Asheville Symphony Chorus performing during the Messiah, 2025. Photo by Ezekiel Coppersmith
Join the Asheville Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, April 18, as it collaborates with the Asheville Symphony Chorus for Masterworks 6: Requiem. Performances will be held at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Asheville. The Orchestra and the Chorus have enjoyed an artistic collaboration since 1991, but this season has offered more opportunities for audiences to hear choral contributions on the Masterworks stage.
On the program are Mozart’s Requiem, a work left unfinished at the composer’s death, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, a work that was composed as an homage to Mozart. “The Tchaikovsky serenade is one of the most beautiful pieces written for a group of strings in the history of music,” says Symphony music director Darko Butorac, “and it will be a great opener to Mozart’s final work—a masterpiece for choir and orchestra that blends orchestra and the voices of the chorus in a sublime and ethereal manner.”
Four acclaimed soloists will lend their voices to the performances: soprano Jessica Beebe, mezzo-soprano Lisa Marie Rogali, tenor John Ramseyer and bass-baritone Jonathan Woody. The vocalists collectively bring a rich tapestry of experience, including concerts with leading ensembles, operatic performances and GRAMMY-nominated recordings.
The Asheville Chorus, under the direction of conductor Kyle Ritter, is an affiliate of the Asheville Symphony family, performing both independently and in partnership with the Orchestra. “If you were to ask members of the Chorus, they would say their great love and delight is to collaborate with the Asheville Symphony,” says Ritter. “The Chorus does our own concerts, of course, that don’t involve the Symphony, but the highlight is to sing those large works with the Symphony itself.”
He looks forward to hearing Mozart’s Requiem in the First Baptist Church of Asheville. “The acoustics are just right for that piece of music,” he says. “Requiem is one of the greatest large choral pieces of all time. For someone who has never experienced it before, you are going to be experiencing a true masterpiece. There is so much depth and beauty and excitement; there is melancholy—it encompasses every musical mood you can imagine.”
Learn more and purchase tickets at AshevilleSymphony.org or by phone at 828.254.7046. The First Baptist Church of Asheville is at 5 Oak Street, Asheville.
