The Louisville Orchestra will open its 2015-16 season on September 26 at the Kentucky Center with Leonard Bernstein’s Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers. Music Director Teddy Abrams will conduct, and Arvin Brown (American Buffalo, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton) will direct the production, which will feature baritone Jubilant Sykes, the University of Louisville Collegiate Chorale, Louisville Chamber Choir, Louisville Male High School Marching Band, and Highland Hills Middle School Boys Choir. It is the first time the Louisville Orchestra is performing the work, which had its world premiere in 1971 at the opening of Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Says Teddy Abrams, “Mass is really an emotional outpour of Bernstein dealing with the loss of a friend, John F. Kennedy, a loss of innocence, a changing viewpoint, and relationship with this country.” Says Louisville Orchestra Executive Director Andrew Kipe, “Our institutional memory cannot recall the orchestra producing something on this scale. There are going to be so many people on the stage that half the musicians will be performing in the pit.”
Posted September 25, 2015
