The Drake University Chamber Choir, choirs from four Des Moines area high schools, and a professional orchestra will perform Gabriel Faure’s well-known Requiem at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, under the direction of Aimee Beckmann-Collier, director of choral studies at Drake.
The performance will be held at St. Ambrose Cathedral, 607 High St., in downtown Des Moines. There is no admission charge, although a freewill offering will be taken to help defray concert costs.
The high school choirs involved in the performance include:
- Dowling Catholic Chamber Choir (Dowling High School; Quinn Tipping, conductor)
- Urbandale Singers (Urbandale High School; Ted Brimeyer, conductor)
- Valley Singers (Valley High School; Haley Gibbons, conductor)
- Waukee A Cappella Choir (Waukee High School; Stephen Brandt, conductor)
During the Requiem, the groups will be accompanied by an orchestra of professional musicians hired by Aimee Beckmann-Collier, director of the Drake Chamber Choir. The performance will also include individual pieces by each of the choirs.
In order to more deeply appreciate Faure’s music and his message about life and death, audience members are invited to a pre-concert presentation by two Drake University faculty members. This pre-concert presentation is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. in the Parish Center of St. Ambrose Cathedral, located just west of the church.
Allen Zagoren, a practicing physician who chairs the Master of Public Administration program in Drake University’s College of Business and Public Administration, and Timothy Knepper, chair of Drake’s Department of Philosophy and Religion and director of The Comparison Project at Drake University, will lead this interactive introduction to the Requiem.