Singers, musicians to present John Rutter’s Requiem

The First Congregational Church of Torrington will host a choral and music concert of John Rutter’s Requiem on Palm Sunday, April 9 at 3 p.m.

Directed by Ken Beyer, First Congregational Church’s choir will be joined by singers and instrumentalists from area churches, including: soprano solists Patricia Roach and Calista Oria; organist Laurie Hall; pianist Mary Lou Keefe; cello soloist Thirzah Bendokas; oboe soloist David Hall; and pianist Anne Voglewede Green.

The concert will also feature “The Heavens Are Telling” by Franz Josef Haydn and the First Church Crossroads Worship Band

There is no admission charge and the public is welcome. A free will offering will be collected to benefit Charlotte Hungerford Hospital’s Center for Cancer Care. A reception follows the concert. The church is located at 835 Riverside Avenue. For information, call 860-482-4705 or 860496-1289.

About John Rutter, from johnrutter.com/biograpy: John Rutter was born in London in 1945 and received his first musical education as a chorister at Highgate School. He went on to study music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he wrote his first published compositions and conducted his first recording while still a student. His compositional career has embraced both large and small-scale choral works, orchestral and instrumental pieces, a piano concerto, two children’s operas, music for television, and specialist writing for such groups as the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the King’s Singers.

His larger choral works, Gloria (1974), Requiem (1985), Magnificat (1990), Psalmfest (1993) and Mass of the Children (2003) have been performed many times in Britain, North America, and a growing number of other countries. He co-edited four volumes in the Carols for Choirs series with Sir David Willcocks, and, more recently, has edited the first two volumes in the new Oxford Choral Classics series, Opera Choruses (1995) and European Sacred Music (1996). From 1975 to 1979 he was Director of Music at Clare College, whose choir he directed in a number of broadcasts and recordings.

After giving up the Clare post to allow more time for composition, he formed the Cambridge Singers as a professional chamber choir primarily dedicated to recording, and he now divides his time between composition and conducting. He has guest-conducted or lectured at many concert halls, universities, churches, music festivals, and conferences in Europe, Africa, North and Central America and Australasia. In 1980 he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians. In 1996 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music. He was honored in the 2007 Queen’s New Year Honours List, being awarded a CBE for services to music.