Polochick To Lead BSO & Concert Artists of Baltimore Chorale In 30th Anniversary Performance of Handel’s MESSIAH, 12/7

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO), Concert Artists of Baltimore and conductor Edward Polochick continue their tradition of ushering in the Christmas season with an all-star performance of Handel's MESSIAH on Friday, December 7, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Soloists include soprano Yulia Van Doren, mezzo-soprano Abigail Nims, tenor Sean Panikkar and baritone Tyler Duncan. This season marks the 30th anniversary of the BSO's collaboration with Maestro Polochick and the Concert Artistis of Baltimore Symphonic Chorale in performing this popular classic. Please see below for complete event details.

Following the tradition of Handel, Polochick conducts the entire work from the harpsichord, requiring unfaltering concentration from Polochick and his fellow musicians. Maestro Polochick asserts that he enjoys each successive performance even more than the last. "Every year we find new insights, and tweak a few of our old ideas…. It would be almost impossible to recreate this Messiah anywhere else." Please see below for complete program details.

Edward Polochick is artistic director of Concert Artists of Baltimore, an all-professional orchestra and all-professional vocal ensemble of seventy musicians, which is celebrating its 26th season. 2012-2013 also marks his 15th season as music director of Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra in Nebraska. From 1979-1999 he was on the staff of the Baltimore Symphony as director of the Symphony Chorus and since 1979 he has been at the Peabody Conservatory as associate conductor of the orchestra, director of choral ensembles and opera conductor. An accomplished pianist and harpsichordist, he has appeared as piano soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Since winning the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Award and conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra he has attracted attention as an orchestral, operatic and choral conductor. His appearances have included the Baltimore Symphony, Houston Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Aalborg Symphony of Denmark, Omaha Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Daejeon Philharmonic in Korea, St. Petersburg Symphony in Russia and the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra in Toluca, Mexico.

Mr. Polochick resides in Baltimore, where he is often asked to share his knowledge and love of music at various lecture series, adjudications and radio broadcasts. He received the Peggy and Yale Gordon Achievement Award and in 2000 he was made an honorary member of the Baltimore Music Club. In 2002 he was awarded the Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumnus Award, one of only three Peabody alumni to be so honored. In 2003-04 he was named Baldwin Scholar at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, where he held lectures, demonstrations and panels on the creative act of music. Maestro Polochick is also a regular panelist on Face The Music, a review of recordings hosted by Jonathan Palevsky of WBJC-FM. In 2011 he adjudicated an international vocal competition in Caiazzo, Italy.

Founded by Edward Polochick and now in its 25th season, Concert Artists of Baltimore (CAB) consists of a professional chamber orchestra and professional chamber chorus. The full ensembles are featured in the Classy Classics series, with performances at The Miriam A. Friedberg Hall at the Peabody Institute, and the Patricia and Arthur Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric.

CAB also offers a chamber music series, Music at the Mansion, with performances at The Engineers Club, Garrett-Jacobs Mansion in Baltimore. This series showcases smaller forces, such as a quartet, and often features unique repertoire.

CAB is frequently hired for performances throughout the region by other organizations, including the Lyric Opera Baltimore, Moscow Ballet, The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Temple Oheb Shalom, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, McDaniel College, St. Louis Church, The Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., The Visionary Arts Museum, Elizabethtown College, Catholic Charities and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

When larger forces are needed, such as when the singers of Concert Artists perform Messiah with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra each year, the chorus expands to the Concert Artists Symphonic Chorale.

Hailed as "a hugely appealing, obviously important talent," Yulia Van Doren (soprano) is sought after for her ability to tackle the most demanding and varied repertoire. In recent seasons, she debuted with Los Angeles Philharmonic in Shostakovich's Orango; sang St. Theresa in Four Saints in Three Acts with the Mark Morris Dance Group; performed Nielsen's Symphony No. 3 at the Bard Festival; and sang Bach's B Minor Mass with Music of the Baroque. Recent opera performances include Dorinda in Orlando at the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, and Tanglewood Festivals; Mereo in Scarlatti's Tigrane for Opéra de Nice, and Betsy in Monsigny's Le Roi et le Fermier at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Opéra Royal de Versailles (recorded for Naxos).

In the 2012–13 season, she will travel to the Netherlands for Handel's Alexander's Feast and Acis and Galatea and to Walt Disney Concert Hall to perform the Brahms Requiem with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She will also debut with the Baltimore and Toronto Symphonies (Messiah), Nashville Symphony (Elijah), and Pasadena Symphony (Mahler Symphony No. 4).

Abigail Nims (mezzo-soprano) has established herself as a musician of integrity and versatility through her performances of repertoire spanning from Bach, Handel and Mozart to Crumb, Ligeti and contemporary premieres. In 2012-13 she debuts with the BSO, with Adrian Symphony in Berlioz' Les Nuits d'ete, with Florentine Opera as Nancy in Britten's Albert Herring and Virginia Opera as Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus. She made her debut in season 2011-12 with Atlanta Opera as Veruca Salt in Peter Ash's The Golden Ticket, a role which she created at the opera's workshop performances in New York City through American Lyric Theater in the 2008-09 season. She also sang as soloist in Messiah at Carnegie Hall with the Masterwork Chorus and as Octavian in selections from Der Rosenkavalier in a return to Quad City Symphony Orchestra.

Her discography includes performances of Martin Bresnick's song cycle "Falling," featured on the composer's compilation album Every Thing Must Go (Albany Records, 2010) and the role of Veruca Salt in Peter Ash's The Golden Ticket (Albany Records), fall 2012.

Awards include second prize in the 2007 Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, the Anna Case MacKay Memorial Award from Santa Fe Opera, an honorable mention in the 2006 American Bach Society Competition, recipient of the 2007 Dean's Prize from Yale School of Music and finalist in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation.

Sean Panikkar (tenor) is known for his "surpassing musicality and passion, commanding self-confidence and gorgeous expression." The American artist of Sri Lankan heritage made his Metropolitan Opera debut with James Levine in Manon Lescaut and his European operatic debut in Mozart's Zaïde at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in a production directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Louis Langrée.

Highlights of the current season include The Magic Flute at Chicago Opera Theater, Don Giovanni at Pittsburgh Opera, Otello and La rondine at the Metropolitan Opera, and the artist's first La bohème with Fort Worth Opera.

Past appearances include Roméo et Juliette, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan, Béatrice et Bénédict at Opera Boston, Les pêcheurs de perles at Pittsburgh Opera, Nabucco with Washington National Opera, Eugene Onegin at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, The Last Savage at Santa Fe Opera, and Salome at San Diego Opera and the Saito Kinen Festival.

Baritone, Tyler Duncan's current season includes a New York Philharmonic debut (conducted by Masaaki Suzuki), joining the Metropolitan Opera roster and returning to Carnegie Hall for Mahler's Eighth Symphony with the American Symphony. He has appeared at the Spoleto USA, Princeton, Halle, Bard, Lanaudière, Berkshire Choral, Chautauqua, Oregon Bach and Vancouver/Boston Early Music Festivals; as well as with Pacific Opera Victoria (as Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola). Concerts include the Québec, Toronto and Montreal Symphonies; Calgary and Rochester Philharmonics; Boston's Händel and Haydn Society, San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque and Toronto's Tafelmusik; collaborating with such conductors as Kent Nagano, Helmut Rilling, Christopher Seaman and Nicolas McGegan.

The Canadian baritone has earned prizes from the Naumburg, Wigmore Hall, ARD/Munich, Joy-in-Singing, New York Oratorio Competitions, and the Prix International Pro Musicis Award and the Bernard Diamant Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. He is a founding member on the faculty of the Vancouver International Song Institute and given acclaimed recitals in New York, Boston and Paris, as well as throughout Canada, Germany, Sweden, France and South Africa.

Mr. Duncan's recordings include Bach's St. John Passion with Portland Baroque under Monica Huggett, and the title role of John Blow's Venus and Adonis with the Boston Early Music Festival.

Holiday Concert: Handel's MESSIAH will be presented on Friday, December 7, 2012 at 7:30 pm- Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH). Ticket prices range from $25 to $67 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org