'Bach at the Sem' begins 20th season of concerts

Bach at the Sem, a series of Sunday-afternoon concerts presented by Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and the American Kantorei, begins its 20th season this fall.
 
The concerts — scheduled for Oct. 28, Dec. 2, March 24 and April 28 — begin at 3 p.m. in the seminary’s Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus. There is no charge to attend the events, but a free-will offering is taken.
 
Dr. Martin Dicke, director of the Peoria, Ill., Bach Festival, will be guest conductor for the Oct. 28 concert. Performances will include two cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, “Wachet! Betet!” (“Watch! Pray!”) and “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott” (“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”). In keeping with the Reformation Sunday emphasis, Heinrich Schütz’s motet for unaccompanied choir, “Herr, auf dich traue ich” (“Lord, in Thee Do I Trust”), also will be performed.
 
The American Kantorei, the performing group of Bach at the Sem, was founded in 1969 by its first musical director, the Rev. Robert Bergt, a member of the Concordia Seminary faculty. Following a hiatus of some 20 years, the Kantorei resumed performing in 1993 and has since presented nearly 100 concerts of the music of Bach and other Lutheran composers.
 
Maestro Bergt died in 2011, and the chorus is now prepared for each concert by Dr. Jeral Becker, director of choral and vocal activities at Saint Louis University.
 
For more information about the concerts, call 314-505-7009, send an email to brewerm@csl.edu or visit http://bach.csl.edu.

Posted Oct. 12, 2012

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