Contact:
Thomas Beveridge
202-244-7191
artisticdirector@newdominion.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Dominion Chorale to Perform “Four Centuries of Sacred Music”
New Dominion Chorale will open its 26th season with a program of sacred music for chorus and organ spanning four centuries. The concert will take place on Sunday, October 23, at 4 p.m. at St. Luke Catholic Church, 7001 Georgetown Pike in McLean, Virginia.
Artistic Director Thomas Beveridge will conduct the 200-voice New Dominion Chorale in a program featuring organist Paul Skevington and the soloists from The District Eight vocal ensemble. The featured work will be the “German Requiem” by the 17th-century composer Heinrich Schutz. The performance will include selections by Henry Purcell, Felix Mendelssohn and two works by 20th-century British composers: “Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing,” written in 1964 by Herbert Howells in memory of John F. Kennedy, and “Rejoice in the Lamb,” written in 1943 by Benjamin Britten.
Dr. Skevington has been Minister of Music and Liturgy at St. Luke Catholic Church for 20 years, during which time he has supervised the installation of a highly acclaimed 61-rank pipe organ and established the church’s popular Music in McLean Concert Series. He has performed with all the area’s large choruses in concerts at Washington National Cathedral, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The District Eight, founded and directed by Chris Dudley, is an ensemble of some of Washington’s finest professional singers, specializing in a cappella music ranging from Renaissance to contemporary English and American works. The group has received praise from The Washington Post, which has described it as “fine singers who blend and balance” and noted its “consistently beautiful performance.”
New Dominion Chorale is one of the Washington area’s largest community choruses. The Chorale has not only performed most of the standard works for chorus and orchestra but also rarely performed works such as Robert Schumann’s “Paradise and the Peri,” Franz Liszt’s “Christus” and several works by Thomas Beveridge, including “Symphony of Peace” and “Yizkor Requiem.” The Chorale has performed at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center, Washington National Cathedral, the George Mason Center for the Arts, and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.
Thomas Beveridge has been recognized as one of the Washington area’s most versatile musicians: singer, instrumentalist, composer/arranger, teacher and conductor. He has received many awards, most recently from the Friday Morning Music Club, and distinguished commissions from Harvard University, The Choral Arts Society of Washington and the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation at the Library of Congress.
Tickets are available at the door at St. Luke Catholic Church, 7001 Georgetown Pike, McLean, Virginia 22101, and online at www.newdominion.org. Ticket prices are $30 (general admission), $25 (seniors, 62 or over), and $15 (youth ages 5-25). Group tickets are available for groups of 10 or more at $20 per ticket. For more information: www.newdominion.org. Parking is free.
New Dominion Chorale is a 501(c)(3) organization supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Arts Council of Fairfax County, and the Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts.
