Magnificat: Lifting Up The Lowly

Magnificat: Lifting Up the Lowly, by the Program in Sacred Music Notre Dame in collaboration with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, is a concert program weaving together the sacred and secular in response to human suffering and oppression. Framed by the canticle, the Song of Mary, it speaks of God who has scattered the proud, brought down the powerful, lifted up the lowly, and filled the hungry with good things. The concert features the glorious Magnificat by J. S. Bach, featuring Concordia Vocal Ensemble, and students and faculty from the Program in Sacred Music at Notre Dame.

From the secular realm, Dmitri Shostakovich’s intensely personal Chamber Symphony (from his Eighth String Quartet) bears witness to 20th-century suffering. Dedicated to victims of war and fascism everywhere, the work is said to be autobiographical even as it references pogroms against Jews and a patriotic song set as a lament.

The program also includes Joaquin Rodrigo’s exquisite Fantasía para un gentilhombre (“Fantasia for a Gentleman”), performed by the acclaimed Italian guitarist Nicolò Spera. Rodrigo, who was blind, crafted this lovely work on 17th-century Spanish Baroque dances, creating a beautiful musical connection to Bach’s era.

Artists

Cynthia Katsarelis, conductor
South Bend Symphony Orchestra
Concordia Vocal Ensemble

Magnificat Soloists
Jeni Houser, soprano
Stephen Lancaster, bass
SMND Students
Nicolò Spera, guitarist

About Cynthia Katsarelis

Dr. Cynthia Katsarelis has conducted over 50 orchestras following her apprenticeship with the Cincinnati Symphony, Pops, and May Festival. As Music Director of Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra her commitment to music of new and diverse composers has resulted in numerous commissions and world and regional premieres. She has collaborated extensively with professional and community choirs, dancers, and soloists, and has worked in opera and mixed media (visual and film).

Believing in the transformative power of music, Dr. Katsarelis has taught in Haiti since 2004 at L’École de Musique Sainte Trinité in Port-au-Prince and its summer music camps in Cange and near Mirebalais. There, she’s conducted L’Orchestre Philharmonique Sainte Trinité, taught violin pedagogy, and worked with the children’s choir, Les Petits Chanteurs. Her commitment to social justice through music includes producing benefit concerts and food drives.

Dr. Katsarelis is on the board of the International Conductors Guild and served as the chair of the ICG Womens Caucus and as a moderator on various panels. Her dissertation thesis projects included work on Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 and an examination of the symphonies of Louise Farrenc.

About Concordia Vocal Ensemble

Concordia Vocal Ensemble is the student recital choir of the Sacred Music Program at Notre Dame. It is Notre Dame’s only semi-professional choral ensemble dedicated to sacred music. It comprises graduate and undergraduate vocalists from Sacred Music at Notre Dame, the Department of Music, and the entire University and community.