Handel's oratorio is one of our greatest annual cultural traditions. You can't help but get in the holiday spirit with this stirring Baroque "epic" on December 6 and 7 at the Granada Theatre. The halls will be decked out in holiday raiment and the mood will be festive as the chorus takes the stage for an inspired interpretation of Handel's incomparable "Messiah!" with guest soloists and orchestra conducted by SBCS Music Director Jo Anne Wasserman. (The concert will include all of Part I and selections from Parts II and III, which are not often performed.)Tickets may be purchased through the Granada Theatre Box Office at: 805.899.2222.

As if this magnificent choral masterpiece weren't enough all by itself, SBCS is pleased to announce that the incomparable opera great, Marilyn Horne, representing the Marilyn Horne Foundation, has personally selected our four soloists for the "Messiah" from among the incredibly talented alumni of the Music Academy of the West vocal music program! They include: Soprano Julie Davis, Alto Ana Mihanovic, Tenor Joshua Stewart, and local "hero" Bass Evan Hughes.

Julie Davis, lyric coloratura soprano, hails from Texas, and recently returned to the Music Academy of the West where she sang Rita in William Bolcom's celebrated comic opera, A Wedding. Ms. Davis' first appearance in Santa Barbara was as the heroine, Corinna, in Il viaggio à Reims at the Music Academy in 2006. She graduated this May with a Master of Music in Opera from the University of Oklahoma. While there, Ms. Davis performed the roles of Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare and Dido in Dido and Aeneas. Other credits include: Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Giannetta in L'elisir d'amore, Amalia Balash in She Loves Me, the Dewfairy in Hänsel and Gretel, Nella in Gianni Schicchi, and Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica. For the past four years, she has been featured as the soloist in the nationally televised production of Christmas at Baylor. As an active concert soloist, Ms. Davis' credits include: Mendelssohn's Elijah and Psalm 115, Faurè 's Requiem, Mozart's Vesperae de Confessore, and Beethoven's Choral Fantasia. Most recently, Ms. Davis was the 2007 first place MET Tulsa winner, first place winner of the Benton-Schmidt scholarship at the University of Oklahoma, and first place winner of the Naftzger Wichita Symphony competition. Ms. Davis currently resides in Moore, Oklahoma with her husband and 2 year old son, Mason.

Evan Hughes,Bass-Baritone, hailed by the New York Times for his “appealing clarity and emotional heft,” is quickly garnering attention for his work in recital and on the Operatic Stage. After winning the grand prize in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, Hughes went on to give his New York City Recital debut as a part of the foundation’s “On Wings of Song” series, broadcast on WQXR. In January 2008, he made his Carnegie Hall debut for the “Song Continues Gala,” and was dubbed “a promising bass-baritone with an energetic style,” by the New York Times. Legendary mezzo-soprano, Marilyn Horne called him “one of the shining stars of young artists today,” in Santa Barbara’s “Independent.” This fall Evan will return to Carnegie Hall in collaboration with Dawn Upshaw and the ACJW Ensemble, performing David Bruce’s Piosenki, under the baton of Stephen Prutsman. He will also perform the work along side Ms. Upshaw with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Currently studying at the Curtis Institute of Music, Evan will sing several leading roles in the Curtis Opera Theater’s 2008/2009 season, including the title role in Don Giovanni under the baton of Ari Pelto, and Lord Sidney in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims directed by Chas Rader-Shieber. In the 2007/2008 season, Evan sang the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro, King Rene in Iolante, and Jose Tripaldi in the Philadelphia premier of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar. Other Roles with the Cutis Opera Theater include Man with the Cornet Case in Postcard from Morocco, and Ariadeno in L’Ormindo.

At the Tanglewood Music Festival, Evan performed Elliot Carter’s Syringa under the baton of Stephan Asbury for Tanglewood’s festival of contemporary music, honoring Carter’s 100th birthday. The Boston Globe commented that “this performance was as clear and warmly focused as they come.” Also at Tanglewood, Evan was seen in collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance group singing Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzer.

Evan made his European recital debut in Denmark in collaboration with pianist Mikael Eliasen as a part of the Sommermusik series. 2008 included several other European recitals with the William Walton Foundation at La Mortella in Ischia, Italy, and with the American Academy in Berlin, Germany, and will include a recital in the U.S for the Marilyn Horne foundation’s On Wings of Song in collaboration with pianist, Tamara Sanikidze.
Evan received his B.A from UCLA where he performed several leading roles including the title role in Gianni Schicchi, the Vicar in Albert Herring, Don Alfonso in Cosi Fan Tutte, and Ramiro in L’Heure Espagnole.

Ana Mihanović, mezzo-soprano, is from Spilt, Croatia. She has been a featured soloist with the Croatian National Opera Summer Festival, Southwest Symphony, American West Symphony, Legacy Chorale and Utah Philharmonia in performances of Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Symphony no.9 and concert versions of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. She has also appeared as a guest soloist with the Contemporary Music Consortium and Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City, and was a chosen participant of the 2006 Cleveland Art Song Festival. In January 2009, Ana will participate in the masterclasses presented by the Marilyn Horne Foundation annual festival The Song Continues. She also maintains an active involvement with Croatian Folk-Music Ensemble “Iskon,” participating in competitions, performances, and recordings of the southern-Croatian folk song.

As a member of the University of Utah Lyric Opera Ensemble, Ana has performed in numerous productions including Street Scene (Anna Maurrant), The Bartered Bride (Ludmila), Merry Wives of Windsor (Meg Page), and Orpheus in the Underworld (Venus). She has participated in music programs in Austria and Italy where she most recently sang Musetta (La Bohéme) and La Zelatrice (Suor Angelica) with La Musica Lirica. In 2006, she sang Flora in La Traviata with San Antonio Opera. Ana was part of the Music Academy of the West summer school and festival in 2005 and 2008 where she most recently performed the role of Diana in William Bolcom’s A Wedding.

Ana received her undergraduate (Honors BM, 2002) and graduate (MM-vocal performance and MA-musicology, 2005) degrees from the University of Utah School of Music where she studied with Robert Breault. In May 2008, she completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at the Manhattan School of Music.
Ana lives in New York City where she studies with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell.

Joshua Stewart, 21-year-old, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a member of the Curtis Opera Theatre where he recently performed the roles of Nemorino in L’elisir d’Amore, Ruiz Alonso in the Philadelphia premiere of Golijov’s Ainadamar, and Almeric in Iolanta. Stewart is currently pursuing a Bachelors of Music at the Curtis Institute of Music where he studies with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell and holds the Joseph Cairns Jr. and Ernestine Bacon Memorial Fellowship. Since with the Curtis Opera Theatre, Mr. Stewart has appeared in many other roles some of which include the Lyric Tenor in Postcard from Morocco, Prunier in La Rondine, and Erice in L’Ormindo, and the Mayor in Albert Herring.

This summer, Mr. Stewart attended the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, where he studied with Marilyn Horne and worked with Warren Jones. He received and encouragement award in the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. In September, Stewart performed at the 2007 Liberty Medal ceremony where his audience included President George H. W. Bush and Bono. In April, Stewart also performed and the 2008 National Democratic Debate in Philadelphia, PA.

In January, Stewart appeared at the St. Barths Music Festival on the island of St. Barths in the Caribbean. Later that month, Stewart appeared at Carnegie Hall as apart of Marilyn Horne’s song festival, The Song Continues…, where he participated in a master class with Marilyn Horne. Later this season, Stewart will appear as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Hauptmann in Wozzeck, and Conte Liebskopf in Il Viaggio a Reims all with the Curtis Opera Theatre.

Stewart has also participated in master classes with William Bolcom and Joan Morris, Marilyn Horne, Warren Jones, and Thomas Allen and he has premiered two operas, River May Cry by Jay Weigle and The Invitations by John B Hedges.

Those interested in learning more about the "Messiah" and its composer, are invited to read the following piece by SBCS Board President Mary Dan Eades:

Handel and his "Messiah"

Although he lived most of his adult life in England and became a subject of the British crown, Georg Friedrich Handel was born in Halle, Germany February 23, 1685, the same year Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti. Like them, Handel’s significant musical talent became evident at an early age, but pursuing a career in music was an inclination of which his father, a barber-surgeon to the royal Courts, heartily disapproved; the elder Handel preferred instead that his son study law, which he later did. His disapproval notwithstanding, however, the father permitted his son to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard technique. His mother, on the other hand, openly encouraged his music and for his seventh birthday, his aunt presented him with a spinet, which he kept in the attic and played when he could.

Handel proved to be a prolific, deft, and inventive composer. His works include some 50 operas, 16 organ concerti, 2 concerti grossi, including the "Fireworks" music and the "Water Music" (composed as entertainment for a boating party of King George I) a large amount of church music and instrumental pieces, and 23 oratorios, the most famous of which is without doubt his "Messiah." Autograph manuscript dating reveals that he completed most of his major compositions in astoundingly short order, including what has become his most enduring oratorio in a mere 24 days, from August 22 to September 14, 1741.

While we associate this most-beloved of all Handel’s oratorios with the Christmas season, it was neither written nor originally intended as a Christmas piece, nor was it considered church music, even though its words flow exclusively from the texts of the King James Bible. All of the 36 performances conducted by Handel took place in the spring, during Lent or Easter, and never in a church. In fact, Handel composed the "Messiah" for a charity fundraiser, purportedly for a local prison; Handel, himself, conducted the first performance in Dublin, Ireland on April 13, 1742.

Working with the available orchestral and choral resources in Dublin (and perhaps feeling them not to be of as high a musical caliber as their British counterparts) he kept his writing within modest limits, both for chorus (which he wrote for only the four basic voice parts) and for orchestra, in which no instrument takes a solo except the violin and trumpet. The work, as with most of Handel’s compositions, relies on clever scoring in rhythm and melody to set the contrasting moods of the various choruses. For instance, note how in Chorus No. 26 taken from the Biblical text of Isaiah “All we like sheep have gone astray” two vocal parts will diverge—or stray apart—when the chorus sings the words ‘have gone astray.’

"Messiah" is divided into three parts: Part I, which corresponds to the Advent and Christmas portions of the church calendar, foretells the coming of the Messiah and the realization of that prophecy in the birth and life of Jesus. Part II, corresponding to the Easter, Ascension, and Whitsun portions of the church calendar, portrays the sacrifice of Jesus and spreads the Gospel of his passion, ending with the glorious resurrection in the "Halleluiah!" chorus. Part III exemplifies the resounding message of the piece: the Christian promise of faith in the Resurrection of Christ that gives man hope for life everlasting.

- Mary Dan Eades