Boston Choral Festival:
Monteverdi Vespers

Friday, October 25, 2024 | 7:30 PM
Cyclorama, Boston

The Program

Claudio Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610
Noah Horn, Music Director

This event will be held at the iconic Cyclorama and encompass a full day of workshops for a select group of area high school choral programs. These ensembles will learn several of the choral movements of the Vespers, joining you all at the culminating concert that evening. We hope to create an experience unique in Boston, bringing together unlikely groups of people around a timeless piece of music we think will excite a lot of people. 

Meet the Soloists/Singers

Adrian Cho, bass

Adrian Cho is a Boston-based baritone, choir director, and organist. He has appeared as a soloist and an ensemble member with groups such as the Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, the Choir of the Church of the Advent, and the Choir of Trinity Church Boston, and has most recently played the role of Pontius Pilate in the production of St. Matthew Passion by Cantata Singers. He is passionate about contemporary sacred choral music as well as early music and has a special love for the works of J. S. Bach. Cho completed his PhD in Speech and Hearing Science at Harvard University in 2023 and holds degrees in physics and biomedical engineering.

Jade Espina, alto

An Arkansas native, mezzo-soprano Jade Espina is a Cuban-American classical singer and voice teacher in the Boston area. Ms. Espina earned her Master of Music in Voice Performance from Boston University under the tutelage of Penelope Bitzas. She holds a B.M. in Voice Performance and B.M.E with a Choral Emphasis from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Ms. Espina has performed with several Boston-based opera and chorus companies, such as Odyssey Opera, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Opera Collaborative, Cantata Singers, NEMPAC Opera Project, NOVA Women’s Choral Project, Arlington Friends of the Drama, Due Donne Productions, and Promenade Opera Project. A fourth-year PK-12 music educator, Ms. Espina currently teaches early childhood music with the New England Conservatory of Music’s Preparatory School. After teaching middle school chorus and elementary PK-5 general music, orchestra, band and chorus in Framingham Public Schools for over three years, she earned her professional teaching license in K-12 Music Education in Massachusetts. Ms. Espina manages her own private voice and piano studio of twenty students out of her home in Cambridge, and has been on faculty with the Handel and Haydn Society Youth Chorus Program as a musicianship teacher for three years.

What’s Interesting About This Concert

  • A Groundbreaking Mix of Styles: This piece, formally titled "Vespro della Beata Vergine" (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin), is a landmark of early Baroque music because it blends multiple musical styles. It incorporates elements of both Renaissance polyphony and the newer, more dramatic Baroque techniques. This creates a rich and varied listening experience, moving from intimate moments to grand, celebratory choruses.

  • Lost and Found: Though well-known in his time, Monteverdi's Vespers wasn't widely performed for centuries after his death. The complete work wasn't even rediscovered until the 20th century! Today, it's recognized as a masterpiece and a cornerstone of Western music.

  • A Musical Spectacle: The Vespers is a large-scale work, scored for soloists, choirs, and a full orchestra. This allows for a wide range of expression, from the beauty of a single voice to the power of a combined chorus and instruments. It's a truly impressive musical spectacle.

  • About 95 minutes with one 10-minute intermission.

  • It's Boston, so this will be difficult.

  • The Cyclorama is housed within the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) in the South End neighborhood of Boston.expand_more You'll find it at 539 Tremont Street, a historic building known for its impressive copper dome.expand_more