Brahms' Requiem To Be Performed by DePauw Orchestra & Choirs on May 5

April 22, 2002

April 22, 2002, Greencastle, Ind. - The DePauw University Orchestra and Festival Choirs will join forces for the final time during the 2001-02 school year to perform the choral masterwork Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) by Johannes Brahms on Sunday, May 5 at 3 p.m. The concert will be held in Kresge Auditorium of DePauw's Performing Arts Center and is free and open to the public.

The performance will feature faculty soloists, Barbara Paré, soprano, and Stanley Irwin, bass. Irwin is also director of DePauw University Choirs.

“The German Requiem, completed in mid-1860's, remains one of the most enduring pieces for choirs and orchestra,” says Orcenith Smith, music director of DePauw Orchestras and conductor for the performance. “The composer's ability to provide the most simple and poignant musical beauty continues to create for us all moments of peaceful reflection at the same time we are stirred into profound appreciation. In this music written to Biblical texts, we experience the majesty of our human circumstances, reflecting on the relationships that we have and those that we have lost. For the performers and audience alike, the music provides an ennobling experience.”