By The Catholic Week
Musica Sacra Choir and Chamber Orchestra is beginning its 36th season and will perform “An Evening of Gabriel Fauré” at 7 p.m. Aug. 4 at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Mobile (217 South Sage Ave.,).
All are invited to attend and donations will be accepted at the door.
Musica Sacra Choir and Chamber Orchestra was founded by current music director and conductor, Christopher Uhl in 1987 as an offering to enrich the cultural life of the City of Mobile.
It has always maintained its four-fold mission: to perform music of the 18th century and other periods in visual and acoustical settings similar to those in which they were premiered; to offer the opportunity for significant artistic endeavor to singers and players living among us; to preserve for our fellows and our children a glimpse into the greatness of our Western cultural tradition; and to provide to the public at little or no charge entertainment which ennobles and inspires, free of the vice and violence increasingly present in the popular culture.
With an orchestra consisting of area musicians, including from the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, organist Clinton Doolittle, as well as soloists Mollie Adams and Xavier Johnson, the ensemble features four works of Gabriel Fauré. The Requiem and Three Eucharistic Motets that comprise the program contain soaring melodies, serene moments and subtle climaxes of dramatic power, for which Fauré is celebrated.
Performing his works in the reverberant acoustic of St. Pius X Catholic Church will create sounds not unlike those Fauré would have experienced as organist at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris.