MINNEAPOLIS, MN (September 10, 2012) —VocalEssence will
open its 2012 season with Romance in E
minor on Friday, October 19 (8 pm) at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. The
concert will feature repertoire chosen by Helmuth Rilling, including the Romantic-era
composers Mendelssohn and Bruckner, sung by the VocalEssence Chorus and
Ensemble Singers with chamber orchestra. There will be a Concert Conversation with host John Birge and guest Philip Brunelle one hour before the concert, at 7 pm.

This is a rare and thrilling
opportunity to see one of the world’s leading interpreters of German repertoire
conducting glorious music in one of Minnesota’s most spectacular settings.
Tickets ($10-$30, service charges apply) are available at vocalessence.org or
612-371-5656.

Philip Brunelle considers Helmuth Rilling one of the great
choral conductors of our time. He previously conducted a VocalEssence concert
in 2005 and has been named an honorary member of the VocalEssence board of
directors. “He is now 79 and in his prime! For this concert he is focusing on
two of his favorite composers of the Romantic era, Felix Mendelssohn and Anton
Bruckner,” says Brunelle.

The first half of the concert will feature the
VocalEssence Ensemble Singers in motets of Bruckner and Mendelssohn, varying in
style and demanding in their vocal and dramatic ranges. In the second half the
combined voices of the VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers will perform
Anton Bruckner’s Mass in e minor.
Regarded as one of the most important choral works of the 19th century, this
mass is unique in that the orchestra is comprised only of woodwind and brass
instruments — no strings, no organ, no percussion.  

High-resolution photos of Helmuth Rilling are available
for download at www.vocalessence.org/12-13-press-photos.
For additional information, contact Becky Bailey, bbailey@vocalessence.org, 763.551.9190 (cell 612.309.7149).

Romance in E minor
– Program

Four
motets of Anton Bruckner

Locus iste
Os justi
Christus factus est
Ecce Sacerdos

Two
motets of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Richte mich, Gott (Psalm 43)

Mein Gott, Warum hast du mich
Verlassen (Psalm 22)

Anton
Bruckner

Mass No. 2 in E minor

Helmuth Rilling

Grammy Award-winning conductor Helmuth Rilling is one of
the world’s preëminent interpreters of Bach and most important conductors of
the choral-orchestral repertoire. He has been artistic director of the Oregon
Bach Festival since its inception in 1970 and has appeared as guest conductor
with virtually all of the world’s important music institutions, including the
Chicago, Cleveland, Minnesota and Toronto symphony orchestras, and the New
York, Vienna, and Berlin philharmonics. Rilling’s commitment to new music has
led to many commissions, including Passion settings by Tan Dun and Osvaldo
Golijov, the 2009 Messiah by
Sven-David Sandström, and Krzysztof Penderecki’s Credo, for which Rilling and the Oregon Bach Festival won a Grammy
award in 2001. He has received many important awards, including the UNESCO
International Music Prize (1994), the Theodor Heuss Prize (1995), Honorary
Member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences (2003), and the Staufer
Gold Medal (2008). In 2011, he was awarded the prestigious Herbert von Karajan
Music Prize from the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.