Chamber Orchestra, Concert Choir to Perform Bach Mass

Although it is not performed often, Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor is considered by many to be his greatest musical composition.  In fact, the Mass is widely regarded by music historians as one of the supreme achievements in classical music.

Bach's Mass in B minor will be performed twice in upcoming concerts.  Illinois State University's Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Glenn Block, and Concert Choir, directed by Karyl Carlson, will perform the entire work at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall at ISU and at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 1, at the Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington.

Admission to each concert is $6 for the general public, $5 for faculty-staff and $4 for students and senior citizens.

Soloists will include Illinois State School of Music faculty members soprano Michelle Vought, tenor Christopher Hollingsworth, baritone John Koch, guest counter-tenor ISU alumnus Daniel Schuetz, organist Paul Borg and harpsichordist Carlyn Morenus.

Bach's Mass in B Minor embodies all the various styles and forms of the musical baroque period. Bach, the Lutheran, still felt moved to write a definite Catholic mass, intended for the church service.  The entire Mass was written in pieces over the last 25 years of the composer's life, was assembled in its current form a year before Bach died and was never performed as a whole during Bach's lifetime.  Sections of the work were performed but the entire composition was not performed, scholars say, until the middle of the 19th century.