BLINN MUSIC DEPARTMENT TO PRESENT “A NIGHT OF ORATORIO”
Performance will include selections by composers Bach, Handel, and Mendelssohn
The Blinn College Music Department invites the public to attend their performance of “A Night of Oratorio” next Friday, April 1.
Blinn Professor Dr. Daniel Johnson, who will also be one of the performers, explained that oratorio, or “sacred opera” was created when the Pope’s censors shut down Italian opera houses during Lent.
Opera was the most popular form of public entertainment at that time, and the public still needed their “opera fix” during Lent, so they invented a form of “sacred opera” based on Biblical stories and the lives of the saints.
In addition to Dr. Johnson, other performers will be Blinn students Mikayla Wallis, Charis Wirtley, Cody Prause, and Joe Koehler-Houlihan. Staff pianist Mary Ann Hatfield will be the accompanist.
Part One will be “An Evening at the Church” featuring music by well-known composers Johann Sebastian Bach, George Handel, and Felix Mendelssohn.
Part Two will be “An Evening at…Oh, Never Mind,” with music by P.D.Q. Bach, a fictional composer invented by American music satirist Peter Schickele.
The recital begins at 7pm at the Fink Recital Hall inside the C.F. Schmidt Building located on the Blinn College-Brenham campus.
Admission is free and open to the public.
For those that can’t be there in person, the concert will be livestreamed on the Blinn College Music Department YouTube Channel.