Two absolutely amazing and moving musical experiences on the Thursday evening, 17th July, commencing 8pm (St Stephen’s Church, 197 Macquarie St, Sydney).
“HOLY ROSARY”, composed by Capuchin friar
John Paul Russo (check out his bio, below), will be an amazing opportunity for young people to pray Our Lady’s Rosary in an interactive way through song, beautiful music and multi-media images to give a full-sensory experience, which will hopefully enhance the contemplation of the mysteries – a great way for you to reserve a special place for Our Lady in the midst of WYD week.
This will be followed by a presentation of Oliver Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time”: a musical and mystical piece inspired by a passage from the Book of Revelation and written in a German prisoner of war camp during WWII. It is a deeply moving piece that has resonated in the hearts of many, putting them in touch with something greater than themselves. It will be performed by the Revelations Ensemble, including four of Australia’s finest virtuosos (Sunny Roh - Violin, Guy Spielman - Clarinet, Van-Anh Nguyen - Piano and Christopher Pidcock –Cello), and some of the WYD Choir and String Orchestra. http://www.capuchinfriars.org.au/wyd/sydney_ststephens.shtml
About the Composer of “HOLY ROSARY” – John Paul Russo, OFM Cap. (1967– )
John Paul Russo, OFM Cap. is a member of the Capuchin-Franciscan Friars of the Province of the Sacred Stigmata of St. Francis on the east coast of the USA. He presently lives in Union City, New Jersey, where he is director of the vocation ministry for his province and also an active composer.
Brother John began piano lessons at age 9 and began composing by age 11. During high school, he studied theory and composition at a community music school, and continued as a composition major at the Eastman School of Music (1985-89) and graduate studies at Indiana University (1989-90). He also participated at the advanced composers’ seminar at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. Among his teachers were Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, Warren Benson, David Liptak, Fred Fox, Claude Baker, William Bolcom, Earl Brown, George Tsontakis, Jacob Druckman and others.
In 1991, he decided to join the Capuchins where he spent several years in formation and ministry to the poor (especially as director of a soup kitchen for 3 years) and in 1997 was assigned as pastoral associate, youth director and DRE at a parish in Tampa, Florida until the summer of 2007 when he moved to New Jersey to take on the vocation ministry.
Brother John has won several national awards in America for his works, including the Herbert Zipper prize from the Rockefeller Foundation, 2 ASCAP awards, and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the National Academy of Arts and Letters. He has recently written a series of sacred works, especially the multi-media interactive Holy Rosary, a Magnificat, some psalm settings, and a Mass for unaccompanied chorus called: Missa pro nova aurora, which was premiered in April of 2008 and dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI. (He graciously accepted the dedication personally in the summer of 2006 – having kept a copy for himself and returned a signed copy to the composer with his Apostolic Blessing.) Other works include the 7 movement Canticle Odes for solo piano; 2 short orchestral works (FrateVento & Un Francais a New York) -- both written for and premiered by the Florida Orchestra in their 2007 season; Fuser for string quartet; Eventual Horizons for mixed piano quintet; and various other works for chorus, small ensembles and solo instruments.
