The St. Cecilia Choir & Cantiamo Sonoma

with the Incarnation Orchestra

Carol Menke, soprano
Lynda Higson, mezzo-soprano
Kevin Baum, tenor
Tom Hart, bass

Mark Penn, guest conductor

Leslie Dukes, organist

$20 - General Admission

$25 - Preferred Seating

To purchase tickets, click on the following link: Eventbrite

The Stabat Mater is scored for solo quartet, mixed choir, strings, two oboes both doubling English horn, and organ continuo. Written in 1767 when Haydn was Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy, Haydn was especially proud of this work. He was no doubt aware of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater setting, as well as Domenico Scarlatti’s, but there were no Austrian models such as existed for the mass texts.

The Stabat Mater contains some of the composer’s most rich and deeply felt writing, and served to promote Haydn’s reputation in the rest of Europe with many successful performances. Nowadays this piece is seldom performed and even more rarely recorded. One commentator writes, “Haydn’s choral writing has all the variety, rhythmic energy and contrapuntal skill of a composer at the height of his powers.”

Mark Penn will be guest conductor. A violist, singer, and conductor for over 40 years, he did his post-graduate work at Stanford, USC, and San Francisco State Universities. He was Music Director at Peninsula Civic Light Opera for several years, and founding Director of Musaic, a San Francisco-based a cappella men’s ensemble.