Chicago Gargoyle Brass to perform in Wheaton

The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble and The Oriana Singers chamber choir, in a first-time collaboration, will perform a centuries-spanning concert on Sunday, Oct. 22, in Wheaton.

The concert will feature German Renaissance a cappella music from the Roman Catholic tradition and instrumental works by Baroque composer Heinrich Schütz, Felix Mendelssohn and others based on famous melodies by Protestant Reformation leader and composer Martin Luther.

Free and open to the public, the one-time-only "Echoes of Wittenberg: Music of a Momentous Era" will take place at 5 p.m. at St. Michael Catholic Church, 310 S. Wheaton Ave.

The concert is presented by the church and no tickets or reservations are required. Donations are welcome.

For details, call (630) 665-2250 or visit www.stmichaelcommunity.org.

"The concert commemorates the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation in Wittenberg, Germany, in a most unusual way, with music from both sides of the great religious divide," said Rodney Holmes, founder and artistic director of the Gargoyle ensemble.

The Chicago Gargoyle Brass takes its whimsical name from the stone figures atop gothic buildings at the University of the Chicago, where the now-professional ensemble got its start in 1992 as a brass quintet of faculty and students.

The group has evolved over the decades into an independent organization of classically trained musicians that focuses on commissioning and performing groundbreaking new works and arrangements for brass and pipe organ.

Formed in 1979, the Oriana Singers are led by Chicago Symphony Chorus Assistant Conductor William Chin. The six-voice ensemble presents a wide range of a cappella music.

For more information about the Chicago Gargoyle Brass, visit gargoylebrass.com. For more information about The Oriana Singers, visit www.oriana.org.