April 27, 2025

Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats

Bach’s project of writing weekly cantatas based on chorales began on Trinity Sunday in 1724 and ended on Palm Sunday in 1725 — not quite a full year. Instead of a chorale-based chorus, this cantata, composed for the First Sunday after Easter in 1725, opens with a cheery sinfonia. A recitative follows, quoting from the day’s Gospel about Jesus bringing peace and comfort as he appears to his disciples gathered in a locked room on Easter evening.

3:00 p.m. Cantata Preview Lecture
Mark Peters, Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights

3:45 p.m. Orchestral Prelude
Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, BWV 1048
Hennig Kraggerud: Victimae paschali

4:00 p.m. Bach Cantata Vespers
Ian A. McFarland, Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, Georgia, homilist

Also in the service:
William Byrd: Haec dies

Bach Cantata Vespers Chorus and Orchestra
Grace Cantor Michael D. Costello, conducting

Maura Janton Cock, soprano
Amanda Koopman, mezzo-soprano
Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor
Peter Wesoloski, baritone

Vox Madonna will be celebrating the 500th anniversary of Palestrina's birthday with a concert on Sunday February 16th in Madonna della Strada Chapel.  The centerpiece of the program will be Missa Papae Marcelli, along with some other motets and madrigals.

A 17TH-CENTURY GERMAN CHRISTMAS

Bella Voce + Madison Bach Musicians, conducted by Andrew Lewis

In this first-time collaboration, Bella Voce and the Madison Bach Musicians present a program of illuminating works from German composers—Buxtehude, Praetorius, and Schütz among them. The program will be presented in Evanston as well as in Madison, Wisconsin.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2024

3 PM @  FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH (MADISON, WI)

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2024

4 PM @ ST. LUKE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH (EVANSTON)

Learn more about our season venues.

BUY TICKETS

Few events in American history are so widely remembered, retold, and discussed as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Yet one of the most human legacies from that fateful day would drift into obscurity—within weeks, Jacqueline Kennedy had received over 800,000 letters of condolence, and the volume nearly doubled within two years. A half-century later, some 250 of these letters to Jackie from “ordinary Americans”—sharing extraordinary soul-searching and grief from across generations, regions, race, political leanings, and religion, singularly honoring what John F. Kennedy meant to the country—were published and recorded for a television film.

For the 60th anniversary of this seminal moment in history, 2021 American Prize-winning tenor Ryan Townsend Strand developed the classical art song cycle Letters to Jackie, setting 14 of these missives representing the power of community in a time of great tragedy. A storyteller first and foremost, Strand uses his voice to bring people together over stories that both connect and inspire. He regularly tours and performs with Constellation Men’s Ensemble as executive director and a founding member, as well as with Bella Voce, Stare at the Sun, and the choruses of the Chicago Symphony, Grant Park Festival, Lyric Opera, and Music of the Baroque. Strand has also sung several operatic roles with Haymarket Opera Company and Chicago Opera Theater.

The composers commissioned for Letters to Jackie include Adore Alexander, B.E. Boykin, Skyler Butenshon, Tom Cipullo, Nicholas Cline, Aaron Helgeson, Libby Larsen, Will Liverman, Erik Pearson, Matthew Recio, Jen Shyu, Timothy Takach, Augusta Read Thomas, and LJ White. Selections from Letters to Jackie were recorded in 2023; the album, Dear Mrs. Kennedy, will be released this November on Sono Luminus Records and specially available at this performance.

Performers

Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor
Karina Kontorovitch, piano

September 29

Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir, BWV 130
Lord God, we all praise you

Bach composed this festive cantata for the Feast of St. Michael during his second year in Leipzig. Based on a chorale text by Paul Eber, the cantata praises God for the creation of angels in a festive setting of the tune best known as “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.” The orchestra includes strings, three oboes, three trumpets, and timpani. It is a fitting, festive start to a new season of Bach Cantata Vespers.

3:00 p.m. Cantata Preview Lecture
Mark Peters, Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights

3:45 p.m. Orchestral Prelude
James MacMillan: Seraph for trumpet and strings
Terry Everson, Boston University, trumpeter
Hillert: Prelude to Evening Prayer

4:00 p.m. Bach Cantata Vespers
Peter W. Marty, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Davenport, Iowa, homilist

Also in the service:
Heinrich Schütz: Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr, SWV 387

Bach Cantata Vespers Chorus and Orchestra
Grace Cantor Michael D. Costello, conducting

Carolyne DalMonte, soprano
Amanda Koopman, mezzo-soprano
Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor
Douglas Anderson, baritone

The Chicago Water Music

In 1717, Handel penned his famous Water Music for a boat party on the River Thames. In 2024, Music of the Baroque presents it on the Chicago River for the first time! Dame Jane Glover, the Music of the Baroque Chorus & Orchestra, and the “Strong Voices” Chorus, made up of young musicians from the ensemble’s choral education program in 7 Chicago public high schools, cruise the river performing excerpts from the iconic Water Music, the “Hallelujah” Chorus from Messiah, and more. Come to the Riverwalk and hear Handel’s music reverberating from Chicago’s majestic architecture in a unique, free event celebrating our great Midwest city.

APPROXIMATE SCHEDULE

(Timing and locations are subject to change depending on river traffic)

7:00 PM - Dame Jane Glover and the musicians travel from Riverwalk East End towards Merchandise Mart, performing the program

7:15 PM - Short concert at Merchandise Mart

7:45 PM - Short concert between LaSalle and Clark streets

8:15 PM - The return journey to Riverwalk East End begins

Wer da gläubet und getauft wird, BWV 37
Whoever believes and is baptized

The cantata with which we have chosen to conclude this year’s series is BWV 37, an Ascension cantata that Bach first    performed in Leipzig on May 24, 1724. Its focus is Jesus’ command to his disciples to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” and the promise that “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” A moving duet based on the chorale “How Lovely Shines the Morning Star” is sung by soprano and alto soloists, while the tenor and bass arias reflect on the Lutheran theology of justification by faith.

3:00 p.m. Cantata Preview Lecture
Mark Peters, Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights

3:45 p.m. Organ Prelude
Stephen Buzard, St. James Cathedral, Chicago

4:00 p.m. Bach Cantata Vespers
Amy Gillespie, St. James Lutheran Church, Lake Forest, Illinois, homilist

J. S. Bach: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 (sung by singers of Chicago Choral Artists)

Bach Cantata Vespers Chorus and Orchestra
Grace Cantor Michael D. Costello, conducting
Susan Nelson, soprano
Amanda Koopman, mezzo soprano
Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor
David Govertsen, bass

Weeping, wailing, fretting, fearing

BWV 12 also has its origins during Bach’s early days of composing for the court at Weimar in 1714. It opens with a ravishingly intense symphonia. The second movement, a plaintive, anguished chorus of weeping and wailing, would eventually become the Crucifixus of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. The arias in this Easter season cantata keep Jesus and his redemptive death on the cross at the center of the Christian story, while still anticipating future joy in both text and music. Even as we celebrate Christ’s triumph over sin and death on Easter, we also recall Jesus’ sacrificial love for us.

3:00 p.m. Cantata Preview Lecture
Mark Peters, Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights

3:45 p.m. Orchestral Prelude
Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 30 in C Major (“Alleluia”)

4:00 p.m. Bach Cantata Vespers
Michael D. Costello, Grace Lutheran Church and School, River Forest, Illinois, homilist

Heinrich Schütz: Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt

Kapelle, Concordia University Chicago, guest choir
Charles P. Brown, conductor
Sarah Ponder, mezzo soprano
Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor
David Govertsen, bass

CHILCOTT’S “REQUIEM”

Sun., Apr. 14 at 3:00 p.m.

Join us in celebrating Trinity Wilmette’s 150th anniversary, as our Chancel Choir and friends present an afternoon performance of Chilcott’s “Requiem.”  Experience the vivid and colorful sounds of Chilcott’s “Requiem,” accompanied by chamber orchestra and organ.  The program will feature vocalists Ryan Townsend Strand (tenor) and Anna Joy Buegel (soprano).

This event is free of charge and open to the public, but advance registration is requested [click here].

Letters To Jackie invites listeners on a musical journey to safely explore grief and spark conversation on the importance of human connection. Letters To Jackie also offers a glimpse into a touchstone moment in American history, representing the audience in which it serves and for which it is performed. In order to seek equal representation, the cycle will include voices of differing sex, gender, race, creed, and citizenship to offer hope, community, and equal access. The world-premiere performance of Letters To Jackie took place on November 22, 2023 in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.