Member Welcome-Back Event:
August 27, 2023 at 3pm
The Gathering Space
Rochester First United Methodist Church
1040 East Ave
Rochester, 14607
Mark your calendar for our second annual welcome-back event! Visit with your ROS family, and relax to the wonderful solos sung by Paulette Gissendanner, Francois Bessing, and Eric Logan. We may even have a visit from the ice cream truck! Feel free to bring a singing friend along, especially one who might want to audition for ROS, or for Resonanz, this Fall! There is no charge to attend our welcome-back event (donations are always welcome.)
Our first ROS symphonic chorus performance will be on:
October 27, 2023 at 7:30 P.M.,
Hochstein Performance Hall, 50 Plymouth Avenue North, Rochester 14614
Featuring Ziwen Xiang, Tenor and the Rochester Oratorio Society Chorus and Orchestra
- Adolphus Hailstork’s cantata, “I WIll Lift Up Mine Eyes,”
This compelling work for tenor, chorus and orchestra, comprises three beautiful settings of Psalms 121, 13 and 23. Adolphus Hailstork, a world-renowned composer and educator, was born in Rochester in 1941. Ziwen Xiang reprises his Carnegie Hall performances in the brilliant tenor solo role.
- Mozart: Mass in C Major, K. 317, “Coronation”
- Beethoven: “Hallelujah,” from Christ on the Mount of Olives
Our annual, free holiday concert is on:
December 3, 2023, at 4:00 PM “A City Sings For the Season,”
Stardust Ballroom at the Edgerton R Center,
41 Backus Street, Rochester 14608
We co-sponsor a concert of holiday music and dance with the City of Rochester, free of charge, for the enjoyment of all. Donations of food, clothing and personal care items made will go to our charity partner, Action for a Better Community. This year we share the stage with several well-known local community performance groups:
Hochstein Youth Singers
ROCmusic Collaborative
Cameron Capoeira
Spiritus Christi Mass Choir
The Rochester Oratorio Society Chorus
ROS will sing sing the Gloria from “La Fiesta de la Posada,” by Dave Brubeck, “In Terra Pax,” by Purifoy, “Sing! Shout! Tell the Story” from Christmas in the Western World, by William Grant Still, and excerpts from Handel’s Messiah.
Our Spring concert is on:
March 15, 2024, at 7:30 P.M., Asbury First United Methodist Church, 1040 East Avenue, Rochester, 14607
Featuring: Emma Grace Wade, Soprano
Kevin Nitsch, Piano
The Rochester Oratorio Society Chorus
American Classics with Keyboard
Music of Copland, Dett, Thompson, Ford and others
ROS’s glorious, rich sonority is showcased in this program of great choral works with keyboard accompaniment. Opera choruses by Aaron Copland, Psalms, Spirituals, and a jubilant Walt Whitman setting written in the year and month of ROS’s founding, make for an unforgettable evening of music.
- Jean Ford: “Thanks-Giver” living, American woman composer, new piece, NY premiere
- Rochester composer, R. Nathaniel Dett; NY composer, Aaron Copland
- Norman Dello Joio: “Jubilant Song” written in year and month of ROS founding, December 1945
- Robert Chilcott: “MLK” features Emma Grace Wade as soloist, RIVC encouragement award winner and ROS scholarship recipient
Additional ROS Events planned in 2023-2024
May 2023 – Our now-world-famous Rochester International Vocal Competition returns – stay tuned for more info!
May 30 and June 1, 2023
The Rochester Oratorio Society sings with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra:
“A spectacular conclusion to an amazing RPO Centennial Season celebration! Hear, live in concert, the epic power and timeless message of humanity and brotherhood when Music Director Andreas Delfs leads your RPO, the Rochester Oratorio Society, and soloists in Beethoven’s inspiring and monumental “Ode to Joy,” The Ninth Symphony.” (RPO)
June 27 – July 08, 2024 the Rochester Oratorio Society goes on tour to France & Switzerland
We will sing our March 15 ROS concert repertoire.