Chicago Master Singers to perform Bloch masterpiece

Chicago Master Singers will open its 38th season with concerts featuring a 20th-century masterpiece of Jewish sacred music, Ernest Bloch's "Avodath Hakodesh: Sacred Service for Sabbath Morning."

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, and 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, at Techny Towers, 2001 Waukegan Road, Northbrook.

The Ars Viva Orchestra will perform with the chorus under the direction of Alan Heatherington. Cantor Cory Winter, a nationally known vocalist and cantor emeritus of B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield, will be the soloist.

Psalm settings by Felix Mendelssohn, Stephen Paulus's "Lord, Make Me an Instrument," a movement from his Grammy-award-winning work Prayers and Remembrances, and C.H.H. Parry's "I was Glad" will round out the program. A free preconcert lecture will begin one hour before each performance.

Individual tickets and season subscriptions can be purchased at www.chicagomastersingers.org or by leaving a message at (877) 825-5267.

Single ticket prices range from $15 (with student discount) to $48. Senior and group discounts are available.

A Swiss-born American composer, Bloch composed a large body of orchestral, choral and chamber works that made him one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. Many of his compositions were infused with Jewish traditions and themes. Since its 1934 premier, critics have hailed "Avodath Hakodesh."

"The Sacred Service transports the attentive listener beyond the specificity of one set of beliefs into a greater universality. In this regard, it ranks as one of Bloch's supreme legacies," said critic Eric Goldberg.

Chicago Master Singers is an auditioned chorus performing in collaboration with professional soloists and orchestras in the Chicago area since 1979 and on 12 European tours.