Viva la Musica to present Mozart's Requiem March 5, 2011

March 5, 7:30 p.m.; March 6, 4 p.m.

Viva la Musica, the 85-member community choir and orchestra, will present Mozart's Requiem, perhaps the most popular choral-orchestral piece ever, March 5 in Redwood City and March 6 in Palo Alto.

The group will depart for Europe shortly after to perform the same program in Prague and Dresden.

The concerts will open with an orchestral Sinfonia, once thought to have been written by Mozart and now attributed to his contemporary, Abel. Completing the program are Misa del Pueblo, a short Hispanic folk mass for choir and orchestra, written especially for Viva by Rene Carlos Ochoa; Henry Purcell's Funeral March for Queen Mary; and the sublime Mozart aria, Per Pieta non ricercate, for tenor solo and orchestra.

Shulamit Hoffmann is Viva la Musica's artistic director and conductor. Featured soloists are soprano Deirdre Lobo-D'Cunha, mezzo-soprano Wendy Morgan Hunter, tenor Brian Thorsett, and bass-baritone Jordan Eldredge. Trombonist Freddie Mendoza will fly in from Texas to join the group as soloist in the Requiem's Tuba Mirum.

The Saturday, March 5, performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 178 Clinton St. (at Brewster just off Broadway), Redwood City. On Sunday, March 6, Viva la Musica! will perform at 4 p.m. at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado Ave., (between Middlefield and Cowper), Palo Alto. Pre-concert informational talks will take place one half hour before each performance.

Tickets are $25/preferred, $22/general, $20/seniors, $15/students/groups. Concert-goers may book tickets and get driving directions online at www.vivalamusica.org or mail a check to Viva la Musica, P.O. Box 4041, Foster City CA 94404. Ticket orders received up to one week before the concerts will be mailed to patrons. Late ticket orders will be held at will call. Call 650-281-9663 or visit the website for more information.

Official Website: http://www.vivalamusica.org