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Tag: Tim Keyes

Tim Keyes’ Consort Celebrates 30 Years

Tim Keyes’ day job is that of Pastoral Assistant of Music and Liturgy at the Catholic Church of St. Charles Borromeo in Skillman, NJ. But he’s also a prolific composer of oratorios, symphonies, concertos, film scores, chamber music, instrumental works, and choral pieces. His most recent work, “The Pool,” completes a triptych of sacred oratorios inspired by episodes from the Gospel of John. With its first performance at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Saturday at 8 p.m., the group of musicians Keyes directs, the Tim Keyes’ Consort, will celebrate 30 years.

The orchestra and chorus are made up of professional and amateur musicians. Mentorship is central to the Consort’s mission. Saturday’s concert will open with a work by Rutgers Mason Gross student Amelia Cunningham, “Irish Overture,” and Ithaca graduate Kathryn Dauer will return to conduct Keyes’ “Adagio.” Read more about it in my article in the Princeton weekly U.S. 1, out today.

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/artsandentertainment/three-decades-three-oratorios-for-tim-keyes/article_20876a40-2d2a-4e8a-8799-c8901ac4b582.html

June 11, 2025
Tim Keyes World Premiere Princeton

When most congregants attend Sunday services, they’re probably not expending a lot of thought on all the work that goes into the preparation of the music, or the broader creative lives of those who compose and arrange it.

Tim Keyes has been the pastoral assistant of music and liturgy at The Catholic Community of St. Charles Borromeo Service and Justice in Skillman, NJ, for 23 years. His latest symphony is in rehearsals – with his own ensemble, the Tim Keyes Consort – in preparation for the work’s world premiere at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, on Saturday at 8 p.m.

The “Symphony in Bb: Elegy” is Keyes’ 4th symphony and the first to be scored exclusively for orchestra. The 30-minute, three-movement work is dedicated to the memory of his father and, according to the composer, “explores the grief associated with the loss of a loved one and an enduring belief in eternal life.” The timing couldn’t be better, as Sunday is Father’s Day.

The second half of the program will be devoted to the world premiere of an hour-long, 12-movement oratorio, “The Stone.” Keyes says the work is the second of a triptych, which began with his oratorio “The Well,” given its debut at Richardson in 2016. The trilogy explores scriptural stories in John’s gospel.

According to Keyes, “‘The Stone’ examines the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and embraces the emotional drama between Martha, Mary and Jesus.”

The oratorio is scored for orchestra, choir and three soloists. On Saturday, it will be sung by tenor Justin Connors (Jesus), mezzo-soprano Victoria Lotkowictz (Mary), and soprano Danyelle Dellolio (Martha).

For tickets, call 609-258-5000, or visit princeton.edu/utickets.

For more information about the Tim Keyes Consort, now celebrating its 29th year, visit timkeyesconsort.org.

News about the event came in while I was down with COVID, so I couldn’t write it up for the paper, but here’s a link to an article I wrote about Keyes and the consort in 2019.

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/artsandentertainment/keyes-symphony-a-transformation-of-light-in-sound/article_7ba300c1-cd1b-5250-9c8c-aee773786f15.html

And one I wrote about “The Well” in 2016, for The Times of Trenton.

https://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/2016/06/classical_music_tim_keyes_cons.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0hfJgg4IIjadPllt2s7z3sa_TD5ypshkzPdDtZDwy266R0BCXUL-fiSmw_aem_AQxIhpMzslBqEwGfv-NPkS15Wu41dJWB-JLHwiB0OazGjpgmxeQ5ZPfUJGCfdhDl1STMgrQvL_01C8iRxVlhIiC2

June 10, 2024
Tim Keyes’ New Oratorio The Well Premieres

When composer Tim Keyes was in search of inspiration for his new oratorio, he knew all he had to do was return to “The Well.”

“The Well,” based on an episode from the Gospel of John, tells of Jesus’ encounter with a Samaritan woman, in which He, a Jew, gently erodes the cultural divide between them and introduces her to the concept of “living water,” a metaphor for salvation and eternal life.

Keyes first embarked on the project many years ago, in the early 1990s, while he served as music director for Marty Haugen, himself a prolific composer of liturgical music.

“I abandoned it, because I just wasn’t happy with how it was coming out,” Keyes says. “Then the Pope this year declared a Holy Year of Mercy, and I thought this was a perfect time to revisit it. But I revisited in a different way. I created something that lives somewhere between opera and Broadway. It has the emotional content of a Broadway production, but it has the musical content of an opera. It’s kind of a departure for me, but I think it works in a very interesting way.”

The oratorio, scored for eight soloists, choir and orchestra, will be given its premiere at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium tomorrow at 8 p.m., with the composer conducting the Tim Keyes Consort.

The program will also include works on themes of mercy and forgiveness by English Renaissance composer Richard Farrant (“Lord Who Throughout Thy Tender Mercy”), the Belgian-born French Romantic César Franck (his symphonic poem “Redemption”), and contemporary Irish composer Michael McGlynn (“Pie Jesu”).

You can find out more about it, Keyes the composer, and his consort, in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/06/classical_music_tim_keyes_cons.html

June 10, 2016

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