Queen City Sings will present Handel’s Messiah December 14 at 7 p.m. at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 2852 S. Dayton Avenue.
Queen City Sings is a new project of Queen City Chorale designed “as the anchor point for a performance that invites singers from all over the region, from all over the community to join us," said Kenny Korbach, artistic director of QCC.
Korbach is co-artistic director of the concert along with his colleague Dr. Perry Mears, a music professor at Missouri State University.
Many of the featured musicians in the project are also associated with Missouri State.
“I picked four soloists who are not only Missouri State University alum, but they are former singers in Queen City Chorale or current singers in the Queen City Chorale," said Korbach. “They're colleagues of mine. They're people I know and have sung with and trust very well and want to really be able to give them an opportunity like this. So really, it's a homecoming, bringing back some Missouri State Bears to come and really knock this out of the park."
The ensemble also includes vocalists from across the region.
“We have singers that are traveling up from Arkansas and from Oklahoma to sing with us. We have singers that are driving in for weekly rehearsals with us from Saint Louis, Kansas City, Rolla," said Korbach, "so there's a real investment from our musicians in this performance.”
In addition to the ensemble, Korbach said that there will be a variety of instrumentalists.
“We have an orchestra of pro players," he said. "Most of them are friends of ours from the Springfield Symphony and beyond who are going to join us. I think we have a 17-piece orchestra.”
Korbach said the event will be free and open to the public because he believes that “something like this needs to be a free offering to our community.”
He hopes it's "going to bring quite a diversity in the crowd," he said. “We want people of all backgrounds to be able to come in and rejoice and celebrate this art with us. So it is free and open to the public. We'll take donations, of course, but happy just to welcome whoever wants to show up.”
“It's really been a response to our community, to our audiences, to our stakeholders, to our singers who have been saying, 'when are you going to do Handel's Messiah?” said Korbach. “I've laughed about that because I thought, 'isn't everybody already doing Handel's Messiah?' Sure. And the answer is yes. And we want to keep doing it. They're doing it for a reason.”
“[Handel’s Messiah] is so iconic and well revered. It’s been the most well revered and performed oratorio for over 300 years," he said, "and so we're just excited to continue that legacy and put our own flavor and spin on it. I really found this as a perfect opportunity to launch Queen City Sings.”
