The Phoenix Symphony Presents
Handel’s Messiah
Thursday, December 12, 2024, 7:30 PM
Camelback Bible Church
Friday, December 13, 2024, 7:30 PM
Mesa Arts Center, Ikeda Theater
Saturday, December 14, 2024, 7:30 PM
Sunday, December 15, 2024, 3:00 PM
Pinnacle Presbyterian Church
Patrick Dupré Quigley, Conductor
Kathryn Mueller, Soprano
Stephanie Sánchez, Mezzo Soprano
Joshua Blue, Tenor
Joshua Conyers, Baritone
The Phoenix Symphony Chorus
Dr. Thomas Bookhout, Chorus Master
Tigran Buniatyan, Harpsichord
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Messiah, HWV 56
1. Sinfonia
2. Accompagnato: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people (Tenor)
3. Air: Ev’ry valley shall be exalted (Tenor)
4. Chorus: And the glory, the glory of the Lord (Chorus)
5. Accompagnato: Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts (Baritone)
6. Air: But who may abide the day of His coming (Mezzo Soprano)
7. Chorus: And He shall purify (Chorus)
Recitative: Behold, a virgin shall conceive (Mezzo Soprano)
8. Air and Chorus: O Thou that tellest good tidings to Zion (Mezzo Soprano, Chorus)
9. Accompagnato: For, behold, darkness (Baritone)
10. Air: The people that walked in darkness (Baritone)
11. Chorus: For unto us a child is born (Chorus)
12. Pifa: Pastoral Symphony
Recitative: There were shepherds abiding in the field (Soprano)
13. Accompagnato: And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them (Soprano)
Recitative: And the angel said unto them (Soprano)
14. Accompagnato: And suddenly there was with the angel (Soprano)
15. Chorus: Glory to God in the highest (Chorus)
16. Air: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion (Soprano)
Recitative: Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened (Mezzo Soprano)
17. Duet: He shall feed his flock like a shepherd (Mezzo Soprano and Soprano)
18. Chorus: His yoke is easy, His burden is light (Chorus)
INTERMISSION
19. Chorus: Behold the Lamb of God (Chorus)
20. Air: He was despised (Mezzo Soprano)
21. Chorus: Surely He hath borne our griefs (Chorus)
22. Chorus: And with His stripes we are healed (Chorus)
23. Chorus: All we, like sheep, have gone astray (Chorus)
24. Accompagnato: All they that see him, laugh him to scorn (Tenor)
25. Chorus: He trusted in God (Chorus)
26. Accompagnato: Thy rebuke hath broken (Tenor)
27. Arioso: Behold and see (Tenor)
28. Accompagnato: He was cut off (Soprano)
29. Air: But Thou didst not leave (Soprano)
36. Air: Why do the nations rage? (Baritone)
37. Chorus: Let us break their bonds (Chorus)
Recitative: He that dwelleth in Heaven shall laugh them to scorn (Tenor)
38. Air: Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron (Tenor)
39. Chorus: Hallelujah! (Chorus)
40. Air: I know that my Redeemer liveth (Soprano)
41. Chorus: Since by man came death (Chorus)
42. Accompagnato: Behold I tell you a mystery (Baritone)
43. Air: The trumpet shall sound (Baritone)
46. Air: If God be for us (Soprano)
47. Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain (Chorus)
Chorus: Amen (Chorus)
The 2024/25 Holiday season is sponsored by
Patrick Dupré Quigley, Conductor
Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor/ producer/arranger/ composer, is the Founder and Artistic Director of Seraphic Fire, and Artistic Director Designate of Opera Lafayette, succeeding the organization’s founder, Ryan Brown, in the 2025-2026 season.
Quigley is known for his engaging performances of historically-informed programming that draw in new audiences and delight regular concertgoers. A ceaseless advocate for a more inclusive concert experience, Quigley’s programs regularly span more than 1000 years of musical history. Through recordings, performances, and new editions, Quigley has championed the culturally relevant voices of Spanish Renaissance composer
Tomas Luis de Victoria, the 11th-century polymath and saint Hildegard of Bingen, and 18th-century Cuban composer Esteban Salas y Castro. Quigley deeply respects music traditions outside the Western European canon and has developed concerts and collaborations highlighting the music of the Babylonian Jews, New Orleans’s Black Gospel tradition, Latin Pop, and the Baroque music of North and South America.
Quigley holds an undergraduate degree in Music Theory and History from the University of Notre Dame, studying under Daniel Stowe, Alexander Blachly and Walter Ginter. Quigley studied conducting with Marguerite Brooks while earning a Master of Music degree at the Yale School of Music. He has assisted Michael Tilson Thomas in rehearsals, performances, and recordings at the San Francisco Symphony. Quigley is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Kathryn Mueller, Soprano
American soprano
Kathryn Mueller thrills and connects with audiences with her crystalline sound, personal warmth and musicianship. She sings a wide range of repertoire from period baroque performances to world premieres of new works, and has been a soloist with the LA Chamber Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Phoenix Symphony, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Winston-Salem Symphony, and Tucson Symphony Orchestra.
Kathryn received a 2015 GRAMMY nomination for her solo work on True Concord’s album Far in the Heavens. She has also recorded two GRAMMYnominated albums with Seraphic Fire, and is featured as a soloist on recordings by New Trinity Baroque, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Tucson Chamber Artists, and Seraphic Fire, including Seraphic Fire’s best-selling Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, which reached the top of the iTunes classical chart.
Kathryn was born in San Francisco, and began her musical studies at an elevation of 7,000 feet in the White Mountains of Arizona. Her first solo performance was “Away in a Manger” in church, at age seven. She got her first pro gig – a
section leader position at a church in Providence – during high school in Rhode Island, continued her vocal studies as an undergraduate at Brown University, and then earned a Masters degree in vocal performance from the University of Arizona. Kathryn lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband (NCSU choir director Nathan
Leaf) and two spirited young children. She belongs to Beyond Artists, a coalition of musicians who donate a percentage of their concert fees to organizations they care about. She supports the Poor People’s Campaign through her performances.
Stephanie Sánchez, Mezzo Soprano
Stephanie Sánchez has been praised by Opera News for her “polished, Italianate mezzo” and by ReviewSTL for her “exquisite singing.” Sánchez opened her 2023-24 season in her debut with Kentucky Opera performing the role of the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel. She also made debuts with the Phoenix Symphony, where she sang as a soloist in Handel’s Mesías [Spanish Messiah], Nettie Fowler in Carousel with Intermountain Opera Bozeman, and with Opera Omaha in the role of as Frida in Gabriela Lena Frank’s El ultimo sueño de Frida y Diego. She returns to Arizona Opera to reprise the role of Carlotta de Obragón in abbreviated performancs of Zorro for the company’s New Works Festival.
Sánchez counts among her notable engagements singing the role of Ines while covering Azucena in Francesca Zambello’s 90-minute adaptation of Il
Trovatore at The Glimmerglass Festival; and singing the roles of Carlotta in Zorro with Opera Southwest, Abuela in En mis palabras at Atlanta Opera, Maddalena in Rigoletto and Olga in Eugene Onegin with Intermountain Opera, and Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos with Arizona Opera.
Sánchez has been the recipient of several prizes, including the “Audience Choice Award” at the 2021 Jensen Foundation competition. She was the recipient of the 2018 Igor Gorin Memorial Award, took first place in the Young Texas Artist Music Competition and second place in Opera Connecticut’s Opera Idol Competition, was a finalist in the Brava Opera Theater Competition, and has received grants from the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust and the Hispanic Scholarship Association.
Born and raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Sánchez received her Artist Diploma from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and her master’s degree in vocal performance from New Mexico State University.
Joshua Blue, Tenor
During the 2023-24 season, British-American tenor Joshua Blue made his Houston Grand Opera stage debut creating the role of Wilson in the world premiere of Intelligence, a new work from composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, conducted by Kwamé Ryan. He will return to the Metropolitan Opera as Tamino for Julie Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute under the baton of Gareth Morrell. In concert, Mr. Blue will reunite with the American Symphony Orchestra and Leon Botstein for Dvořák’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall and Brahms’ Rinaldo at the Fisher Center at Bard; join the Oratorio
Society of New York for a gala evening to celebrate their 150th anniversary with the final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony #9; and performs Moravec’s Sanctuary Road with both the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park and Princeton Pro Musica. Mr. Blue ends the season covering the Duke in Rigoletto with the Royal Opera House tour to Japan led by Antonio Pappano.
Mr. Blue earned his bachelor’s degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and graduated from The Juilliard School with a master’s degree, studying voice with Dr. Robert C. White, Jr. He is a former Apprentice Singer with Santa Fe Opera and is an alumnus of the Cafritz Young Artist program with the Washington National Opera.
Joshua Conyers, Baritone
Grammynominated
Baritone Joshua Conyers has been singled out by Opera News for his “deliciously honeyed baritone that would seduce anyone” by The New York Times as having “a sonorous baritone” that “wheedled and seduced” and by The Washington Post for have a “show stealing” performance. A native of Bronx, NY, he is known for his captivating performances and recognized as one the promising dramatic voices of today. Conyers’ busy 2023-2024 season includes joining The Metropolitan Opera production of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X by Anthony Davis, which he will also be performing
with Seattle Opera, Hollis in Two Corners by B. E. Boykin with Finger Lakes Opera, and performing the role of Scarpia in Tosca with Opera Wilmington. On the concert platform, Mr. Conyers makes his debut with the New York Philharmonic as the Bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah Two Black Churches by Shawn E. Okpebholo and American Sonnets by Carlos Simon respectively, and the Bass soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a new companion work by composer Derrick Skye commissioned by the RPO for its 100th season.
Joshua received his Bachelor of Music and post-graduate certificate from UNC School of the Arts and his Master of Music from Indiana University. Mr. Conyers is currently on the voice faculty at the Eastman School of Music.