The USC Concert Choir, under the direction of Larry Wyatt, music, will perform the world premiere of "The Martyrdom of Polycarp" at 6 p.m. April 18 at First Presbyterian Church. The concert is free and open to the public.
"The Martyrdom of Polycarp," with libretto by Scott Cairns and music by J.A.C. Redford, is a sacred oratorio based on eyewitness accounts of the arrest and death of Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, in the middle of the second century. The oratorio uses a broad range of musical sources, from ancient monophonic chant to contemporary harmony and rhythms, with the intent of placing the listener in the story in order to experience its drama and reflect on the nature of faith.
The oratorio is the result of a three-year collaboration between the Arpad Darazs Endowment for Choral Music at USC and First Presbyterian Church.
After the premiere performance in Columbia, the USC Concert Choir will travel to Italy and Bulgaria May 13–31 where they will perform "The Martyrdom of Polycarp" in Rome during the opening concert of the festival honoring Fillipo Neri, founder of the Society of the Oratorio. They also will perform the work in Florence and Venice, as well as Bulgaria, where the Concert Choir they will be the choir in residence at the Varna International Conductors Workshop.
For more information, call the School of Music Choral Office at 7-5369.
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