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Officially organized in 1999, The Robert Page Festival
Singers is composed mainly of members and former members
of The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, The Cleveland
Orchestra Chorus and the Berkshire Choral Festival.
Maestro Page has worked closely with each of these organizations
for at least two decades. Singers from other major American
choirs have joined the Festival Singers on occasion,
including the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, University
of Wisconsin-Madison Choral Union, the Masterworks Chorale
of Phoenix, the Bach Choir and Concert Chorale of Pittsburgh
and the Monteverdi Singers of Wisconsin.
The Robert Page Festival Singers, with members of the
Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, opened the Dvorak Nelahozeves
Music Festival in 1999 performing the Dvorak Stabat
Mater in the composer's home town of Zlonice, with subsequent
performances in Prague and at the Schoenbrunn Palace
in Vienna. In the summer of 2000, the ensemble was invited
to return to the festival to perform the Dvorak Requiem
to open the festival, with an additional performance
in Prague's Rudolfinum. The ensemble continued its tour
performing the Verdi Requiem in Munich and in Salzburg.
In 2001, The Robert Page Festival Singers with the
State Orchestra of St. Petersburg presented the Verdi
Requiem at the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg,
with subsequent performances in Novgorod and Helsinki,
and opened the prestigious Mikkeli Festival in Finland.
In 2003, The Robert Page Festival Singers performed
together with the Halle State Philharmonic Orchestra
Brahms NANIE and EIN DEUTSCHES REQUIEM in Munich, Leipzig,
Dresden and Berlin and in 2005, the same forces joined
in performances of the Verdi Requiem to enthusiastic
audiences in Halle, Germany; Geneva, Switzerland; Toulouse,
France; and Barcelona, Spain.
This year will be the seventh European concert tour
for the RPFestival Singers.
Organizing the Festival Singers was a dream come true
for Maestro Page: "I have always wanted to bring
together the best of these three excellent choral organizations
with whom I spent so many years".
Comments of the music critics of the European cities
may be summed up in the comment from the Prague publication
Hudebni Rozhledy after the Dvorak Requiem performance
at the Rudolfinum: "The American choir was again,
as we got used to in their previous concerts, superb.
What is especially admirable was the discipline and
flawless attention of all the singers, which in final
effect amounted to impeccable alignment and perfect
openings, which is astonishing with an ensemble of this
size."
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