Chattanooga Bach Choir "Northern Lights"

The Chattanooga Bach Choir presents “Northern Lights,” a program of choral masterworks featuring music from the past and present. The concert takes place on Sunday, November 20, at 3:30 p.m., at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (305 W. 7th Street). There is a suggested donation of $20 at the door; students are free. For more information, visit www.chattanoogabachchoir.org.

The concert is conducted by David Long, Chattanooga Bach Choir’s artistic director, with organist Keith Reas, guest artist. Featuring choral works from Europe and North America, the program includes three motets by Renaissance master Josquin des Pres ("Ave Maria","Nunc dimittis", and "Victimae paschali laudes"); two chorales from J.S. Bach’s "St. Matthew Passion;" Ola Gjeilo’s "Northern Lights" and Morton Lauridsen’s "O Magnum Mysterium" and "Lux Aeterna".

David Long, Bach Choir’s artistic director, comments, “Our concert takes its title from Ola Gjeilo’s "Northern Lights" which draws its inspiration from the northern lights or aurora borealis of his Norwegian homeland. In fact, the composers on this program are all from Northern Europe or the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The music being performed features works by two masters from the past and two masterful living composers, spanning the centuries from the Renaissance and Baroque to the present. Both Josquin des Pres and J.S. Bach were known for their mastery of counterpoint and greatly influenced composers who came after them, as we can hear particularly in Lauridsen’s "Lux Aeterna". The first half of the concert follows the Christian Year or Life of Christ (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter). In this program, music of different eras speaks to us across the centuries and reaches our hearts through its spirituality and expressive beauty.”