Alexander Blake Joined Professionals in Secrest Artist Series Event, Singing Mozart's 'Requiem'

2011 Nov 15

Since 1987, Wake Forest University's Secrest Artists Series has been bringing world-class performances to the Reynolda campus.

For the first time in the Secrest series' history, students took the stage with professionals to sing one of the most famous and challenging choral-orchestral works in the classical repertoire.

Alexander Blake from Jacksonville, NC (28546) was one of twelve choral students who joined the Munich Symphony Orchestra and The Gloriae dei Cantores choir in performing Mozart's "Requiem" on Thursday, Nov. 10.

"This was an unusual and outstanding opportunity for our students," says Lillian Shelton, director of the Secrest Artists Series. "The conductor, Philippe Entremont, is an international superstar in the classical world. It was a rare experience for both the students performing and the audience."

Student performers have been practicing since September with Wake Forest Associate Professor of Music Brian Gorelick. The group practiced before the performance with Entremont conducting.

"Mozart's 'Requiem' is one of the five great choral-orchestral works in Western music history, and it is performed hundreds of times around the world every year. Each performance is unique because of the leadership of the conductor," says Gorelick. "Philippe Entremont brought to Thursday's performance his specialized and thorough musical training and expertise, and his artistic vision of the power of Mozart's musical ideas. He knows how the work has been performed over the last several decades as well as its origins in Vienna of the 1790s and used all this to inform the performance and created a profound musical experience for the listeners."