The ninth annual Saratoga Choral Festival will present two rarely-performed masterworks at St. Clement’s Church on Sunday, Aug. 2, at 3 p.m. The concert features the Berliner Messe by Arvo Pärt and Liturgia Domestica by Alexandre Gretchaninoff, both for chorus and orchestra. These soul-stirring works will be performed in the glorious acoustics of this magnificent church.

 The Liturgia Domestica is one of the only works in the Russian sacred music repertoire to be accompanied by an orchestra rather than in the usual a cappella setting. The tenor soloist will be Russian-born Konstantin Stepanov. He received his musical education at the Moscow State Conservatory. Stepanov won the First Prize in both the regional and the final rounds of a major International Lieder Competition in 2005 and the Third Prize of the Bella Voce National Vocal Contest in 1998, at the age of 22.  Soon, he was selected to participate in the prestigious Young Artists Program of the Moscow State Opera Theatre. During his 21-year performance career Stepanov has worked with several famed conductors, including Evgeny Svetlanov and Valery Gergiev, and has participated in many international festivals such as the Avignon Theatre Festival (France), the Musica Viva International Festival (Moscow), the Tallinn Festival (Estonia), the Krakow Spring Festival (Poland) and The Seventh International Soul of Japan Music Festival.

All tickets are $20. For more information and reservations, contact us at agoodman@saratogachoralfest.org or 518-791-0185.