Concert season begins 35th year of sacred music

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SALT LAKE CITY — The 35th annual concert season of the Choir of the Cathedral of the Madeleine featuring the Choristers of The Madeleine Choir School will offer, as in years past, “a variety of sacred works representing different historical and cultural traditions,” said Greg Glenn, the cathedral’s director of liturgy and music, who also is the choir school’s pastoral administrator.

“The Concert Series is an opportunity to offer the very best of sacred music, not necessarily music compatible with our liturgical rites today, but certainly music derived from and inspired by our great liturgical tradition,” he added.

The series will begin on Nov. 17 with the St. Cecilia’s Day Concert, which will present Franz Joseph Haydn’s “The Creation,” an oratorio that is “a celebration of God’s created order, made ever more poignant by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Sí,” Glenn said.

The Founders’ Day Concert on March 23 “will feature cathedral and mission music from the Americas, and some of the European repertoire that provided some inspiration for this distinctive literature from Central and South America,” he said, while the May 11 Madeleine Festival Concert “will focus on music from the 20th century, newer compositions from England and France, featuring the modern composers Jehan Alain, Francis Poulenc, Benjamin Britten and James MacMillan.”

The Concert Series will also be presenting three Christmas carol services with the music of G.P. Da Palestrina, Robert Parson and Eriks Esenvalds in addition to three performances of Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols.”

On Good Friday, which will be April 18 next year, the choir, as is tradition, will perform Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” “as a meditation on the Passion of the Lord,” Glenn said.

Also in the spring will be the Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities, which will include four performances as well as a lecture and panel discussion.

“We are so fortunate to make these major works of sacred music available to our community,” Glenn said, adding that donations and sponsorships “make these performances available to the larger community. None of this would be possible without the generosity of our benefactors and concert series supporters. It would also not be possible without the incredible support of the parents of the choristers, who make the participation of their children in this great work a reality at no little cost.”

Sacred music has been part of the Universal Church for centuries, a tradition noted in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, which was the first document to come out of Vatican II.

“In Chapter Six of this important teaching, we read, ‘The musical tradition of the Universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as sacred song united to the words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy,”’ Glenn said.

This statement “articulates why music is so crucial for our Catholic community, and identifies the great treasure that exists in the musical expression inspired by the liturgy over the centuries,” he added.

 Glenn invites everyone to attend the performances of this year’s concert season, which are free and open to the public.

 “With all that is so banal around us, I think we may acknowledge how music is so important: It celebrates, it mourns, it invites introspection and prayer, it expresses grief, and it calls us to deeper and richer engagement with emotions and feelings,” he said.

Performances

All performances at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, 309 E. South Temple, SLC unless otherwise noted.

St. Cecilia Day Concert: Sunday, Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m. Passes required.

Christmas Carol Service: Three performances - Tuesday, Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 18, 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday, Dec. 24, 4 p.m.

Benjamin’s Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols:” Three performances - Friday, Dec. 20 and Monday, Dec. 23 both at 12:15 p.m. at the cathedral; and Friday, Dec. 20, 6:30 p.m. at St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, 1505 W. White Pine Canyon Road, Park City

Eccles Organ Festival: Sundays, Nov. 10, Dec. 15, Jan. 12, Feb. 9 and March 9, 8 p.m. each night

Family Concert Series for ages 3 to 10: Friday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 1, 2 p.m.

Founder’s Day Concert: Sunday, March 23, 7:30 p.m.

Good Friday Choral Meditation: Friday, April 18, 3 p.m.; Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater”

The 2025 Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities: Sundays May 14-June 1; 7:30 p.m. each night

Madeleine Festival Concert: Sunday, May 11, 7:30 p.m.

All performances are free and open to the public. Complimentary passes are available to the public two weeks prior to each concert at www.utmcs.org. Early access passes are available for donors to the annual Friends of the Madeleine Choir School Campaign.