2017–18 Season

Te Deum Chamber Choir offered a choral reflection for the Lenten season with James MacMillan’s virtuosic masterpiece depicting the crucified Christ’s final utterances. Commissioned by BBC Television in 1994, it was first heard in seven nightly episodes broadcast for English audiences during that year’s Holy Week, and has been described by reviewers as “mesmerizing” and “deeply, deeply moving” with “an inexorable sense of the drama in the text.” “It is not easy,” one critic has noted, “but what riches there are for those who scale these heights!” 

Te Deum Chamber Choir put the exclamation point on its 10th season with a program that showcased wide-​ranging repertoire for choir and organ. The program included William Walton’s The Twelve, James MacMillan’s Te Deum, and works by Tavener, Pärt, McDowell, and Dove. Concluding the concert was a commissioned piece by award-​winning German composer Ingrid Stölzel, with a text written in celebration of Te Deum’s 10th season by Dr. Robert Bode. “To Light the World” introduced Kansas City audiences to organist and composer Kurt Knecht, who brings national acclaim for his composing, teaching, and organ playing. 

It was against the law to be Catholic in Elizabethan England, so William Byrd composed Masses in secret. He composed a series of three Catholic Masses between 1592 and 1595, secretly presented in private homes to evade the possibility of imprisonment for treason. Byrd’s deeply personal and devout Masses represent a remarkable portrait of faith in a time of religious persecution. This concert featured Byrd’s evocative Mass for Five Voices, and included the proper motets and chants for a complete service.