Monmouth Civic Chorus Presents “Rejoice Greatly”



(RED BANK, NJ) — Now in its sparkling 75th Anniversary Season, the award-winning Monmouth Civic Chorus presents Rejoice Greatly: A Celebratory Messiah and More on Sunday, December 17, 2023 at the Count Basie Center for the Arts. This year’s program will feature more of your favorite selections from Handel’s Messiah, masterfully intertwined with Artistic Director Dr. Ryan James Brandau’s stirring original settings of holiday classics like O Holy Night, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, and Auld Lang Syne. Showtime is 4:00pm.

The chorus of more than 80 voices will be joined by full professional orchestra composed of some of the country’s most in-demand musicians, and by the wonderful Chorus of Red Bank Regional High School’s Visual & Performing Arts Academy, under the direction of Brian Krajcik.

The performance will take place at the historic Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre, Count Basie Center for the Arts (99 Monmouth Street) in Red Bank, New Jersey. Tickets for premium seating are $60 adult, $50 senior, $40 group (10 or more), $20 student; and for regular seating are $40 adult, $35 senior, $35 group, $15 student. Tickets are available for purchase online.

Artistic Director Ryan James Brandau has broad experience conducting a variety of choral and orchestral ensembles. In addition to his work with Monmouth Civic Chorus, he serves as Artistic Director of Princeton Pro Musica and Amor Artis, a chamber choir and orchestra in New York City. He has also served on the faculty of Westminster Choir College, where he has worked with the Symphonic Choir, which he has prepared for performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and the New Jersey Symphony. He remains active as a choral arranger, composer, and clinician, whose arrangements and compositions have been featured by choral ensembles across the globe. Ryan received the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the Yale School of Music. Prior to pursuing graduate study in conducting, Ryan attended the University of Cambridge in the UK as a Gates Scholar, earning an M.Phil. in historical musicology. He received his B.A. in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University.

Conductor, Pianist and Tenor, Brian Krajcik currently serves as Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Red Bank Regional HS.  Under his direction, choral ensembles have performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kimmel Center, The White House and St. Thomas Kirche in Leipzig, Germany.  Mr. Krajcik’s background as a vocalist has propelled aspiring singers into leading Universities and Conservatories including Westminster Choir College, Manhattan School of Music, Mason Gross School of the Arts, University of Miami, New York University Steinhardt’s School of Music and The Peabody Institute of John Hopkins.  In addition to his work at RBR, Mr. Krajcik also functions as an Adjunct Professor at Ocean County College where he offers private vocal, piano and organ coaching. Mr. Krajcik earned a Master of Music Degree in Conducting from Westminster Choir College, as well as a Double Bachelors in Music Education and Piano Performance from the University of Delaware. He’s studied conducting with James Jordan, Joseph Flummerfelt, Andrew Megill, and Joe Miller recording with the Westminster Choir on the NAXOS label.

Monmouth Civic Chorus makes the music that moves you. The Chorus has been called “near-flawless” (Asbury Park Press), “alive and evocative” (The Star-Ledger) and “superior” (Red Bank Green). MCC is the proud recipient of the 2008 ASCAP/Chorus America Alice Parker Award, the 2010 Spinnaker Award for Arts and Culture from the Eastern Monmouth Area Chamber of Commerce, and a third-place winner of the 2018-19 American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music.