SONOS Chamber Orchestra Presents Music of Mourning and Consolation -- Four Requiems: Music of Jon Leifs, Johann Christian Bach and Fredrik Sixten

NEW YORK, May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SONOS Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Erik E. Ochsner will perform at 8PM on Friday, June 8, 2012 at Saint Peter's Church (619 Lexington Avenue, NYC, tickets: www.sonoschamberorch.org).  The program pays homage to the Requiem mass, an art form that honors dead and consoles the living. 

In keeping with SONOS Chamber Orchestra's mission of performing new and infrequently performed works, our annual large chamber orchestra concert will feature the United States premiere of Swedish composer Fredrik Sixten's (b. 1962) Requiem, the seldom-heard baroque requiem Dies Irae by Johann Sebastian Bach's son, Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) and two smaller works of the underperformed Icelandic composer Jon Leifs (1899-1968): Elegy and Requiem, and Patrick Cassidy's Vide Cor Meum featured in the films Hannibal and Kingdom of Heaven.

Conductor Erik E. Ochsner currently serves as Music Director and founder of SONOS Chamber Orchestra.  He has traveled on tour with the live-to-projection productions of the Lord of the Rings: Live to Projection trilogy, including recent performances with the orchestras of St. Louis, Tampere (Finland) and Kaohsiung (Taiwan).  He made his debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra with live-to-projection performances of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.  Future 2013 engagements include Adelaide, Athens, Berlin, Indianapolis, Melbourne, Milwaukee, Nurnberg, Ottawa, Stuttgart, Sydney, Taipei and Toronto. Erik served as rehearsal conductor for composer Tan Dun for worldwide productions and workshops.

The REBEL Baroque Ensemble will coach and also perform the J.C. Bach Dies Irae with SONOS. This will aim to bring an "informed performance practice techniques" to this performance.

Composer Fredrik Sixten is a Swedish composer, cathedral organist and conductor.  This 2007 Requiem will be performed with both English and Latin text. It was written for the death of a close friend. 

Now in its 11^th season, the Washington Heights-based SONOS Chamber Orchestra is a flexible and versatile group of artists devoted to the performance of traditional and innovative forms of classical music in the New York City area.  In a city that is internationally recognized for its active arts scene, SONOS is committed to the performance of under-appreciated works as well as standard works of the classical repertoire. 

SOURCE SONOS Chamber Orchestra