Music: Choirs and Orchestra Performance of Fauré’s Requiem

Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg’s choirs and orchestra will give a performance of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in First Presbyterian Church, Market Street, Bloomsburg. The performance is free and open to the public.

The performance will feature vocalists Christopher Gallo, bass-baritone, and Katherine Young, soprano, and violinist Frank Lakatos. The choirs are directed by Dr. Alan Baker and Dr. Amelia Garbisch. The orchestra is directed by Dr. David Tedford.

Gallo, a recently retired music teacher from the Wayne Highlands School District, is currently director of the a cappella ensemble the Lyric Consort and has appeared as a guest soloist with the Choral Society of NEPA and the Arcadia Chorale. 

Young has performed across the U.S. and internationally, including China, Italy and Austria. She is an active member of the Philadelphia Chorale, the Princeton Singers, and a section leader at Queen of the Universe Church.

Lakatos, a Hungarian-American violinist and violist, has explored the self-reflective dimensions of the violin through its solo repertoire. His performances include his own compositions and arrangements of music of different genres for solo violin.

Fauré (1845 –1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. One of the foremost French composers of his generation, his best-known works include the Requiem, Pavane, Sicilienne, nocturnes for piano, and the songs “Après un rêve” and “Clair de lune.” His Requiem in D minor, Op. 48, composed between 1887 and 1890, is a choral-orchestral setting of the shortened Catholic Mass for the Dead in Latin.