University Choir's Fall Concert Toasts Monteverdi and a Retiring Harvard Professor of Music

 

The sanctuary of the Memorial Church was filled to near capacity Saturday (Oct. 21) for the performance of Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo by the Harvard University Choir and Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra.

The concert was the first performance of the academic year for the choir and was dedicated in honor of Prof. Thomas Forrest Kelley, the Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music at Harvard, who is retiring this academic year.

Edward Elwyn Jones and Thomas Forrest Kelley

Edward Elwyn Jones, the Gund University Organist and Choirmaster, honors Prof. Thomas Forrest Kelley following the performance of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Oct. 21. Photo by Jeffrey Blackwell/Memorial Church Communications

“This concert is the prelude in our year-long celebration of Monteverdi in recognition of the 450th anniversary of his birth,” said Edward Elwyn Jones, the Gund University Organist and Choirmaster. “We will perform his sacred works in church services, madrigals and other chamber works in varied spaces across the campus, which culminates in the ARTS FIRST performance of the majestic Vespers (1610).”

For a schedule of upcoming performances, visit memorialchurch.harvard.edu/harvard-university-choir and harvardbaroque.org.