Under Music Director Matthew Mehaffey, MCP is celebrated for its innovative programming, commissions, and partnership programming such as the 2020 world premiere of Satan’s Fall by Stewart Copeland, the 2019 world premiere of The Times They Are A-Changin’: The Words and Music of Bob Dylan by composer/ conductor Steve Hackman, and MCP’s new series, Global Choral Traditions, offered in partnership with City of Asylum that explores global song traditions. Audiences and critics alike have praised MCP’s programming saying “EXCEPTIONAL and MEMORABLE event. I’m still talking about it,” “One of the finest music events I have ever attended,” and “the For almost 100 years, MCP has been the proud Mendelssohn never ceases to amaze me . . . This choral partner of the PSO, bringing the joys of city should be proud of its choir” (Pittsburgh Postsymphonic choral music to tens of thousands Gazette). of people in the region each year. As the PSO’s “chorus of choice,” the MCP has performed MCP fosters the next generation of choral singers under the baton of a veritable who’s who in and audience members through its educational classical music, including Lorin Maazel, program, the Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Mariss Jansons, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Pittsburgh (JMCP). Founded in 1988, JMCP is Michael Tilson Thomas, Claudio Abbado, the region’s premier high school choral training Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, and performance program. Annually, the JMCP Charles Dutoit, André Previn, Sir Neville attracts singers from more than a dozen school Marriner, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Helmuth districts, providing youth with a challenging Rilling, Ingo Metzmacher, Richard Hickox, musical environment in which to develop their skills and giving them the tools and experiences Zdenek Mácal, and Manfred Honeck. to be life-long participants in the arts. Critically acclaimed as one of the finest choruses in the country, the 114-year-old MCP is re- For upcoming performances and more inventing choral music for the 21st century. information, visit www.themendelssohn.org. The members of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (MCP) are thrilled to return to the stage with Maestro Honeck and the members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO). MCP made its return to live performances in December with The Promise of Light, a dramatic concert that drew upon the wealth of music and poetry about winter, the solstice, and the hope for new beginnings. To share the joy of coming together in person after the dark silence of the pandemic, MCP offered these concerts for free at venues across the region to inspire and delight more than 3,300 community members with the power of the human voice.
BIOGRAPHY 2021-2022 SEASON
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