Findlay, Ohio, March 31, 2003 — The University of Findlay Concert-Chorale and the Findlay Area Community Chorus and Orchestra will present the famous Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on Sunday, April 13, 2003, at 3 p.m. in Central Auditorium, 200 W. Main Cross St., Findlay.

The performance will feature a chorus of 130 singers, 30-piece orchestra and four professional soloists. The concert will be conducted by Micheal F. Anders, UF professor of music, and is being given in memory of the late John R. Van Nice, UF professor emeritus of music and director of the Findlay College Choir for 34 years.

The circumstances surrounding the composition of Requiem have been the subject of many fictionalized accounts and much scholarly research. The saga of Requiem began in July 1791 when a tall, lean stranger came to visit Mozart, who was not well at the time. The stranger, masked and wearing a large gray cloak, handed Mozart an unsigned letter and warned him to make no effort to discover the sender’s name. The letter was a commission for a Requiem Mass at a fee to be set by Mozart.

Mozart agreed and a messenger arrived a few days later with the equivalent of $4,500, half of the fee. The remainder was to be paid upon completion of the work. Mozart started work on Requiem immediately but with a fatalistic fervor, convinced that the message was from, in effect, the Grim Reaper. Mozart was convinced that he had been asked to write a funeral mass for his own death at the hands of an unknown murderer, who had given him a slow-acting poison.

Soon confined to bed, Mozart feverishly carried on. Eager to complete his conception of the Requiem, he sketched entire sections while simultaneously writing the full score of the opening movement. When too ill to write, he dictated the music to one of his pupils and described how he wanted the composition to end.

When Mozart died on Dec. 5, 1791, at the age of 35, he had completely finished only the first of the Requiem’s eight movements, along with vocal parts, an outline of the harmony and a few full-scored passages for movements two through five. Eager to collect the remainder of the commission, Mozart’s widow asked the student to finish the incomplete parts and supply the missing sections. Since the student’s handwriting was similar to Mozart’s, the composer’s widow had no trouble passing the work off as Mozart’s.

For Findlay’s performance of Requiem, four soloists will perform. The first is soprano Angela Gwinn of Akron, who has vocal music degrees from Northwestern University and the Julliard School. She has recently been heard in the title role of Madama Butterfly with the Akron Lyric Opera Theatre and has had return engagements with the Canton Symphony. She has also performed with the Des Moines Symphony and Missouri Symphony and performed the soprano role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem at E.J. Thomas Auditorium and in Messiah with The University of Findlay.

Mezzo-soprano Gloria McNamara is also a soloist. She has appeared in many operatic stage productions, including The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, Gianni Schicchi and Amahl and the Night Visitors. In addition, she has numerous Gilbert and Sullivan productions to her credit, and her comedic flair has afforded her many opportunities to act and sing in musical theatre productions. McNamara’s oratorio repertoire includes works by Bach, Handel, Brahms, Schubert, Verdi, Durufle, Vivaldi and Mozart. A native of Charleston, S.C., she lives in Dayton, where she most recently performed in the Dayton Opera’s production of Aida.

A native of Kansas City, Mo., tenor JR Fralick is another soloist. A member of the voice faculty of the Conservatory of Baldwin-Wallace College, he is a frequent performer in oratorio, recital and operatic venues. He has appeared as soloist in numerous productions and was recently featured as the soloist with the Kansas City Symphony’s concert “An Evening with Benjamin Britten.” Leyerle Publications will soon publish the first of Fralick’s five-volume anthology of 19th century Russian opera arias. He holds music degrees from Friends University, Kansas State University and The Ohio State University as well as the vocology certificate through the Center for Voice at the University of Iowa.

The final soloist is bass-baritone John Shuffle. A resident of Dayton and a veteran singing actor, he has appeared to critical acclaim in nearly 100 different stage and concert roles in 30 states and four foreign countries. Findlay audiences will remember Shuffle playing the role of Henry VIII in the UF world-premiere revival of REX last spring. He also performs regularly in the major oratorio and concert repertoire with symphony orchestras in numerous major cities across the country. He also has toured as a soloist for the International Leonard Bernstein Festival with the Israel Philharmonic.

The concert is free and open to the public.