Choirs Concert

The world changes music, and music changes the world.

Washington University Choirs present “Reformation/Revolution.”

2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, which impacted not just religion but secular life in Europe in critical ways. For this concert, a musical tour of the Reformation era serves as a launchpad to examine other movements and events that have fundamentally altered the way we see and live in our world. Music from the Lutheran, Catholic, Anglican, and Calvinist traditions will be followed by songs representing the anti-apartheid movement, the fight for women’s suffrage, and more.

The centerpiece of the program is a cantata by Alice Parker called A Sermon from the Mountain: Martin Luther King. This 45-minute work combines words for a narrator from King’s writings and speeches, Biblical passages for soloist, and choral settings of spirituals. Kevin McBeth narrates, and bass-baritone Robert McNichols intones the words from Scripture. Soloists Jennifer Kelley, Kwamina Walker-Williams, and Duane Martin Foster join the choir in the spirituals.

Join us for this inspiring program!