Dear friends of music, I am please to present our lineup for the upcoming season. This year’s calendar presents a mix of sacred, liturgical, and concert music in a wide breadth of styles. Performed in the historic and reverberant sanctuary of St. Benedict Church, each of these offerings is sure take your breath away.

Be sure to mark your calendar for each of these can’t-miss events!

Jeremy Kiolbassa, Director of Music & Liturgy

ALEXANDRE TSOMAIA IN CONCERT

A solo piano program featuring the works of Bach, Chopin, and more…

Saturday, September 28th at 6:30pm

CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION TO FOLLOW

Hailed as “Particularly impressive” by the Wall Street Journal, Alexandre Tsomaia, made his debut at the Newport Festival in Rhode Island, where he premiered 24 preludes of the Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze in North America. At a young age he appeared as soloist with several orchestras in Georgia, as well as in solo recitals. At the age of 14, he was accepted at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. During his time in the United States, he has appeared as a featured soloist at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, He has appeared on NPR’s “From TheTop” Alexandre has performed at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre with the members of the Toradze piano studio, receiving high acclaim from the New York Times. In March 2006 he won the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale competition. Alexandre was “Artist in Residence in Polish Music” while he was a performance diploma student and associate piano instructor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His teachers include Evelyne Brancart, Edward Auer and George Vatchnadze. Currently, Alexandre is an Assistant Music Director at the St. Barnabas Church in Chicago as well as a piano Instructor at Ravinia Lawndale School and Lyriq School of Music. Recent highlights in Alexandre’s career include performance at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of the “Myra Hess” concert series, recital at the Beverly Arts Center and at the Chopin Theatre of Chicago, solo recital and a masterclass at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as solo piano recital at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire.

FAURE’S REQUIEM

A Mass for the dead, a musical masterwork…

Saturday, November 2nd at 7pm

Faure’s requiem is regarded as a masterwork of Romantic Period French liturgical music. Though not a complete setting of the traditional Latin Requiem, Faure’s six movement work is both transcendent and and inspiring. Faure himself wrote of the Requiem:

“It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience… As to my Requiem, perhaps I have also instinctively sought to escape from what is thought right and proper, after all the years of accompanying burial services on the organ! I know it all by heart. I wanted to write something different.”

The Requiem will be presented in the context for which it was originally intended, the Holy Mass. We will use the orchestration for chamber ensemble, which is widely regarded as the most authentic representation of Faure’s original work. Parishioners, friends, guests, and non-Catholics alike are warmly invited to attend.

“CHRISTMAS IN THE ABBEY”

A concert of English Christmas music, performed by the choirs of St. Benedict Parish, Thornton Fractional South High School, and The Ravenswood Community Orchestra

Friday, December 13th at 7pm

Join us for our seventh annual choral-orchestral Christmas concert. Music of the English Cathedral tradition has long been the envy of the world for its grandeur and grace. This program will include the works of such masters as Vaughan Williams, Rutter, Handel, and many more. Tickets go on sale November 1st.

LENTEN VESPERS

Dinner provided at 6:45pm in the church basement.

Wednesday, March 11th at 7:30pm

Join us for the solemn celebration of Evening Prayer, commonly known as Vespers. The celebration of Vespers is part of The Liturgy of The Hours, a prayer form that takes place over the course of the day at various “hours”. Vespers is the penultimate prayer hour of each day. This prayer centers around the Holy Scriptures. The reading and Psalmody change with each hour, day, and Season, with the idea that the Universal Church throughout the world is always in prayer.

AN EVENING PRAYER FOR LENT BY FR. ANDRÉ GOUZES

The music used for this celebration will be taken from An Evening Prayer for Lent by Fr. André Gouzes. This fully sung prayer service draws inspiration from both Gregorian and Slavonic chant, chosen for their appropriateness as a vehicle for prayer.

 “SPRING FORMAL”

CONCERT & BENEFIT DINNER

Saturday, May 2nd at 6:30pm.

In collaboration with Janus Concert Series. Details to be announced.