Some spaces lend themselves to better acoustics, and that is what Grande Prairie Singers is focusing on for its second concert of the 2023-24 season.
Music for a Great Space on April 7 at St. Veronica Parish in Flossmoor features approximately 40 members from the performing aspect of Grande Prairie Choral Arts.
“It’s a very wide church and a very beautiful church. It has an open space. The music is all sacred music of a variety of styles,” said David L. Brunner, Grande Prairie Singers’ artistic director.
“They’ve always said the sound in there is very warm and resonant and very inviting for singers. I thought the pieces I chose would really be enhanced by that acoustic.”
Music for a Great Space includes guest vocalist Kimberly McCord, a soprano and Lyric Opera Chorus member.
She will be featured on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Laudate Dominum” from “Vesperae solennes de confessore (Solemn Vespers for a Confessor)” and “Alleluia” from “Exsultate, jubilate (Exult, rejoice).
“The centerpiece, which is the feature of the program, is four pieces by Mozart, who is obviously a very well-known classical composer, who also wrote pieces for church, for choirs,” said Brunner, who splits his time between residences in Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood and Peotone.
Mark Sudeith, guest organist for Music for a Great Space, performs on three pieces including Florence B. Price’s Suite No. 1 for organ.
“A manuscript of this little organ suite was gifted to him by a friend of Florence Price so he’s playing from the original manuscript from Florence Price,” said Brunner about the late Chicago-based composer, who was the first Black woman to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra.
“That’s one of the more distinctive, one of the more interesting pieces on the program.”
Healey Willan’s Hymn-Anthem on the tune “Lobe den Herren (Praise to the Lord)” and Brunner’s “A Divine Voice Sings Through All Creation” also feature Sudeith.
“The opening piece is by Healey Willan, a Canadian composer. It’s a piece where the organ is prominent and a choir sings this familiar hymn tune as part of that fabric,” said Brunner, whose upcoming gigs include being an adjudicator/clinician for the WorldStrides choral festival in late April in Chicago.
“My piece is the last piece in the program. It’s a rather virtuosic organ part and a very strong choral part. I wrote it a number of years ago for a large church in Tennessee. I thought these two organ pieces would be a nice framework for the beginning and end of the concert.”
Music for a Great Space pays homage to composer Alice Parker – who died Dec. 24, 2023 – with her arrangement of the a cappella “Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal.”
The concert also includes Ola Gjeilo’s “Ubi Caritas” featuring Grande Prairie Singers’ accompanist Justin DeAngelo, a pianist who is St. Veronica Parish’s music director.
“It’s about an hour program,” said Brunner, conductor for Music for a Great Space.
Grande Prairie Singers, which rehearses at Shir Tikvah in Homewood, welcomes new members throughout the season.
Members include Beecher, Flossmoor, Homewood, Park Forest, Richton Park and Orland Park residents.
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Music for a Great Space
When: 3 p.m. April 7
Where: St. Veronica Parish, 1131 Douglas Ave., Flossmoor
Tickets: free
Information: 708-840-8444; gpsings.com
