Rockefeller Memorial Chapel will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the gift that established the chapel with a winter concert on Sunday, Dec. 5.
Carillon music beginning at 2:45 p.m. will precede the 3 o’clock concert, which will feature the Rockefeller Chapel Choir, the E.M. Skinner Pipe Organ and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Carillon. Among the works presented will be Bach’s “Magnificat” and the world premiere of Cary Boyce’s “Lux” for double choir and organ.
Boyce is the winner of the first Rockefeller Chapel Choir and Organ Commission competition. Following the restoration and rededication of the E.M. Skinner organ, an endowment was established for the commissioning of contemporary works for choir and organ. It allows students to take part in musical history in a way that will both shape their lives and also mark the University’s international prominence as a center for the study and practice of the arts. Already, four works have received their world premieres since the establishment of the endowment.
Boyce is artistic co–director and composer–in–residence of the production company and musical ensemble Aguavá New Music Studio, which specializes in projects involving contemporary music. Boyce’s music has been heard around the world, on nationally syndicated public radio and television, in concert and festivals, and in two films by director Evelyne Clavaud. Other artists for the evening will include the Rockefeller Chapel Choir, under the direction of James Kallembach; University Organist Thomas Weisflog; and Assistant University Carillonneur James Fackenthal.
Tickets for the concert are available only at the door and are $22, $12 for seniors and free to students. A reception will follow in Ida Noyes Hall. For more information on the evening’s musical program, visit http://rockefeller.uchicago.edu/.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
