Music of the Baroque to mark Glover’s tenth anniversary in 2012-13

Tue Mar 06, 2012 at 3:07 pm

By Lawrence A. Johnson

Jane Glover will open Music of the Baroque’s 42nd season Oct. 5 with Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” mass at the Harris Theater.

Music of the Baroque’s 2012-13 season will mark Jane Glover’s tenth anniversary as music director with a lineup devoted entirely to works of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart.

The ensemble’s 42nd season will also pare back its expansion of two years ago, returning to seven programs instead of the current eight.

Executive director Karen Fishman said that while MOB’s subscription roster grew again this season, single ticket sales and fundraising results are still feeling the effects of the prolonged economic downturn.  Further, “as MOB production costs will rise with our move to new north venues at the same time that we wanted to program several larger works, we decided to go back, at least temporarily, to seven programs,” said Fishman.

This is MOB’s final season at First United Methodist Church, its Evanston home for more than four decades. Next season the ensemble will split its northern series between Skokie’s North Shore Center for the Performing Arts and First Presbyterian Church in Evanston.

The season will open October 5 at the Harris Theater with Glover leading the orchestra and chorus in Haydn’s Lord Nelson mass. Susanna Phillips will be the soprano soloist and Mozart’s Prague Symphony (No. 38) will be on the first half.

Glover will also conduct Bach’s St. John Passion in May and Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt in April. She will be on the podium for an all-Mozart program in January as well, featuring the Symphony No. 39, Piano Concerto No. 24 and two concert arias. Piano and vocal soloists are yet to be announced.

Principal guest conductor Nicholas Kraemer leads just two programs next season. The ensemble’s principal guest conductor will direct an all-Bach program in November featuring concertmaster Robert Waters as soloist in the Violin Concerto No. 2. And in February, Kraemer will conduct Handel’s complete Water Music, flanked by two Haydn symphonies (Nos. 64 and 97).

MOB chorus director William Jon Gray will once again conduct the ensemble’s popular holiday programs in December.

For further information, call 312-551-1414 or go to baroque.org.

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