Premiere of Mary Oratorio Mepkin Abbey South Carolina May 7 2023
Book on the history of hymns by cormac Available on Amazon kindle
new year 1944 from the metzger oratorio
neujahr 1944
After the Catholic priest and martyr Dr. Max Josef Metzger was sentenced to death in Berlin on October 14, 1943, and was taken to Brandenburg-Görden prison to await execution. He wrote in a letter on January 13, 1944: "I study, read and write, I write poetry and compose, even if I can't put everything on paper." On New Year's Eve 1944 he wrote a poem to encourage his Christkoenig congregation in Meitingen. He called the poem "New Year". Three months later, on April 17, 1944, Dr Max Josef was executed. Nuejahr was the first part of Hymns and Songs of Metzger which became as part of the Metzger oratorio.Composer Cormac O'Duffy received a copy of this poem and in December 2020 decided to set it to music. On New Year's Eve 2021, 77 years after Brother Paulus (as he was known to his congregation) wrote his lines, tenor Udo Scheuerpflug gave a special premiere of the song to the sisters of Dr Max Josef Metzger's congregation in Meitingen. Local filmmaker Josef Gogl filmed this special occasion. This composition marked the beginning of what was to be known as the 'Metzger' Oratorio.
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concert with villanova university choir St John's philadelphia -
'the wedding feast of the Lamb' the world meeting of Families, 2015.
World Premiere of 'The Wedding Feast of the Lamb' St. John the Evangelist Church, Philadelphia. September 24th, 2015. With Villanova Voices and Singers. String Theory, Gamp H.S. Orchestra.
