AmorArtis Chorus & Orchestra

Welcome to the home page of the AmorArtis Chamber Chorus and Orchestra, Johannes Somary, Music Director. AmorArtis is a New York City based group celebrating its thirty-ninth season with some wonderful music.

A list of our scheduled concerts and events for 2000 / 2001 follows.
Please call 212 874-3990 for ticket information.

Wednesday, October 4, 2000 at 6:30 pm
St. Agnes' Church, 43rd Street between Lexington and 3rd Ave., NYC

Works by Monteverdi, Pachelbel, and Haydn

Wednesday, December 6, 2000 at 6:30 pm
St. Agnes' Church, 43rd Street between Lexington and 3rd Avenue, NYC

Works by Bach and Somary

New Year's Eve 2000
Sunday, December 31, 2000 at 8 pm
St. Jean Baptiste Church, 76th Street and Lexington Ave, NYC

An all-Bach program featuring
Cantata 140, "Wachet auf!"
Cantata 118, "O Jesu Christ, mein's lebens Licht"
Cantata 11, "Ascension Oratorio"

Friday, February 23, 2001 at pm
Blessed Sacrament Church, 152 West 71st Street, NYC

Bruckner: Requiem in D minor

Wednesday, April 4, 2001 at 6:30 pm
St. Agnes' Church, 43rd Street between Lexington and 3rd, NYC

Schütz: St. Matthew Passion

Friday, Apri1 6, 2001 at 8 pm
St. Jean Baptiste Church, 76th Street and Lexington Ave, NYC

Works by Haydn and Schütz

AmorArtis is a distinctive chamber chorus and orchestra, featuring dynamically balanced programs of well-known favorites together with important works rarely heard. The ensemble has achieved considerable recognition internationally through its many concerts and extensive discography, encompassing more than forty recordings.

One of the first and foremost presenters in New York of lesser-known Baroque masterpieces, AmorArtis has distinguished itself through authentic versions in style and setting, paving the way for the performances of these works given in the United States today.

Now in his thirty-ninth year as Music Director and Founder of AmorArtis, Johannes Somary has achieved a prominent international career. He has conducted such ensembles as the English Chamber Orchestra, New Orleans Symphony, and London's Royal Philharmonic. He has participated in many international festivals including those in Sion, Dubrovnik, Madeira, Israel, and Greece. He has worked with such renowned singers as Elly Ameling, Sheila Armstrong, Maureen Forrester, Ernst Haeflinger, Benjamin Luxon, Felicity Palmer, and John Shirley-Quirk, and with such well-known instrumentalists as David Bar-Ilan, Garrick Ohlsson, Aaron Rosand, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Maestro Somary's discography claims over fifty recordings, including four Stereo Review Record-of-the-Year Awards. many of his recordings have been re-released on compact disc. The most recent of these re-releases is a disc entitled Russian Favorites for Strings, which includes Tchaikovsky's Serenade in C and works by Arensky, Borodin,

and Prokofiev, on Vanguard Classics Ultra Analog. Among his new discs is one on Premier, which features him in his dual role as conductor and composer. This disc is entitled Three Is Company, the name of one of his compositions recorded.

Born in Switzerland, Johannes Somary is active as an organist, and has received critical acclaim for his recent recordings of Handel organ concertos. In Fanfare it is written: "Somary plays a charming organ...that has a bell-like positif. These organ concertos rival the best versions of Op. 4 in the catalog." Commissioned by the Jefferson Music Festival, Maestro Somary's dramatic cantata Is This Life? was given its premier at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in June 1994, with Michael Moriarty as narrator. The Washington Post remarked after the performance: "The musical language is attractive, with its myriad texts. From the podium, Somary got results which were right on the mark."