CONCERT INFORMATION

SUNDAY, MARCH 16 • 3-4PM

The Chancel Choir of Baker Memorial United Methodist Church under the direction of Jeff Hunt with special guests the Metropolis Orchestra will perform the classic work “Mozart’s Requiem” at 3 pm, Sunday, March 16, 2025. The performance features local soloists: soprano Laura Johnson, alto Margaret Fox, tenor Bryan Kunstman, and bass Jess Koehn. The concert will serve as a kick-off fundraiser for a much-needed boiler for the beautiful classic building.

Suggested donation is $20 per person.

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We invite you to be a valued sponsor of our upcoming performance of Mozart’s Requiem. Your support helps us bring this masterpiece to life.

ABOUT OUR MOZART’S REQUIEM CONCERT

Our March 16th performance at 3pm of Mozart’s Requiem will be given to raise money for a much-needed boiler for our church. You may wonder, why Mozart? Besides the fact that the work is a masterpiece of Sacred music performed thousands of times since its creation, it also carries a great deal of mystery as to its origins and completion. So, too does our boiler surround itself with mystery as we just don’t know when it will boil its last.

The concert’s goal is to raise $10,000 towards the establishment of a new boiler fund. Constructed by the Kewanee Boiler Corporation of Kewanee, IL, the FE394L Firebox Boiler was installed between 1951-52 in the basement of Baker Memorial United Methodist Church. 70+ years and countless repairs later, the boiler—held together by glue and prayer— is ready to be retired. Build in the early 1950’s through the philanthropy of Colonel Edward Baker, the gothic church building serves as the meeting place and performance place for many community organizations and civic groups like St. Charles Singers, Illinois Brass Band, Chamber Music on the Fox, St. Charles North High School, Thompson Middle School, Pottawattamie Garden Club, Kiwanis, PEO and more, as well as the growing congregation that calls the 307 Cedar Avenue building its home for worship, fellowship and ministry. Your generous donation will provide for the next generation of warmth and comfort throughout the church building.

Suggested donation is $20. Donations can be made on the day of the concert or online here.

The concert will be followed by a reception in Baker Hall with refreshments and light desserts.

A LITTLE ABOUT MOZART

One of the most compelling aspects of W.A Mozart’s Requiem is the mystery surrounding its origin and completion. What we do know is that in the Spring or Summer of 1791, Mozart received an anonymous commission to write a Requiem Mass. It turns out that the commission came from Count Franz Walsegg-Stuppbach who wanted the work in memory of his wife, Anna who recently passed.

1791 was the last year of Mozart’s life as he died December 5th but the year was filled with a flourish of activity as he completes two operas, a Clarinet concerto and other works. He set off writing the Requiem and true to his compositional practice, would attend to other works and then go back. We can be relatively certain that he completed, in full, the “Introit”, “Requiem Aeternam” and “Kyrie”. Vocal parts and figured basso continuo exist in his hand of movements of the Sequence that include “Dies Irae”, “Tuba Mirum”, “Rex Tremendae”, “Recordare”, “Confutatis” and “Lacrimosa” and from the Offertorium, “Domine Deus” and “Hostias.”

After Mozart’s death, his wife Constanze Mozart first asked Mozart’s student Joseph Leopold Von Eybler to complete the work. He accepted at first but withdrew. She ended up giving the task to Franz Xaver Sϋssmayr to complete the work. In my opinion, Sϋssmayr was the perfect choice. He was not recognized as a prominent composer, but in the last year of Mozart’s life, he spent a great deal of time with Mozart as he copied, haste for performance, many of Mozart’s final works, including his operas, and knew Mozart’s musical language well. I also believe, that by spending the time he did with Mozart at the end, it’s very possible Mozart shared his vision for the Requiem in whole and even shared musical concepts with his student. We shall never really know. My experience of preparing or conducting the Requiem nearly 10 times and conducting all of Mozart’s sacred music tells me that I hear Mozart’s voice, even in part, in all of the movements in this masterpiece.

His final year had to be filled with much hope as he was finally given a position in Vienna, as he was appointed deputy Kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. Mozart spent much of his early career writing and playing for the Cathedrals in Salzburg so this would have been a return of sorts to his roots. Mozart is primarily known to us today for this Symphonies, Operas, Pianos Concertos and a host of other instrumental and vocal works. However Mozart wrote 57 sacred works including 16 Masses, 4 Litanies, 3 Vespers and of course his Requiem. Had Mozart lived longer than just 35 years, who knows how many more beautiful works of sacred music Mozart would have completed.