Coming up….Don’t miss Nick and Tony Kieraldo in New York

Friday, May 30th | Bread & Bottle | Red Hook, NY | 7PM

Saturday, May 31st | Club Helsinki | Hudson, NY | 8PM

Sunday, June 1st | Dottie’s | Pittsfield, MA | 11am – 2pm 

Visit our schedule page for more information.

CHRONICLE HERALD – ANDREA  NEMETZ  ARTS  REPORTER   Published  April  3,  2014  -­  4:34pm

When it came to creating The Evangelist for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Rufus Müller had a wealth of material to draw on.

“My style as an evangelist is my father’s style in the pulpit,” says Muller, born in Kent, England, to a German father who was an Anglican priest.

“It felt like it was second nature. He was a very amusing and arresting preacher.”

The tenor, who sang in church choirs from the age of six, will be the Evangelist when the Chapel Choir of the University of King’s College, under the direction of Paul Halley, presents the dramatic masterwork for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra on Saturday at Saint John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg and Sunday at All Saints Cathedral in Halifax. Both shows are at 4 p.m.

Also featured are Ensemble Regale, the boy sopranos of Capella Regalis, Dion Mazerolle as Jesus, Tyler Duncan as Pilate, counter- tenor Daniel Taylor, soprano Helene Brunet, mezzo-soprano Sarah Myatt and tenor Marc Molomot.

Müller estimates he has performed the role of the Evangelist at least 100 times, in locales including Lucerne, Munich, Toronto, Calgary, New York, London, Birmingham, Goteborg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Dortmund, Bordeaux and Washington, D.C. A New York Times review said Muller “gave the strongest theatrical performance of a Bach Evangelist that I have encountered, and one of the most musical.”

And if he had to choose only two pieces he would be allowed to sing for the rest of his life, it would be the St. Matthew Passion and Schubert’s Winterreise.

The St. Matthew Passion is an extraordinary story, “even if you are an aetheist,” he says, sitting in a Halifax coffee shop after a well- received master class for Dalhousie voice students.

“The way Bach sets it brings out all the humanity, the blood, guts, sex, sensuality and tactile nature of my sense of religion. The language of the chorales and arias is sensuous and physical, as well as spiritual. It combines everything.”

The role is both physically and emotionally difficult, continues Müller, noting that the piece is three hours long and that while he doesn’t sing the whole three hours, his performance doesn’t stop when he’s not singing.

“The big challenge is, the pitch is higher than in Bach’s time. It is difficult vocally with a whole set of unique challenges.

“As an Evangelist, I have to know when I’m singing lyrically and when it is purely narrative. The dynamic range is huge. It is mostly very syllabic. You never get a chance to go for a sound without being interupted by syllables. There are hardly any melismas (more sound than syllable). And it has to bounce out of nowhere with no buildup, and it gets more difficult as it goes on.”

Müller, who says he was “singing before he could talk,” at one point considered a career in acting and says he is still acting while singing.

“I’ve made it my business to work out ways to tell the story and make it as natural and compelling as possible, regardless of whether I’m in good voice.”

The charming singer performed with Symphony Nova Scotia in Handel’s Messiah in 2006 and in Handel’s Ode To St. Cecilia at St. Andrew’s United Church in Halifax in 2003.

This will be his first time performing with Halley, and in both Lunenburg and at All Saints Cathedral, and he says the St. Matthew Passion will be done in an almost semi-liturgical way.

“I like the idea of doing it as a devotion, as well as just a performance.”

Müller was a choral scholar at New College, Oxford, and had been planning to study modern languages before deciding on music. He speaks six languages, which helps in his career as a recitalist, including English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, and jokes he can also say “I’m an opera singer from London” in modern Greek.

Müller has lived in New York since 1992; he moved there to study with Thomas LoMonaco. He is associate professor of music at Bard College, New York.

ST. MATTHEW PASSION BY BACH:

Presented by: The Chapel Choir of the University of King’s College under the direction of Paul Halley

When: Saturday, St. John’s Anglican Church, Lunenburg; Sunday, Cathedral Church of All Saints,

Halifax. Both shows, 4 p.m.

What: Story of Christ’s Passion, using the

narrative from the Gospel of St. Matthew and texts by Bach’s librettist, Picander. Scored for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra

Featuring: Rufus Müller, Evangelist; chamber orchestra Ensemble Regale led by David Greenberg including players from Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and New York; the boy sopranos of Capella Regalis and soloists from Canada and the United States including Dion Mazerolle (Jesus), Tyler Duncan (Pilate), Daniel Taylor (countertenor), Hélène Brunet (soprano), Sarah Myatt (mezzo soprano), and Marc Molomot (tenor)

Tickets: Lunenburg — $10 student, $25, $30 at the door. 634-9994. Halifax — $15 student, $30, $45 priority, $100 patron. www.kingschapelchoir.eventbrite.ca or 422-1270 ext. 261.

The King’s Chorus & Capella Regalis present

MISSA GAIA•EARTH MASS

A Concert in Celebration of the Earth

The Paul Winter Consort’s world-music celebration of God’s creation.

Directed by Nick Halley and featuring The King’s Chorus and the boy sopranos of Capella Regalis, American gospel singer Theresa Thomason, and a 8-piece band including saxophone, organ, bass, oboe, cello, and percussion. Presented by Musique Royale.

Tickets are available at the King’s bookstore: (902)422-1270 ext. 261 or at the door (if you want to risk it!)

  More info at: kingschorus.com

Benjamin Britten’s Saint Nicolas

Cantata for tenor soloist, choir, boy sopranos, and orchestra

Directed by Nick Halley

Featuring James Kennerley, tenor soloist

Paul Halley, organ

The King’s Chorus

Capella Regalis boys

Orchestra (concertmaster David Greenberg)

Friday, December 6, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica, 1508 Barrington Street, Halifax

Tickets $10 – $75, available at www.capellaregalis.eventbrite.com

Benjamin Britten’s Saint Nicolas cantata brings the legendary 4th century Greek Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, to life. Also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker, because of the many miracles attributed to him, it is not surprising that Nicolas’s remarkable life served as the model for our modern-day Santa Claus.Britten’s setting is a dramatic one, with music that is as exciting and astonishing as the story itself (with libretto by Britten’s friend, theatre director Eric Crozier). The music calls for multiple choirs, strings, pianos, percussion, and pipe organ, all placed throughout the building…and two audience participatory hymns thrown in for good measure.

This concert commemorates both the day of Saint Nicolas (December 6th) and the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth. The first half of the concert features music ranging from the stark O Immanuel of contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, to J.S. Bach’s powerful cantata Nun komm der Heiden Heiland.

You can see Nick’s Capella Regalis men and boys choir, the Compline Choir, and the University of King’s College Chapel Choir in action on any of the following days during term…

In short:

Tuesdays at 5pm: Capella Regalis Evensong

Tuesdays at 9:30pm: candlelit Compline service

Wednesdays at 5pm: The University of King’s College Chapel Choir Evensong service

Thursdays at 5pm: The University of King’s College Chapel Choir Eucharist service

All services take place at 6350 Coburg Road, Halifax in the King’s College Chapel

Click on the link for a full schedule and music list: Chapel Music Card – Michaelmas 2013

This week on Choral Concert, tune in to hear the great choral masters from the Renaissance along with other musical gems.

Nick is now the host of CBC Radio 2’s Choral Concert which airs nationally every Sunday 9-10am.  It can be streamed here on cbcmusic.ca. Did you know? If you sleep in and miss it at 9am AT, you can listen in to other time zones!