Friday, March 7, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society, now in its 34th season, will present Bach's "St. John Passion" at 3 p.m. March 23 (Palm Sunday) in Artemus Ham Hall.
The concert, under the direction of Douglas Peterson, will feature the combined 80-voice Musical Arts Chorus and Premiere Chorale of Los Angeles and the 21-piece Musical Arts Orchestra.
Guest solo roles will be sung by Jonathan Mack as the Evangelist, Neil Wilson as Jesus and Rabbi Gary Golbart as Pilate. Solo arias will be sung by soprano Rebecca Martindale Cervantes and countertenor Voltaire Verzosa.
Mack, a tenor, is in his 12th year with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Company.
Peterson, an associate professor at UNLV, is in his 29th season as music director of the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society.
This is the third occasion in which the Musical Arts Society and the Premiere Chorale have combined to sing the music of Bach. Two previous combined concerts included performances of the Mass in B minor and the "St. Matthew Passion."
The "St. John Passion," composed in 1723, is powerful in its emotional effect. Bach's aim in his Passion music, as in his nearly 200 cantatas, was to teach a lesson. The two Passions and the Mass in B minor represent the pinnacle of religious music.
Tickets are $10, $7 for students, military and handicapped, at the UNLV Performing Arts Center box office, 895-3801. The concert is supported in part by a grant from the Nevada Council on the Arts. For further information, call 451-6672.
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