SHOW – Elijah – True Concord

True Concord’s upcoming performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, January 27-29, has been called the “cornerstone of the 2017 Tucson Desert Song Festival” and having Grammy-winning operatic baritone Richard Paul Fink in the title role is certainly one of the reasons. This will be a first for True Concord to perform a work on such a monumental scale with 70 vocalists and a 50-piece orchestra. A collaboration with the University of Arizona Choral Department, Music Director Eric Holtan said of the work “it’s one of those pieces that doesn’t get done very often in Southern Arizona. This will be a rare performance.”

Now in its 5th year, the Tucson Desert Song Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation initiated by a group of music-loving volunteers. Its purpose is to “coordinate, subsidize and publicize a unique classical voice festival highlighting the rich musical life of Tucson along with some of the country’s leading vocal performance artists through a series of concerts, lectures and master classes throughout the three-weekend festival.” Financial subsidies allow local performance organizations to hire vocal soloists they might not otherwise be able to afford, such as the renowned Richard Paul Fink.