Enloe High Chamber Choir to sing Mozart's Requiem
May 16, 2000 - The Enloe High Chamber Choir will perform Mozart's Requiem Saturday, May 20 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Raleigh, presenting the entire Requiem as a benefit for the AIDS Service Agency of North Carolina.
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Hear Joel Adams talk aboutHis choir's benefit performance and lead the Enloe High Choir during practice |
"We have done bits and pieces of this requiem over the years in our concerts," said Enloe High Choir Director Joel Adams. "At the beginning of this year we began rehearsing a number from it to do at a program at the art museum. Some of the students said, 'Mr. Adams, can we do the whole thing?' And I sort of looked at them and my eyebrows went up and I said, 'I don't know. That depends.' I said, 'We'll look at the hardest number in it. We'll work on it. If you can manage that, then you can do the rest of it.' We did that. They were able to do it. And we have worked on this since the fall."
The Requiem, according to Adams, is difficult to perform. In his 19 years leading the Enloe High Choir, he's never heard of any area high school choir attempt it. A requiem is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic mass for the dead.
"When it was composed, Mozart did not finish it," said Adams. "He left sketches as to how it was to be written, and one of his pupils completed it according to the sketches he had left. It was actually performed at Mozart's own funeral in Vienna in 1791."
"It's an amazing piece of music," said Cameron Wells, an Enloe High junior and choir member. "It's for a great cause. We've worked really hard. We have an amazing time singing it, and I think anyone who hears it and hears the symphony will be amazed at what they hear, especially from a high school choir."
After the students convinced Adams they could sing the nearly hour-long, 15-movement Requiem, they proposed performing the concert as a benefit.
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Hear student Cameron Wells talk about |
"It was the students' idea," said Adams. "They said, 'Can we do this as a benefit for charity?' I said, 'That is a wonderful idea. What charity?' And they named a half dozen. We listed them all on the board and had them vote. We ended up choosing the AIDS Service Agency."
Adams has enlisted the help of several friends to sing solos with his high school choir including Louise Toppin, soprano; Anne Moorman-Smith, mezzo-soprano; Timothy Sparks, tenor; and Greg Honeycutt, bass.
The benefit concert is part of a year filled with activity and helps the students end their school year.
"I've been in a choir since I was in elementary school," said Chris Neeley, an Enloe High senior. "I'm in choir at Enloe because it is the best. We work on a lot of classical music. We participate in contests. We sing in churches, benefits, and take a lot of field trips."
"Our repertoire runs the gamut of classical music," said choir member Brian LeBlanc. "It's a great experience to be in this choir. It's is a wonderful group of singers and a fun group of people to be around."
Adams has booked a European tour for his choir. They leave June 8 to perform six concerts as they tour the Czech Republic, Germany, France, and England, singing in Prague, Rothenburg, Strasbourg, Paris, Raleigh's sister city of Compeigne, France, and London.
For information on the Enloe Chamber Choir and their benefit concert of Mozart's Requiem, call 856-7918.