The Master Chorale of South Florida will perform Handel's Messiah at 8 p.m. Dec. 4 at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 464 NE 16th St., in Miami.

The program will feature a quartet of singers from the Curtis Institute of Music, one of the most prestigious music conservatories in the world. The institute accepts only about 160 students a year, all of whom are provided with merit-based, full scholarships to ensure that admission is based solely on artistic merit.

The concert will be conducted by James Judd, who served 14 years as the music director of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and three years as artistic director of Florida Grand Opera. He later became music director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and was principal guest conductor of the Orchestre National de Lille in France. His millennium concert with Kiri Te Kanawa as soloist was broadcast worldwide.

He is a graduate of London's Trinity College of Music and in his career has led most major orchestras of the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony and the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salsburg.

The four soloists chosen to sing the Messiah are:

• Sarah Shafer, a 19-year-old soprano from State College, Pa., who has won vocal awards nationwide. She also is a pianist and has appeared as a piano soloist with two regional orchestras as the winner of young artist concert competitions.

• J'Nai Bridges, 22, a mezzo-soprano, who is the 2009 National Opera Association Legacy Award winner, first prize winner of the 2008 National Vocal Arts Competition for Emerging Artists and a recipient of the College Success Foundation Scholarship from the state of Washington.

• Joshua Stewart, a tenor from New Orleans. At the Curtis Opera Theatre he has performed in several operas including Don Giovanni; L'elisir d' amore; Postcard from Morocco; and The Magic Flute. He also performed as a soloist in 2008, at a presidential primary debate between then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

• Thomas Shivone, a bass-baritone from Fort Worth, began studying voice at 13 and was a soloist in Faure's Requiem with the Junior Youth Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth in 2005. He was featured on National Public Radio's From the Top in 2007. He has sung with the Curtis Opera Theatre and other companies.

Tickets to the concert cost $30 in advance and $35 at the door; visit http://www.master

choraleofsouthflorida.org.

JEWISH MUSEUM EXHIBIT

Artist Abshalom Jac Lahav will give a talk on his 48 conceptual paintings that are included in the exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Florida. The exhibit is called 48 Jews: What It Means to Be Jewish.

The paintings are a series of Warholesque portraits of 48 famous Jews that celebrate and question the notion of what it means to be Jewish. According to a press release from the museum, Lahav's work ``suggests an ambition to both keep the past alive and explore issues concerning the contemporary Jewish experience.''

The exhibit is not traditional and is a statement of his interpretations of the personalities of the people whose portraits he paints.

For example, in the exhibit Anne Frank's portrait is the cornerstone of the series. Although the artist has painted many Anne Frank portraits, the one in the museum has her wearing a T-shirt with a painting of President Barack Obama on the front.