Anna Thomas, FPC music director, will conduct the first half of the concert, and Andrew Duncan, FUMC music director, will conduct the four-movement “Sunrise Mass.” (Submitted photo)
The combined choirs of First Presbyterian and First United Methodist churches will sing the “Sunrise Mass” by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo during a concert on Sunday, May 18, at 6:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church.
String players from the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and FUMC’s Sandi Henry on piano will accompany the choirs. The 32-minute symphony mass will be performed in the second half of the concert.
The first half of the concert will include choral music by various composers, including “Ave Verum Corpus” by W.A. Mozart, Dan Forrest’s setting of John Wesley’s “Covenant Prayer,” and Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of Isaac Watts’ version of Psalm 23, as well as works by Kevin Siegfried, Philip R. Dietterich, and Stephen Paulus.
“Sunrise Mass” is a spiritually uplifting work, neither expressly sacred nor secular. The four movements of the work develop from a sense of the cosmos to an affirmation of the earth, from the echo of “The Spheres” to the reassuring themes of “Identity and the Ground,” according to a news release.
The FUMC choir conductor is Andrew Duncan, and Anna Thomas is the director of the First Presbyterian Church choir. Childcare will be provided during the concert.
First United Methodist Church is located at 1350 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
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