East Granby Congregational Church

This Christmas season, East Granby Congregational Church's Friends of Music Concert Series is delighted to welcome countertenor Daniel Moody to our virtual stage for this performance of Juliana Hall's canticle, alongside "Schlafe, mein Liebster" from J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

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Composer Juliana Hall, also pianist and organist at East Granby Congregational Church, composed And It Came to Pass in 2018. And It Came to Pass is a canticle (a musical setting of a Biblical text, in this case from the Gospel of Luke) designed like a triptych painting, but in music, in which the “left panel” or Prologue of the piece proclaims the promise of a Savior who will bring peace; the “center panel”—the body of the work—shares the story of the birth of this Savior, Jesus; and the “right panel” or Epilogue of the piece confirms that the speaker has now seen that salvation, that with the holy birth the promise has been fulfilled. This piece was first performed as part of a Christmas season “Ceremony of Carols” celebration service and, as such, was initially conceived for use in a religious service; it could also, however, be successfully performed within a concert setting, as it is a work of musical storytelling.

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Pianist Grace Huang joins Mr. Moody for And It Came to Pass.

 

The second selection in this Christmas concert is "Schlafe, mein Liebster," an alto aria from J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio. The aria, a lullaby to the infant Jesus, is included in the portion of the Christmas Oratorio that designated for the second day of Christmas.

 

Organist Jonathan Klein joins Mr. Moody for this aria.

 

The program is approximately 30 minutes.

 

DANIEL MOODY, Countertenor

Praised as having a “vocal resonance, [which] makes a profoundly startling impression” (The New York Times) and for his “vivid and powerful” voice (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), countertenor Daniel Moody has appeared in the title opera roles of Handel’s Giulio Cesare & Rinaldo, Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Cincinnati Opera.

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Moody has performed with the Atlanta Symphony (Thomas Søndergård, conductor), Les Violons du Roy (w/ Bernard Labadie), Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (w/ Nicholas McGegan) in a duet concert with famed mezzo-soprano Anne Sophie von Otter, Apollo’s Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra (w/ Jeannette Sorrell), Mark Morris Dance Group, and several other groups, orchestras and festivals in America.

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Recent highlights include Carnegie Hall debuts with Oratorio Society of New York and Musica Sacra (w/ Kent Tritle), Minnesota Orchestra (w/ Nicholas Kraemer), Opera Lafayette, and Off-Broadway debut in a production of Hans Christian Andersen. In the realm of new music, Moody gave an “eerie yet forceful” (Broadway World) world premier of the leading role Man #1 in Hannah Lash’s opera, Desire, and the American premiere of George Benjamin’s intricate work Dream of the Song (w/ Stefan Asbury) at the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood.

 

A graduate of Peabody Conservatory (BM), Yale School of Music/Institute of Sacred Music (MM) Mr. Moody has won awards from the Metropolitan National Council, George London Competition, Sullivan Foundation, Handel Aria Competition, New York Oratorio Society Competition, and Russell Wonderlic Competition.

www.DanielMoodyCountertenor.com

 

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