Written by Leslie Nitzberg, Academy Village Volunteer
The University of Arizona’s Collegium Musicum presents a choral concert at the Arizona Senior Academy on Monday (March 30), beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Monday evening’s unique program will feature an all a cappella performance of the “Officium defunctorum” or Requiem Mass by Spain’s most famous Renaissance composer, Tomas Luis de Victoria. The Requiem Mass was written in 1605 for the funeral of Victoria’s patron, the Empress Maria.
The Mass setting intersperses phrases of chant, sung by the upper voices, with six-part choral movements in a style similar to that of Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina. Victoria had trained and worked as a singer and organist in Rome where he probably studied with Palestrina and had the opportunity to absorb the Italian master’s style and techniques.
Victoria’s Requiem, written in his later years in Spain, features less of the imitative polyphony so strongly associated with Palestrina, and instead focuses more on declamatory homophonic textures, resulting in greater clarity of text presentation.
The university’s early music ensemble is made up of community singers from around Tucson as well as UA students. The Collegium Musicum is directed this year by Jonathan Kim, a second-year doctoral student in choral conducting.
Kim is a native of Los Angeles who earned his undergraduate degree in vocal performance at the University of California Irvine, and his master’s degree in choral conducting at the University of Notre Dame.
Academy Village is an active-adult community located off Old Spanish Trail six miles southeast of Saguaro National Park East. Its residents support the Arizona Senior Academy, a non-profit charitable organization whose mission includes offering free concerts and lectures to the public. These events are held in the Great Room of The ASA Building adjacent to the Academy Village Community Center.
Due to the popularity of cultural events, non-residents who wish to ensure priority seating are advised to make reservations by email at info@arizonasenioracademy.org or by phone at (520) 647-0980. To learn more about the Academy, go to www.asa-tucson.org.
