(By Warren J. Collins ‘27, staff writer)
It is only a short matter of time until the sanctuary of the Miller Chapel will be filled with the glorious noises of singing voices once again, as LVC’s chamber, concert and college choirs, as well as orchestral music department faculty, will collaborate for a truly moving concert, performing the extended piece, “Sunrise Mass”, on Sunday, Sept. 29, at 3 p.m.
Sunrise Mass is a 32-minute spiritual piece of music written almost entirely in Latin. It is broken up into four segments, called “The Spheres,” “Sunrise,” “The City,” and “Identity & the Ground.” Although the piece can certainly be open to interpretation, it is primarily intended to serve as a metaphor for human evolution and development.
The concert will be conducted under the direction of Dr. Kyle Zeuch, LVC’s co-chair & associate professor of music and director of choral activities. Although Zeuch is no stranger to directing exciting concerts at LVC, he is particularly ecstatic about this upcoming performance.
“The Sunrise Mass is a large-scale musical setting of the traditional mass texts presented in a unique, beautiful, and contemporary way,” he said. “This piece has something for everyone—quiet intimate moments, and epic loud moments where the power of the large choir and orchestra will be quite impressive. If you’ve never been to a choir concert at LVC before, this would be a great one to attend.”
The concert is a detour from the traditional LVC choir concert, which normally consists of a vast array of diverse choral works. In spite of this, “Sunrise Mass” will prove to serve the purpose of the LVC choirs, which is to obtain strong emotional appeal and reactions from its audience.
Although there will be only one performance of the riveting choral piece, the concert will be completely free for all students, staff, and community members to attend.