Te Deum | Choral Music Kansas City http://www.te-deum.org Tue, 07 May 2013 19:14:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Divine Experiences http://www.te-deum.org/blog/2012/11/divine-experiences/ http://www.te-deum.org/blog/2012/11/divine-experiences/#comments Tue, 06 Nov 2012 22:49:55 +0000 sharphue http://www.te-deum.org/?p=304 Continue reading →]]> Our concert this weekend encourages you to discover the holy found all around.
To this end, we are singing a concert of secular pieces, or music without reference to God, as a platform for finding the sacred inherent in this world. There are only two exceptions, and those are the two settings of the Agnus Dei text, which translates “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of our world, have mercy on us.”
The two Agnus Dei are by Barber and Elgar, and were both originally composed as instrumental pieces. However, this music is so beautiful, so stirring, so holy, that Barber himself felt compelled to transcribe his piece for choir with a sacred text, and in the case of Elgar, others were compelled to transcribe “nimrod” for choir with the Agnus Dei text added.
I believe these formerly secular pieces perfectly exemplify the meaning of our concert: that, if you choose, life can be lived as an unending series of divine experiences.
I invite all of you to come this weekend to experience the holy found in music, nature, and in love.

]]> http://www.te-deum.org/blog/2012/11/divine-experiences/feed/ 0 Our Fifth Season http://www.te-deum.org/blog/2012/09/our-fifth-season/ http://www.te-deum.org/blog/2012/09/our-fifth-season/#comments Wed, 19 Sep 2012 21:50:40 +0000 sharphue http://www.te-deum.org/?p=296 Continue reading →]]> I am excited to share Te Deum Chamber Choir’s plans for this unique and magnificent fifth season. Both our autumn and spring concerts will include firsts for Te Deum. This fall we will venture away from specifically sacred literature in a concert titled, “The Sacred Around Us.”

This spring, in collaboration with Village Presbyterian Church and the Kansas City Baroque Consortium, we will present the glorious Mass in B-Minor of J.S. Bach in Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. As has always been our tradition and mission, all performances will be offered free of charge. And as a special community outreach, following the B-Minor performance at the Kauffman Center the audience will be invited to make a good will offering to benefit the Kansas City Free Health Clinic.

So, if Te Deum, which let me remind you translated means “To You, O God,” is a sacred ensemble, why this Fall are we singing a concert of all secular literature? As the title claims, the Sacred is all around us.

The concert will explore this idea in three themes:

  • The sacred as experienced in nature.
  • The sacred as experienced in music.
  • The sacred as experienced in love.

We have the opportunity to experience the world through any lens we choose. One can see a sunset and think, “Ah, how pretty.” Or, one can see the same sunset and think, “What a magnificent creation of God.”

In our concert, “The Sacred Around Us,” we make the case that all things are holy if viewed through the right lens.

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