Trinity Episcopal Church in Roslyn will present the first in a series of four concerts produced and hosted by 2018-19 Artist-in-Residence, Leonard J. Lehrman on Sunday, Oct. 14 at 4 p.m.
The ALBA Consort of the Long Island Baroque Festival, soprano Helene Williams, and guest organist the Rev. Jack Whritenour will be featured.
Williams, a co-founder of the Bronx Opera Company, celebrating its 50th anniversary this season, opens the program with her husband Leonard Lehrman’s “Benediction,” the setting of a poem by Alexander Blok, which she recently recorded in Russia, dedicated to the memory of his mother, Emily R. Lehrman.
Her performance will be followed by Pastor Whritenour of Christ Lutheran in Rosedale, where Lehrman has been music director and composer-in-residence since 2014, will perform with him the slow movement of J.S. Bach’s Concerto in C Minor for 2 Keyboards.
The rest of the program will be performed by the ALBA Consort: Margo Andrea, Mezzo‐Soprano, Vielle, Violin; Carlo Valte, Oud; Omri Kochavi, Guitar; and Rex Benincasa, Percussion, Hurdy Gurdy, Psaltery, Voice.
Their repertoire includes early music from lands of the Mediterranean and three pieces scored for them by Lehrman: Variations on a Virelai by Guillaume de Machaut; Kererte A Ti, a love song in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) and English; and the world premiere of “The Last Word,” his setting of a poem by Melbourne poet Alex Skovron. The last of these was commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization program’s Individual Artist Grant – the first time such a grant has ever been awarded to a composer – with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature and administered by the Huntington Arts Council.
Lehrman grew up in Roslyn, graduated as Roslyn High School ’67 salutatorian, studied at Harvard, Cornell, Indiana and in Europe, worked as an organist and choir director at both Temple Sinai and Temple Beth Sholom, became assistant chorus master at the Met and the first president of The Long Island Composers Alliance, and founded the Metropolitan Philharmonic Chorus, which will be featured in concerts at Trinity Episcopal Church in Roslyn on May 2 and Aug. 18, 2019.
This coming Friday, Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m., Lehrman and his wife, together with soprano Caryn Hartglass, will be making their debut at Port Washington Library with a free performance of “Music & Memories of Leonard Bernstein.”
The Oct. 14 concert at Trinity church has a ticket price of $20, reduced to $10 for students, seniors and parishioners. For further info please call 516-621-7925 or 516-825-2939.
