Net Proceeds Directly Benefit Doctors Without Borders to Aid the Rohingya Fleeing Genocide
Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and David Amram’s Elegy for Violin and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
Music for Life International continues its decade-long tradition of global humanitarian concerts with Beethoven for The Rohingya, a benefit concert featuring Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony, presented in the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall on Monday, January 28, 2019. Beethoven for The Rohingya is an urgent call to the global community to raise awareness for the nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees fleeing what the United Nations have defined as genocide in Rakhine State in Myanmar. Refugees, who are seeking safety in Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other nearby locations, are grossly lacking access to healthcare when it is needed most; net proceeds from this performance will benefit Doctors Without Borders/Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF), which provides medical aid to those who are among the world’s most vulnerable.
Beethoven for The Rohingya is the eighth in a series of global humanitarian concerts presented by Music For Life International at Carnegie Hall. Music for Life International, which gathers together distinguished artists from the world’s finest orchestras, ensembles and institutions, has built its model and fine reputation on the concept that music itself is a vital source of energy, compassion, and universality and has raised more than $3.2 million in response to various humanitarian crises since its inception. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony will be led by conductor and Music For Life Artistic Director, George Mathew, and will feature renowned American violinist, Elmira Darvarova, soprano Indra Thomas, mezzo-soprano Sarah Heltzel, tenor Sean Panikkar, and bass Soloman Howard, with remarks by Dr. John Lawrence, President, Board of Directors of Doctors Without Borders.
American cultural giant, artistic icon of the Beat Generation and 20th century musical titan David Amram will conduct his own Elegy for Violin and Orchestra, with Darvarova as the soloist. Amram’s poignant and deeply elegiac poem of lyrical yearning is offered as a memorial for the dead for whom intervention comes too late. With this concert, Amram makes his first conducting appearance at Carnegie Hall in more than 50 years, when he was the New York Philharmonic’s first Composer-in-Residence, appointed by Leonard Bernstein.
Beethoven for The Rohingya comprises many of the finest classical musicians of the day, representing more than 70 international ensembles and organizations, their artistry donated. The Montclair State University Chorale performs the colossal choral score with conductor Heather J. Buchanan in their Carnegie Hall debut.
Montclair State University Chorale
MSU Chorale is the core choral ensemble and symphonic choir in the John J. Cali School of Music. This semester it comprises 160 voices including music students majoring in performance, music education, music therapy, composition, music theatre, as well as non-music majors with choral experience. The Chorale’s 2018-19 season opened with three magnificent performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of Xian Zhang to celebrate the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s season opening. Their long-standing relationship with the NJSO features a range of masterworks, including Howard Shore’s Academy Award winning The Lord of the Rings Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Neeme Järvi conductor), Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Verdi’s epic Messa da Requiem twice with Neeme Järvi (January 2010) and Jacques Lacombe (April 2014). Choral repertoire highlights include an interdisciplinary performance of Carmina Burana (Orff) with the department of theatre and dance (April 2017), Ein Deutsches Requiem (Brahms), Duruflé Requiem, Saint Nicolas (Britten), Fauré Requiem, Chichester Psalms (Bernstein), the regional premiere of Parables (Aldridge) in collaboration with the MSU Symphony Orchestra for the 2011 Crawford Concert, Annelies (Whitbourn) for the April 2015 Holocaust Memorial Concert, and the Tri-state premiere of Alzheimer’s Stories (Cohen) for the 2015 Crawford Concert, and the New Jersey premiere performance of Jubilate Deo by Dan Forrest (May 2018). The MSU Chorale is supported by a dynamic group of 27 student leaders who serve as managers, section leaders, conductors, accompanists, and publicity/social media advocates.
Heather Buchanan, MSU Chorale Conductor
Australian-born conductor Heather J. Buchanan, PhD, is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Montclair State University (MSU) where she conducts the curricular choirs Chorale and University Singers, and the extracurricular project choirs Vocal Accord and Prima Voce. Choirs under her direction have won critical acclaim for their “heartfelt conviction,” “vibrant sound,” “grace and precision,” and for singing with the “crispness and dexterity of a professional choir.” During her tenure, MSU choirs have collaborated with a variety of renowned artists and composers including Meredith Monk, Richard Alston Dance Company (RADC-UK), Chen Yi, Mícheál ÓSúílleabháin (Ireland), Tarik o’Reagan, members of the Vienna Philharmonic Strings (Austria), and conductors Neeme Järvi, Jacques Lacombe, Xian Zhang, George Manahan, Patrick Duprè Quigley, John Maucceri, Jeffrey Schindler, and Susie Benchasil Seiter with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO).
Her publications include the landmark GIA choral series Teaching Music through Performance in Choir (Vols. 1-3), a book chapter “Body Mapping: Enhancing Voice Performance through Somatic Pedagogy” in Teaching Singing in the 21st Century (Sprinter), a DVD Evoking Sound: Body Mapping & Gesture Fundamentals, and choral octavos in the Evoking Sound Choral Series (GIA). Guest conducting and residency engagements are wide-ranging and include US and international venues. Recent highlights include Passion of Italy 2017 (Rome & Florence); The 2016 Fall for Dance festival in NYC; Firenze 2015 (Florence, Italy); the Australian Voices across the Pacific choral festival (July 2014); the Queensland Conservatorium’s 2014 State Honours Education Program (Australia); Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb with RADC for Peak Performances 10th Anniversary, again at Sadler’s Wells (London) for the RADC 20th Anniversary Season Opening; the 30th Anniversary Pacific Basin Music Festival (Hawaii); CODA Festivals at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Centre for the performing Arts; and headlining the 2017 Australian Choral Conductor’s Education and Training Summer School (Melbourne) where she will return in January 2020.
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