AUS professor to perform as soloist in Handel's masterpiece Messiah at Dubai Opera

Dr Sherri Weiler, Associate Professor of Performing Arts at American University of Sharjah (AUS), has been selected as a soloist for Handel’s Messiah, to be performed at the Dubai Opera in December.

Handel’s Messiah is considered a musical masterpiece and one of the world’s most beloved musical works.

This 1742 celebrated oratorio – with its spectacular "Hallelujah!” chorus – will be conducted by Andrei Danilov with the St Petersburg Tchaikovsky Theatre of Ballet Orchestra.

The performance will see 200 local and international voices and musicians performing.
 
"I am happy to sing professionally in Dubai. When I became an academic, I had already spent years developing my performing persona, but I couldn’t ignore any longer how much I loved teaching.

I returned to study at Florida State University to obtain my doctorate in voice performance and pedagogy in 2004 to enable me to teach at the university level, and I’ve been dedicated to that since then.

Performing has taken a necessary second place. Singing Messiah with Dubai Opera represents the opportunity to focus on performing again and I’m loving it!” said Dr Weiler.
 
The seasoned opera singer was selected as a contralto soloist earlier this month following two auditions.

Sonnambula: "I fell in love with the beautiful voices, the staging, the lighting—everything about opera!" said Dr Weiler.

The latter audition was attended by Rob Johnston, Choral Manager for the BBC Singers and Messiah’s Chorus Master, and Joanna Marsh Griffiths, Composer, Artistic Director of Festival Chorus Start-Up and Founder of ChoirFest Middle East.

The opportunity to be part of this significant performance came about after one of Dr Weiler’s students contacted her about it. "One of my fabulous AUS students, Mohammad Atallah, a recent computer science engineering graduate, and several other men from the AUS Choir, conducted by Dr Terrell Hooper, joined the new chorus formed through Dubai Opera last spring – the Dubai Opera Festival Chorus.

During the summer, the chorus announced their plans to present Handel’s magnificent oratorio Messiah, and Mohammad emailed me about it. I thought this was something I would like to do as well.

In mid-August, shortly before I returned to campus to begin my fourth year at AUS, I emailed the chorus organisers and asked whether I might still audition.

They were extremely positive and I sang for them,” said Dr Weiler.

The rehearsal for Handel’s Messiah is expected to be intense, with four long days of rehearsals and just one with the orchestra.

At AUS, Dr Weiler teaches course in music notation, class voice, class piano and applied voice lessons through the Performing Arts Programme, one of the rare programmes of its kind in the region. She is also the director of the AUS Women’s Choir.

Dr Weiler’s rich operatic portfolio comprises performances with many companies in Anchorage, Sacramento, Denver, Cleveland and Lexington, and at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. She has also sung with orchestras, and performed numerous solo concert and oratorio roles.

Some of the highlights of these roles include singing the mezzo-soprano solo in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with Mstislav Rostropovich when he was conducting the National Symphony, and singing the alto solos in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; the Requiems of Verdi, Duraflé and Mozart; Mendelssohn’s Elijah; the Bach Magnificat and St John Passion; and Handel’s Messiah.