Hey music lovers! Looking for something to do on Sunday, Jan. 31? PV Choir will be hosting the Adelphi Orchestra Concert, and it’s free to attend.

The Adelphi Concert is taking place on Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Pascack Valley auditorium and will be conducted by Jason C. Tramm and directed by Mrs. Argine Safari, the choir teacher here at PV. It will be featuring musicians from PV Chamber and Concert choirs, the Seton Hall University Choir, the Adelphi Orchestra, 15 year old prodigy Ming Nga Cheung on the piano, and soloists Valerie Bernhardt and Seung Hyeon Baek.

The first act of the concert will begin with Finlandia, a 10 minute orchestral piece composed by Finnish composer Sibelius, performed by the Adelphi Orchestra. It is one of the most important national songs of Finland. Following that, Cheung will perform Mozart’s Concerto for Piano in C Minor.

In the second act, PV’s most talented choir members will sing with the Seton Hall University Choir conducted by Jason C. Tramm in two choral masterworks: Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass, and Dvorak’s Te Deum.

“I think people will love the quality of the music and the performances,” Safari said. “Both Dvorak’s and Gjeillo’s pieces are absolutely gorgeous, each one of them in their own way. Our guest opera soloists will further enhance the night with their talents.”

Sunrise Mass is composed by Juliard- graduated composer Ola Gjeilo, who is very well know for his choral and orchestral works. The choir will be singing the 3rd and 4th movements of this piece, which were based off of a traditional Latin text. This music is very powerful and will remind you of a Hollywood score.

Te Deum is a 30 minute long composition that consists of 4 movements, written by 19th century Czech composer Dvorak, for a big orchestra, choir, soprano and baritone soloists.

“Te Deum is a festive cantata in Latin, a commissioned work to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America. Dvorak sketched the work in less than a week in 1891. Te Deum was premiered in Carnegie Hall in 1892, performed by a choir of 250 voices and conducted by Dvorak himself,” Safari said.

This concert features a lot of challenging music, that gives the choir students an amazing opportunity to perform. They have been working nonstop to achieve quality sound and breath control by attending rehearsals during lunch, Pascack Period, and after school. 

“I am very excited about putting on this concert.  Our students get a rare opportunity to work with a well-known guest conductor, a university choir, and a big orchestra. They had to work very hard to prepare these massive choral works that are written for professional choirs and are very challenging,” Safari said. “I enjoy watching my students get more and more excited about this music once they get to know it better. We rehearsed with the orchestra this week and everyone is looking forward to this musical celebration.”

This is not the first collaborative concert that PV choirs have taken part in. The idea for this concert originated from the several other collaborative concerts that we have had here at PV.

“I have done numerous collaborative concerts like this in the past with well-known conductors with whom I have worked with in the past. In fact, we have another exciting collaboration on June 11th in Ridgewood, Classics from Vienna, with Pro Arte Chorale and the professional period Clarion Orchestra from New York, conducted by Maestro Stephen Fox,” Safari said.