The Collegiate Chorale Presents A CHILD OF OUR TIME and TE DEUM 2/3

The Collegiate Chorale is set to present Tippett's A Child of Our Time and Bruckner's Te Deum on Friday, February 3, 2012 at 7pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue, NYC. The performance features Nicole Cabell, Marietta Simpson, Russell Thomas, John Relyea and the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Bagwell.

Single tickets start at $10 and are available online at carnegiehall.org, by phone through Carnegie Charge at (212) 247-7800 or in person at the Carnegie Hall Box Office.

Sir Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time (1941) is a unique oratorio, structured in three parts to emulate Handel's Messiah and using traditional African-American spirituals in a form similar to Bach's use of the chorale in his Passions, all with a decidedly twentieth-century musical language. The text of this stirring work reflects Tippett's pacifism and belief that people contain both "shadow and light." Soprano Nicole Cabell has performed this work to great critical acclaim and has made it a signature piece. She will be joined by Marietta Simpson, mezzo-soprano, Russell Thomas, tenor, and John Relyea, bass-baritone. Paired with this riveting work will be the powerful Te Deum by Anton Bruckner. Conducted by James Bagwell.

The Collegiate Chorale's 70th season began with Moïse et Pharaon and continues with Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado on April 10, 2012 at 6:30pm at Carnegie Hall, featuringChuck Cooper, Jason Danieley, Christopher Fitzgerald, Kelli O'Hara, Brad Oscar, Lauren Worsham, and Amy Justman, directed and conducted by Ted Sperling. The season will conclude with a program entitled Contemporary Voices led by Maestro Bagwell on May 21, 2012 at St. Bartholomew's Church. Highlights of the program include Copland's In the Beginning - which The Chorale premiered under its founder Robert Shaw - the Poulenc Gloria, and the New York premiere of a setting of Psalm 67 by the young and celebrated Israeli composer, Avner Dorman.

Single tickets for all concerts can be purchased by contacting The Chorale office at (646) 435-9465 or online at collegiatechorale.org.

The mission of The Collegiate Chorale, led by Music Director James Bagwell, is to enrich its audiences through innovative programming and exceptional performances of a broad range of vocal music featuring a choral ensemble. Founded in 1941 by the legendary conductor Robert Shaw, The Chorale has established a preeminent reputation for its interpretations of the traditional choral repertoire, vocal works by American composers, and rarely heard operas-in-concert, as well as for commissions and premieres of new works by today's most exciting creative artists. The many guest artists with whom The Chorale has performed in recent years include: Bryn Terfel, Stephanie Blythe, Nathan Gunn, Kelli O'Hara, Victoria Clark, Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson, and Deborah Voigt. Last season's highlights included a Brahms program at Carnegie Hall featuring Stephanie Blythe, Eric Owens and Erin Morley, a critically acclaimed concert presentation of Kurt Weill's Knickerbocker Holiday featuring Victor Garber and Kelli O'Hara which was recorded and released commercially in the first complete cast album of that work, and a celebration of Broadway featuring Deborah Voigt and Paulo Szot under the baton of Ted Sperling. In addition to The Chorale's presentations, the chorus performed in five programs throughout the American Symphony Orchestra's 2010-11 season, returned to the Verbier Festival in the summer of 2011, and will perform with the Israel Philharmonic in Israel and Salzburg in July 2012.

Music Director James Bagwell maintains an active schedule throughout the United States as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral music. He has recently been named Principal Guest Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York and is Director of the Music Program at Bard College. At Bard SummerScape he has led numerous theatrical works, most notably Copland's The Tender Land, which received unanimous praise from The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Opera News. He frequently appears as guest conductor for orchestras around the country and abroad, including the Jerusalem Symphony, Tulsa Symphony, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. He has also prepared The Concert Chorale of New York for performances with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Mostly Mozart Festival (broadcast nationally in 2006 on Live from Lincoln Center), all in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. He has trained choruses for a number of major American and international orchestras and worked with noted conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Louis Langrée, Leon Botstein, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Raymond Leppard, James Conlon, Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Leon Fleischer, and Robert Shaw.