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The Norfolk Chamber Consort opens its 54th season on October 3 at 7:30 P.M. with a humorously titled program, “Worth Your Bux!,” dedicated to the major Danish/German Baroque composer Dietrich Buxtehude and the composers he influenced.  The program includes, in addition to works by Buxtehude, compositions by J.S. Bach, Handel, and Telemann—composers for whom he served as a model.

In recent years, it has become a tradition to open an NCC season with an event featuring a prominent Baroque figure and/or subject in the glorious sanctuary of Christ & St. Luke’s Church. NCC managed to maintain this tradition even during the pandemic, but this program and the return to Christ & St. Luke’s have been delayed for two years due to the pandemic.

The program opens with two representative organ selections by Buxtehude, a renowned organ virtuoso, Praeludium in G minor and “Wei Schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” performed by Christ & St. Luke’s Assistant Organist Marjorie Setnicky.  The program continues with Buxtehude’s Harpsichord Suite in D Minor rendered by the keyboard virtuoso and NCC’s Artistic Co-Director Oksana Lutsyshyn.  The harpsichord will be transported especially for this purpose from Old Dominion University’s Chandler Recital Hall.  The first half concludes with the Cantata “O Gottes Stadt” (O city of God) which dispels the opinion that Buxtehude was primarily a composer of organ music.  This beautiful cantata is sung by an ODU faculty member and early music specialist, soprano, Bianca Hall, accompanied by an ensemble of distinguished instrumentalists, including the ODU Diehn School of Music’s Executive Director, violinist Emily Ondracek-Peterson, violinist Gretchen Loyola, violist Anastasia Migliozzi, and cellist Elizabeth Richards as well as Oksana Lutsyshyn on harpsichord, under the baton of NCC’s Artistic Co-Director Andrey Kasparov.

After a quick intermission, ODU faculty member, tenor Brian Nedvin performs “Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt” (I Know That My Redeemer Lives) by Georg Philipp Telemann, accompanied by Emily Ondracek-Peterson on violin, the Virginia Symphony’s David Savige on bassoon, Elizabeth Richards on cello continuo and Oksana Lutsyshyn on harpsichord.

“I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” from Messiah by George Frideric Handel follows as performed by Bianca Hall, Emily Ondracek-Peterson, Gretchen Loyola, Elizabeth Richards, David Savige, and Oksana Lutsyshyn, conducted by Andrey Kasparov.  Plainsong “The Song of Mary” sung by Bianca Hall, Brian Nedvin, and tenor Dan Waddill will be followed by Buxtehude’s Magnificat Primi Toni, based on this plainsong as rendered by distinguished organist Bradley Norris, who also performs Buxtehude’s Toccata in D minor.  Hall, Nedvin, and Waddill return to sing the Magnificat canticle “Meine Seele” which serves as the basis for J.S. Bach’s Fuga Sopra il Magnificat, that concludes this concert, as performed by Bradley Norris.