Music Celebrations International presents Peace and Comfort. A concert celebrating the triumph of resurrection, faith and hope with the Chicago Master Singers and Alan Heatherington (conductor)
In aid of Lincoln Cathedral
The Chicago Master Singers is one of the foremost choirs in the United States. Under the artistic direction of Alan Heatherington, the 100-strong choir performs an impressive array of sacred music, from Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Requiem to the latest works by living composers, and tours regularly to perform in the great cathedrals of Europe.
Tonight’s concert, in aid of Lincoln Cathedral, is centred on Herbert Howells’s magnificent Requiem, which is arguably one of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching works of sacred music written by any British composer. The choir will also be singing John Rutter’s dramatic Cantate Domino and pieces by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Richard Shephard, John Tavener, Philip Stopford, Kenneth Leighton, Charles Villiers Stanford and more.
“In commemorating the centenary of the end of World War 1, we chose the theme of death and redemption,” says conductor Alan Heatherington. “We begin with music that focuses on death, including a Requiem by a composer who had just lost a child (Howells) and a work that became forever associated with death when it was sung as the casket of Princess Diana exited Westminster Abbey (Tavener). We then move to the triumph of resurrection, faith and hope, powerfully expressed in texts and music by some of the greatest English poets and composers of the period and always pointing to victory over death itself.”
He continues: “Tucked into this programme is one of the great texts of the Jewish liturgy, "Hashkiveinu,”, in a musical setting written by David Grosz, a distinguished cantor in Bratislava and Vienna who, along with his wife and daughters, lost his life at Terezin during the Holocaust.”
This concert is one in a series that the Chicago Master Singers will be performing throughout eastern England in July 2018, starting in Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday 7 July, where they will sing following the commemoration of the martyrdom of St Thomas Becket, and finishing with a celebration concert in St Nicholas’ Cathedral, Newcastle, on Saturday 14 July.