FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 25, 2022
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — The Tarleton State University choral program and the Cross Timbers Civic Chorale will present Mozart’s masterpiece setting of the Requiem Mass, the Mass for the Dead, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2, in the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center Auditorium in Stephenville.
Tickets — $10 general admission — are available now from choir students or at the Fine Arts Center box office beginning at 6 p.m. the evening of the performance.
Mozart’s Requiem is a perennial favorite, capturing the drama of the texts for the Mass. Mournful pleas for rest and peace are side by side with dramatic depictions of the day of wrath and judgment.
Although Mozart left the work unfinished at the end of his short life, another composer, Franz Süssmayr, completed the work at the request of Mozart’s wife, Constanze, who was eager to bolster her husband’s legacy and also secure income. She needed to keep this secret, and as a result the work achieved mythical status almost immediately.
Saturday’s performance will be one of remembrance. Singers and players will dedicate their music to the memory of friends and loved ones, and the audience is invited to do the same.
Framed pictures with stands may be placed on the edge of the stage to remind musicians and audience members of the purpose of the Requiem Mass — a service of mourning, a prayer for peace, and the music of hope.
The chorus will be joined by Dallas-Fort Worth guest performers as well as Tarleton students and faculty, including Heather Hawk, Iwao Asakura, Jason Baker, Deanna Erxleben and Dmytro Perevertailenko. Carlos Saenz, choral director at Fossil Ridge High School, will perform the tenor solos.
A founding member of The Texas A&M System, Tarleton State University is breaking records — in enrollment, research, scholarship, athletics, philanthropy and engagement — while transforming the lives of approximately 18,000 students in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Bryan and online. For 125 years, Tarleton State has been committed to accessible higher education opportunities for all while helping students grow academically, socially and professionally through programs that emphasize real world learning and address regional, state and national needs.