“Silence is the space within music, and that is where the magic happens.” — Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt and James MacMillan are two of the world’s great living composers, and The Emmanuel Choir is proud to offer a program of Modern Choral Masterpieces by these brilliant craftsmen. Estonian Arvo Pärt, who celebrates his 90th birthday this year, has held the distinction of being the world’s most-performed living composer for most of the past decade — and his music is largely cast in a minimalist style utilizing tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented in the 1970s. Sir James MacMillan is the preeminent Scottish composer of his generation, and is “…a composer so confident of his own musical language that he makes it instantly communicative to his listeners (The Guardian).” In addition to other works from their oeuvres, featured on this program will be two very different settings of the Mass Ordinary: Pärt’s sublime Berliner Messe (1990) and MacMillan’s textured and colorful Mass (2000), written for Westminster Cathedral.
- The Emmanuel Choir
- Karl Robson, organ
- Christian Lane, director
About Tickets
A ticket is required of all attendees, and may be obtained prior to the concert or at the door beginning 30 minutes prior to the performance.
Emmanuel Church is committed to ensuring all persons have access to its space and its musical offerings, regardless of income and ability to pay. Therefore, for most concerts, a limited number of Free Rush Tickets will be made available, online only, beginning 24 hours in advance of a concert’s start time.
Single tickets are transferable, but not refundable. If your plans change and you can no longer attend a performance, we encourage you to transfer your tickets to a friend. To do so, open your ticket in Eventbrite and edit the ticket’s name and email address.
Subscription tickets may be exchanged for a different concert on the same series. Simply write to [email protected] to request a ticket exchange.
We thank Emmanuel’s Friends of Music for their ongoing and significant support of programming at Emmanuel. If you are intersted in becoming a Friend of Music, please click here.
Music at Emmanuel is grateful to the Maryland State Arts Council and the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Portfolios, www.BakerArtist.org, for their support of the 2024–2025 season.
About the choir
The Emmanuel Choir is Maryland’s premier professional liturgical choral ensemble.
A 16-voice fully-professional mixed-voice ensemble, its 12-member core is augmented by four Choral Scholars, each a local young artist. Rooted in the great and expansive choral traditions of the Anglican (Episcopal) Church, the Emmanuel Choir’s repertoire spans the centuries — from Italian Renaissance to English Romantic; from plainsong to the 21st century — and includes regular world-premiere performances of new music composed for the church of today and tomorrow. The choir is directed by Christian Lane.
