MIT Concert Choir & Orchestra under the baton of William Cutter will feature a quartet of MIT alumni soloists. The program will include: Poulenc's Stabat Mater and Mozart-Süssmayer's, Requiem. The MIT alumni soloists are: Jodie Marie Fernandes '09 (course 6-1, Electrical Science and Engineering), soprano; Nargiss Mouatta, '13 (course 18, Mathematics) mezzo-soprano; Sudeep Agarwala (PhD in Biology), tenor; Joshua Li '07 (course 15, Management Science), bass.
About the Program
Mozart AND Süssmayer’s REQUIEM - Süssmayer finally gets his due!
It has always been a curiosity that the REQUIEM, one of Mozart’s most beloved and well-known works, is actually only in part a composition by the composer. Franz Xavier Süssmayer, a student of Salieri and copyist of Mozart, actually completed much of the manuscript left unfinished by the more famous composer. We think it’s about time that he receives the credit he deserves.
Our homage to the Requiem's composers will also be highlighted by the first-ever quartet of MIT alumni soloists.
Poulenc’s “re-awakening of faith"
STABAT MATER by Francis Poulenc was composed in response to the death of the composer’s friend, artist Christian Bérard. Poulenc considered writing a Requiem but, after returning to the shrine of the Black Virgin of Rocamadour, he selected the medieval Stabat Mater text. Stabat Mater Dolorosa, or Stabat Mater, a 13th-century Catholic hymn about the sorrows of Mary, is one of the most powerful and immediate of medieval poems.
About the Alumni Soloists
Soprano, Jodie-Marie Fernandes, is a devoted learner and performer of music with a plethora of complementary interests and pursuits. In the spring of 2015, she performed the Mozart Requiem with Exultate Chorus and Orchestra. Before returning to Boston this fall, Jodie spent 3 years in Minneapolis, MN, where she sang at churches in the Twin Cities and continued private vocal study and recital performance. She also volunteered as the associate business director for the Twin City Voice Academy, a brand new non-profit organization that provides opportunities for professional coachings, master classes, and public performances to pre-professional solo singers. An avid lover of Bach’s music, Ms. Fernandes was invited to join the renowned and highly selective Bachakademie Stuttgart in 2014, performing the six Bach motets with the JSB Ensemble and Orchestra in Germany and Tunisia. During her time at MIT, she participated in Bach birthday celebrations with Emmanuel Music in Boston and maintained an active singing schedule as a soprano soloist. With the MIT Concert Choir she performed the Mass in C by Beethoven, Mass in G minor by Vaughan Williams, and Mass in B-flat by Haydn, among others. Jodie has always been inspired by sacred music in sacred spaces, and by plainchant in particular, an affinity which was further nourished by her tenure as section leader at both the Cathedral of St. Paul, MN, and First Baptist Church in Boston. Jodie currently works as an associate consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from MIT and a Graduate Performance Diploma in vocal performance from Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA.
Soprano, Nargiss Mouatta has been often praised for the beauty of her voice. She received a mathematics degree with a music minor from MIT, where she was a recipient of the prestigious MIT Emerson Scholarship, studying voice with Dr. Kerry Deal. Since graduation, she studied with Ms. Heidi Skok. As an undergraduate, Nargiss was a member of the MIT Chamber Chorus and the MIT Concert Choir. She was active at MIT as a soloist, performing Bach’s Lutheran Mass in F (BWV 233) and opera scenes including the roles of Pamina in The Magic Flute and Elettra in Idomeneo. Nargiss has a deep interest in Baroque opera and oratorio and has studied the vocal music of Handel extensively.
Tenor Sudeep Agarwala (PhD ’12, Biology—Course 7) is a Cambridge native, where he has performed with numerous choral ensembles including the Oriana Consort, Boston Choral Ensemble, and Cantata Singers. While studying yeast genetics at MIT, he also performed extensively with the MIT Concert Choir and Chamber Chorus, and was a two-time Emerson Scholar in voice. Currently, Mr. Agarwala sings with the King’s Chapel Choir under the direction of Heinrich Christensen. Mr. Agarwala is also a regular contributor to the Boston Musical Intelligencer, where he primarily reviews choral music.
Baritone, Joshua Li, has been singing as long as he can remember, but it was in high school that he first began to study voice seriously. On weekends he would commute over an hour and a half into NYC to attend the preparatory division of Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Ron Cappon. At MIT, Joshua continued to pursue his passion of singing. He sang with the MIT Chamber Chorus and the MIT Concert Choir and was featured as a baritone soloist in Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien, and inCarl Orff's Carmina Burana, among others. Since graduating from MIT, Joshua has sung with the Back Bay Chorale and continues to serve his church leading musical worship. Joshua holds a B.S. in Finance and a minor in Economics from MIT. He currently works as a consultant at Bain & Company, where he also gets to use his singing talents, occasionally singing with the Bain Band.