Frank Reed (left) and Mark P. Thomas. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARK P. THOMAS
In the past two years, the Schuylkill Choral Society has lost three of its former presidents. Frank Reed, a friend and former student or current SCS Director Mark P. Thomas, died of COVID-19 in January 2021. Joan Wassell died in December 2020, and Beth Thomas-Resnick died of cancer in December 2019. In response, Thomas looked through the great classical Requiem masses to find one that the SCS could perform in their memory. Finding most of them “too heavy-handed,” Thomas ultimately decided on the Requiem by French composer Gabriel Faure.
“The emphasis on this piece is not on death, but on the beauty of Heaven,” Thomas said. “That is exactly the emotion we wanted to convey in this performance.”
The Schuylkill Choral Society and members of the Anthracite Philharmonic (also directed by Thomas) will perform Faure’s Requiem and other classical and gospel music in “In Remembrance,” a concert at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Pottsville Sunday at 3 p.m..
“We decided to honor all those people and their family members who had meant so much to us personally,” Thomas said. “The numbers grew to nearly 200 when members of our audience also asked us to include loved ones that enjoyed our concerts.”
Those 200 people will be listed in the program and honored at Sunday’s concert, which features a chamber orchestra and over 50 singers, a fraction of the usual 80-100 singers at an SCS concert.
“The challenge to this concert was if we could pull off a major work with only roughly half of the choir back coming out of the pandemic,” Thomas said. “We lucked out with the singers that did return this year.”
“Performing a piece of this magnitude certainly comes with challenges and great responsibility,” said assistant accompanist Alison Kline, of Barnesville. “The stamina alone that it takes for a musician to perform a work of this length is a challenge in itself. Not to mention the hours of preparation that went into planning and rehearsing.”
Soprano Allie Wommer of Tamaqua and bass Dave Watson of Pine Grove are soloists.
“It is a work of intimate, ethereal beauty which is incredibly moving,” Watson said of the Requiem, which he first performed in 1969 and has performed and conducted several times since. He will sing in memory of his wife’s parents, his father and some of his friends.
“The music can lift your spirit in spite of everything that is going on,” he said. “It’s a beautiful way to remember those we have lost.”
Wommer will sing in memory of her grandmothers, and unborn babies that her family members have lost in miscarriages. She has sung at several funerals, including her grandmother’s.
“Though singing to remember those that have passed is difficult,” she said, “I remember we are celebrating their lives and the times they were with us, cherishing memories.”
The lyrics of the Requiem have great spiritual meaning for Wommer and her Christian faith.
“I think the most challenging thing is keeping the meaning in our hearts as we perform,” she said. “The music is absolutely beautiful but certainly difficult in some parts. Sometimes it is easy to put our focus on the technical aspects, but keeping that emotion is what will truly help our performance stand up and be authentic.”
Faure’s Requiem was composed between 1887 and 1890. It first premiered in Paris in 1888 and a revised version premiered in 1893.
“The critics at the time stated that the work was written as more of a lullaby,” Thomas said. “It was not for people to fear death, but to know that Heaven was a peaceful place to be celebrated as part of the human experience.”
Tickets for “In Remembrance” are $18 for adults and $12 for students and senior citizens. They are available from any Choral Society member or by calling 570-628-3388.
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