwest of Belt. After completing his education at the University of Montana and Notre Dame he traveled to Europe and enrolled in the opera-training program at the University of Vienna.

Tickets for Easter Festival are available in a range of prices and seating tiers starting at $10 for students and $15 for adults. Tickets can be purchased online at www.glaciersymphony.org and at the Glacier Symphony Box Office by calling 406-407-7000, located at 69 N. Main St. Kalispell.

Support for the Easter Festival is provided by The HealthCenter of Kalispell.