Handel's Messiah: An Exploration with Mia Chung and Richard Westerfield

Overview

Join us as we explore George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. Our guides are concert pianist Mia Chung, a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum, and maestro Richard Westerfield.

As we prepare our hearts for Christmas this Advent, it’s a fitting time to enter into the story of the humble child who grew up to be Christ Jesus, Savior of the world. Handel’s Messiah captures the wonder, the awe, and the joy of this event through the Baroque tradition. With music and conversation, Mia and Richard explore with us the first part of the Messiah, which encompasses the Christmas story.

Thanks to co-host Octet Collaborative for their support of this event.

Pianist Mia Chung teaches a celebrated chamber music seminar at Harvard University with the Grammy Award-winning Parker String Quartet. She previously served as a Professor of Musical Studies and Performance at the Curtis Institute of Music from 2012-2023. Chung’s CD and DVD recordings of works by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, and Lee Hyla among others, have earned high praise and awards. Chung received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the highest national recognition for young concert artists, and was a first-prize winner at the Concert Artists Guild competition. She has since performed in major concert halls in the U.S., Canada, Central America, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, and the former Soviet Union. Her first short monograph, Chinese Émigré Composers and Divergent Modernisms: Chen Yi and Zhou Long was published in May 2024 by Cambridge University Press (Elements in Music Since 1945 Series). In the last several years, Mia has taken a great interest in the work of Christian study centers and has founded and led the Octet Collaborative, which promotes human flourishing at MIT. Dr. Chung earned her AB, magna cum laude in music, from Harvard College, a Master of Music degree from Yale University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School.

Richard Westerfield is an American conductor who came to national attention in a last minute subscription debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1993, later returning to lead the orchestra on its subscription series as well as in its Young People’s and summer parks concerts. A former conducting fellow at Tanglewood, Rick was the assistant and later associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, music director of the Alabama and Harrisburg symphony orchestras, and a frequent guest conductor of orchestras throughout Europe and the far east. Rick has also served on the music faculty at Brown University and as Director of Music under Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.

Excerpts and performers mentioned:

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

RIAS Kammerchor

Robin Ticciati, chief conductor

Philharmonie Berlin (2018)

Overture

But who may abide (For he is like a refiners fire)

Glory to God in the highest

English Concert & Choir

John Nelson, conducting

Coventry Cathedral (2021)

Comfort ye my people

Every valley shall be exalted

And he shall purify

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth

Pifa / There were shepherds abiding in the field

Voices8 and Apollo5

Academy of Ancient Music

Barnaby Smith, conductor

Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge (2020)

Comfort ye, my people

And the glory of the Lord

O Thou that tellest good tidings to Zion

Handel and Haydn Orchestra and Chorus

Masaaki Suzuki, conducting

Carnegie Hall (2023)

And the glory of the Lord

Trinity Wall Street Choir and Baroque Orchestra

Jane Glover, conductor (2024)

And the glory of the Lord

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir

Martin Haselbock, conductor

Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall (2018)

Thus saith the Lord

O thou that tellest good tidings

Collegium 1704

Vaclav Luks, conductor

Dvorak Hall, Prague (2016)

O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion

Trinity Wall Street Choir and Baroque Orchestra

Phillippe Sly, bass-baritone

Julian Wachner, conductor (2016)

The people that walked in darkness

Choeur des Arts Florissants

Paul Agnew, conducting

Philharmonie de Paris (2023)

For unto us a child is born

Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir

Brett Weymark, conducting

Sydney Opera House (2022)

Glory to God in the highest

Boston Baroque Chorus and Orchestra

Martin Pearlman, Music Director

Jordan Hall of New England Conservatory (2019)

Glory to God in the highest

Chineke! Ensemble

Jeanine De Bique, soprano

BBC Proms (2017)

Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion

Le Concert Lorrain

Stephan Schultz, conducting

Brixner Initative Musik und Kirche (2021)

Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened

Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

Kent Nagano, Music Director

And He shall feed his flock / Come unto me

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Minnesota Choral Artists

Jeannette Sorrell, conducting (2018)

His yoke is easy

Kings College Choir

Academy of Ancient Music

Stephen Cleobury, conductor

King’s College Chapel

And the glory of the Lord

His yoke is easy

Speakers

MIA CHUNG
RICHARD WESTERFIELD

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Handel’s Messiah: An Exploration with Mia Chung and Richard Westerfield

Excerpts and performers mentioned:

Speakers

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