Concerts 2010-2011
All performances begin at 7 p.m.
“Live Program Notes” at 6:15 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010

Musica Sacra opens its 20th-anniversary season with a regional premiere of a work by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and a rarely heard masterpiece by Claudio Monteverdi. Charpentier’s In Honorem Sancti Xaverii Canticum was written to honor St. Francis Xavier, one of the earliest Jesuits, and is especially appropriate for Musica Sacra’s 20th-anniversary season and the Centennial celebration of Rockhurst University. Monteverdi’s Messa a 4 voci da cappella, published in 1641, displays the composer’s superb sense of contrapuntal technique and expressive style.

Friday, Dec. 3, 2010

Musica Sacra presents its popular annual Christmas concert by performing works from the Italian and French baroque.  Charpentier’s In Nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Canticum (Song of the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.) is both charming and lovely. Antonio Vivaldi’s brilliant and popular Gloria in D Major, RV 589 is remarkable for its vibrant instrumental and vocal colors. The work utilizes techniques appropriate to both sacred and operatic styles prevalent in northern Italyin the early 18th century. The concert concludes with traditional Christmas carols.

Friday, Feb. 18 , 2011

Musica Sacra performs Franz Joseph Haydn’s Salve Regina in G Minor, the later of two settings of the Marian antiphon. Completed in 1771, the lyrical work sets the prayerful text both impressively and expressively. Dietrich Buxtehude’s Alles was ihr tut features music by a composer who had a direct and profound influence on Johann Sebastian Bach.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

To conclude its 20th-anniversary season, Musica Sacra performs the profound and ever-popular Requiem in D Minor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Incomplete at the time of his death, the composition was finished by Mozart’s students and been one of the icons of classical music ever since. In addition, the ensemble will present Mozart’s Missa Brevis in F, K. 192.