Elgin Master Chorale to mark 70th anniversary with April 30 performance of Brahms Requiem
On Sunday, April 30, the Elgin Master Chorale, under the direction of acclaimed conductor Andrew Lewis, will celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding with a performance of "A German Requiem" by Johannes Brahms.
The work also was performed in 1947 at the first concert of the choir, then known as the Elgin Choral Union. It is the longest established performing arts organization in the Fox Valley and northwestern suburbs.
The concert is presented through a generous gift from Sterling (Stu) Ainsworth, a longtime and now emeritus member of EMC, who is a prominent supporter of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, the EMC and other area performing arts organizations and projects.
The concert will feature the Elgin Symphony Orchestra accompanying the EMC, soprano Henriët Fourie Thompson, bass-baritone David Govertson, and the EMC Children's Chorus, which will perform a set of songs by Brahms to open the concert. It will be at 3:30 p.m. at the Blizzard Theatre in the Elgin Community College Arts Center, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin.
Reserved seat tickets at $24 or $19 for students and seniors are available by calling (847) 622-0300 or online at www.elginmasterchorale.org. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more.
The Elgin Master Chorale includes more than 90 singers from Elgin and other towns throughout the Fox Valley and northwestern and western suburbs. It is the region's premier symphonic chorus, often performing with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Andrew Lewis is in his 13th season as the music director. He also conducts the well-known chamber choir, Bella Voce, and is on the conducting faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Brahms' German Requiem is one of the world's most enduring and beloved major choral works. Brahms worked on composing the requiem during several years in the 1860s. The final, seven-movement version of the work received its premiere performance in 1869 in Leipzig, Germany.
Unlike other composers, Brahms did not use the text of the Catholic Mass for the Dead, but rather selected texts from the Old and New Testaments in Luther's German translation of the Bible. The chosen texts provide comfort to the living instead of focusing on the spiritual destiny of the departed.