Holiday performance features Baroque Christmas music sung in Spanish.
Chatham Baroque presents its holiday program, Alegría: Music of Baroque Spain and The Americas, highlighting Baroque music from Spain and Latin America dating back to the 16th and 18th centuries. The performances will take place on December 16th Hicks Memorial Chapel on the campus of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and on December 17th, at Levy Hall in the historic Rodef Shalom Synagogue.
The concert’s joyful music celebrates Christmas with pieces originating from Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and the Sephardic diaspora. Many of the pieces will be sung in the Spanish vernacular by Nell Snaidas (soprano) and Racquel Winnica Young (mezzo-soprano), extolling the wonders of the holiday season. The program will also include music sung in indigenous Latin American languages and pieces from the Sephardic Jewish tradition performed in Judeo-Español.
Snaidas is a Uruguayan-American, Grammy-nominated soprano globally recognized for specializing in Latin American and Spanish music. Her favorite projects include: Playing Guatemalan Baroque music at Carnegie Hall, Co-directing The Bishop’s Band with Tom Zajac in his program Trujillo Codex of Peru. and her many collaborations with Chatham Baroque.
As an opera director, her work has been seen at notable venues such as NYU and Indiana University and, most recently, for the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado. She is also the Co-Artistic Director of GEMAS: Early Music of the Americas, a concert series in NYC.
“This performance encapsulates the warm, joyful feelings of the season,” says Snaidas, “As audiences hear the Spanish melodies and rare instruments, I hope they become fully immersed, not only in the holiday season, but also in the rich history of the songs and instruments. Alegría is a truly unique performance and I look forward to bringing the sounds of Baroque Spain to the people of Pittsburgh.”
Young is an Agrentinian-American mezzo-soprano specializing in Spanish and Latin-American baroque music, with a deep interest in the influence and transformation of the Spanish language and its origins across the centuries. Her career has taken her to concert halls throughout the Americas and Europe, performing with Chatham Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, The Newberry Consort, and Quantum Theatre. In November of 2022, Raquel made her debut as an actress portraying the “El Duende” role from Maria de Buenos Aires with Kentucky Opera and has gone on to perform with the Chicago Choral and Atlanta Baroque.
Chatham Baroque’s Andrew Fouts (violin), Patricia Halverson (viola da gamba), and Scott Pauley (guitar, theorbo) will perform in the Alegria concert with an exceptional roster of guest artists. Alongside Snaidas (soprano) and Winnica Young (mezzo-soprano) will be the talented Evan Few (violin), Paul Shipper (bass, percussion, guitar), and Paula Fagerberg (Spanish Baroque double harp).
The performance’s traditional Baroque dance music originated as Spanish guitar, harp, or keyboard music written by composers such as Gaspar Sanz and Santiago de Murcia. The instruments used in the program include both Renaissance and Baroque-era guitars, the unique Spanish Baroque double harp played by Paula Fagerberg, as well as an array of percussion instruments that might have been found on the trade routes from Europe, Africa, and the Americas as played by Paul Shipper.
TICKETS & DETAILS
You can find tickets and more information about the performance at https://www.chathambaroque.org/concert/chatham-baroque-alegria-music-of-baroque-spain-and-the-americas/.
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