Columbia Pro Cantare opens its 2014-2015 season, Saturday, October 25, 2014, at 8 pm with the rarely performed but thoroughly entertaining Petite Messe Solennelle

by Gioachino Rossini. An operatic composer of timeless renown, Rossini also composed sacred music, chamber music, songs, and instrumental and piano

works. Rossini referred to Petite Messe Solennelle as the last of his “peches de vieillesse” (sins of old age). First performed in 1864 in a private chapel

of a friend of the composer in Passy, France, Petite Messe is characterized by contrapuntal writing, elaborate chromatics and harmonic audacity. This

is its first performance by Columbia Pro Cantare. Joining the chorus under the direction of Frances Motyca Dawson will be Jennifer Holbrook, soprano, Leah Serr,

mezzo, John Noh, tenor, and Steven Eddy, baritone, with Alison Gatwood, piano, Erik Apland, piano, and Donald Fries, harmonium. An informal pre-concert lecture

begins at 7 pm, and there is a post-concert reception.