UB Choirs to Join Brooklyn Philharmonic in Celebratory Performance

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Choirs will participate in a grand celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "Leaves of Grass" by Brooklyn poet laureate Walt Whitman on April 16 at 8 p.m. at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

It will be the choirs' fourth New York City performance in five years.

They will join the New York Virtuoso Singers and the Canticum Novum singers, all under the direction of Harold Rosenbaum, the artistic director of all three groups, in a performance of Beethoven's mighty ninth Symphony ("Ode to Joy"), the great 19th century hymn to the brotherhood of humankind.

The program will also feature the world premiere of "Dooryard Bloom," a song cycle by composer Jennifer Higdon commissioned for the occasion and based on the poetry of Whitman, an eminent humanist who, coincidentally, wrote reviews of Brooklyn Philharmonic performances for 19th-century newspapers.

Ticket information can be found at http://www.brooklynphilharmonic.org/tickets.php?page=tickets.