Birmingham-Southern College will present Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem” at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 3 at Canterbury United Methodist Church. The performance serves as the principal spring term concert for Birmingham-Southern’s Concert Choir and Southern Chorale, which will be joined by the Canterbury Choir and several BSC choir alumni. The performance is free and open to the public.

Dr. Lester Seigel ’79, Hugh Thomas Professor of Music and director of the Concert Choir, will serve as the conductor, and Daniel Seigel ’02 (baritone) and Kathleen Buccleugh (soprano) will be the featured soloists. Southern Chorale is directed by Quint Harris, adjunct professor of music, who has also led ear training. The orchestra is made up of Alabama Symphony Orchestra members as well as other professional players in the area. Five adjunct professors at BSC will also be in the orchestra, including James Baker (French horn), Jay Burnham (orchestral percussion), Zakaria Enikeev (viola), James Sullivan (oboe), and Abigail Workman (harp).

“It’s never a difficult decision to choose this work, which is widely-acknowledged as among the greatest major choral works for orchestra in the classical music repertoire,” Dr. Seigel says about the Brahms piece. “Its message is a timeless one, and unique in being focused on the mourner more than the soul of the departed, which is at the center of the liturgical Requiem Mass.”

Philip C. Jackson, Jr. ’49, former BSC trustee and member of Canterbury, approached Dr. Seigel years ago about performing this work, which is one of the main reasons “A German Requiem” was selected. Jackson has sponsored the production and is a musician himself, having completed many of the courses offered in the Department of Music.

“It’s hard to express what a generous gift this is by him to the students, the church, and the community, but I believe he is moved to do so, as I am, because he simply loves this work and knows its power to move and enrich others,” Dr. Seigel says.

Though a well-adapted English translation was an option for the performance, the experience of the original language was important to the students when choosing the piece.

“There is a compelling argument for singing the work in English for American audiences, but we are choosing to perform it in the original German, primarily for the esthetic goal of singing the original words to Brahms’ music,” Dr. Seigel says.

This concert serves as the spring performance for Southern Chorale, a choir of BSC students who also perform at the annual Service of Lessons and Carols in December. The Concert Choir joins them and often performs alongside the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, also travelling to multiple performances throughout the academic year.

All involved in the production are looking forward to the collaboration between so many Birmingham musicians on this large and beautiful work.

“One can hear many fine recordings of classical music, but a large work, presented live and well-prepared, is still unreproducible by technology,” Dr. Seigel says. “There is a symbiosis between performer and audience that is palpable. The satisfaction students have of a job well-done, a mountain climbed, is another joy.”