Span­ish com­poser and FB Neigh­bor, Mar­cos Gal­vany has begun the count­down as his pro­duc­tion, Oh My Son (OMS), debuts at 8 p.m. April 10 at Carnegie Hall. Galvany’s immense tal­ent and hard work are under­scored by the raw emo­tion that his melodies evoke. With his long suit in charm, musi­cians, friends and acquain­tances have read­ily signed on to pro­pel this pro­duc­tion forward.

Under the baton of Michael Rossi, the New Eng­land Sym­phonic Ensem­ble (NESE)—with a choir of 100 and five remark­able soloists—will per­form in Carnegie’s Stern Hall. And while OMS may not be a house­hold name yet, the orches­tra has played OMS, begin­ning in 1998 on its world tours for which Gal­vany was guest conductor.

The Per­form­ers:
Find­ing vocal­ists with the vol­ume and tal­ent to per­form at Carnegie is cen­tral to the per­for­mance. Of the OMS soloists, soprano Meghan McCall and bari­tone Matthew Osifchin have FB ties and per­formed OMS selec­tions at con­certs at the State Depart­ment and the home of the Chilean Ambas­sador. Among their pro­fes­sional cred­its, McCall has per­formed with FB’s Opera Lafayette and Osifchin debuted with the Wash­ing­ton Opera as Guc­cio in the crit­i­cally acclaimed pro­duc­tion of “Gianni Schic­chi.” Add to the Carnegie pro­duc­tion Galvany’s child­hood friend, Anto­nio Gan­dia, who has sung Galvany’s work for a decade in between his demand­ing inter­na­tional opera itin­er­ary. Gan­dia is also con­nected to FB as a “Plá­cido Domingo” Prize win­ner (best tenor at the Fran­cisco Viñas Inter­na­tional Singing Com­pe­ti­tion in Barcelona).

Michael Rossi, OMS’s con­duc­tor is also in his sec­ond sea­son as the Young Artist/ Assis­tant Con­duc­tor of the Wash­ing­ton National Opera (WNO). May 6, Rossi also debuts as con­duc­tor for WNO’s pro­duc­tion of Le Nozze di Figaro.

The Work:
OMS began as songs about the Pas­sion— of Mary Mag­da­lene, and Mary, and the Cru­ci­fix­ion of Jesus as inspired by the sto­ries Galvany’s mother shared with him as a young boy as they watched the larger than life fig­ures paraded through their town before Easter.

Over time, Galvany’s con­tin­ued writ­ing and OMS melodies matured. Each aria is a por­tal into a per­son­al­ity such as the griev­ing mother, a fear­ful man meet­ing his death and the con­flicted “judge” found in Pilate who is given no choice but to con­demn Jesus. Each aria res­onates with the emo­tions and chal­lenges around the piv­otal death of Jesus on the cross. OMS has a uni­ver­sal appeal —regard­less of reli­gious per­sua­sion or with none. The audi­ence finds in these por­tray­als believ­able peo­ple strug­gling with the con­se­quences of fate, faith and their deci­sions: honor and loy­al­ties, and the price they must pay. Age-old con­flicts cap­tured in melodic parable.

He Com­poses Clas­si­cal Music : why so few Do IT.
It requires know how and a lot of work. Hav­ing a melody is only the begin­ning for the clas­si­cal com­poser. To orches­trate requires a broad knowl­edge of instru­ments, the tech­nique and register—how many strings, per­cus­sion, or brass to use when, and how they blend together. Should a choir or soloists be added, the vocal range must then be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion, some­times even chang­ing the orches­tra­tion. What is more, Gal­vany com­poses beau­ti­ful melody where in most recent his­tory atonal com­po­si­tions were the rage. John Rutter—a Brit pro­lific in per­for­mances, pub­li­ca­tions and record­ings and prob­a­bly the most suc­cess­ful choral com­poser of his gen­er­a­tion— said of Galvany’s music after record­ing OMS in Ely Cathe­dral in Cam­bridge, “Gal­vany is melody-gifted.” He pro­duces. Hav­ing a com­ple­ment of tal­ent, a fin­ished work, and a venue, why wait for Godot? Pro­duc­ers han­dle ticket sales,logistics, and find spon­sors, fund­ing, and cover expenses. Gal­vany didn’t have time to wait. So here we are. April 10 is within arm’s reach.

ISO: Many pun­dits with cause, worry about the future of clas­si­cal music. If Gal­vany is any indi­ca­tor of what the 21st cen­tury com­poser­cum– pro­ducer holds, clas­si­cal music may be poised for a resound­ingly strong resur­gence. — S. Trinter

Tick­ets are on sale and avail­able from the Carnegie Hall web­site. www.Carnegiehall.org. For VIP tick­ets, visit the web­site www.SeeOhMySon.com, which also has more infor­ma­tion about the pro­duc­tion, under­writ­ing, work, videos and bios of the soloists.