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Pasadena Presbyterian Church

Friends of Music Concerts

To receive season announcements and concert information we invite you to subscribe to our Music email list.  All Friends of Music events including Music at Noon concert information can be emailed to you.  To sign up click here.


 

Good Friday, April 2, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.

STABAT MATER

BY kARL jENKINS

When many people hear that a concert contains a piece of new music, they head for the exit doors — if they ever even got inside in the first place. However, PPC’s 13th annual Good Friday Devotional Concert on April 2 features a new work that — rather than causing you to flee — should be embraced with wide-open arms: a lush, evocative, dramatic setting of “Stabat Mater” by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins.  The hour-long work will be the centerpiece of the concert. After the performance, the church’s carillon will toll 33 times (to symbolize the 33 years of Jesus’ life) and the evening will conclude with the final chorus from Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion.” The concert is free of admission charges, although an offering will be taken to help defray expenses.

In addition to the Kirk Choir and about 20 guest singers and the Pasadena Singers, “Stabat Mater” uses two soloists and a 40-piece orchestra with a large percussion contingent that includes a number of instruments native to the Middle East. Dr. Timothy Howard will conduct.

To the original Latin words — a series of 20 couplets — Jenkins added six texts using English, Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, the language in the Middle East at the time Jesus was born. “One of the texts, ‘Are You Lost Out of Darkness?’ comes from the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” explains Jenkins, “the world’s oldest written story, recorded on clay tablets in the 7th century BCE and based on material from the third millennium BCE. “ Another section, “Now my life is only weeping is by Jalal al-Din Rumi, the 13th-century Persian mystic poet. Contrasting those ancient texts, “Lament” — perhaps the most haunting section in the entire work — was written by contemporary English composer and librettist Carol Barratt.

This is an evening you won’t want to miss — it will be the highlight of your Holy Week observances. It’s also a great chance to invite friends who aren’t members to experience the great music program at Pasadena Presbyterian Church


As Pasadena's first church, we have been a creative presence in downtown Pasadena since 1875.  The congregation's commitment to music and the arts finds voice in the final sentence of our mission statement:  By nurturing the mind and spirit, celebrating the creative arts and engaging in local and global mission, we proclaim hope.

One of the ways we seek to proclaim hope is by providing a Sacred Space for Music through The Friends of Music Concert Series.  This annual series of high-quality concerts presents visiting musicians and the church's own resident ensembles.  It also includes the popular Music at Noon concerts, in which musicians from our community and around the world present thirty-minute concerts each Wednesday at 12:10 pm.  These events reach far beyond the membership of the church, bringing music to many people in Pasadena and the surrounding area.      

We believe that fine music is for everyone, and because of that we don't sell tickets - all our concert events are free, enabling everyone to attend.

Our hope is that you will join us!



Every Wednesday
12:10-12:40 P.M.

MUSIC AT NOON

Come enjoy thirty minutes of exquisite music presented by performers from across Los Angeles and around the world.  

Free Admission 

Lunch follows each concert for a
$6 donation.

Click on the "Music at Noon" title to go to the artist calendar.

 


 


PPC'S Aeolian-Skinner Pipe Organ 
is enhanced by the "Echo Organ" which was installed in the rear balcony in 2003


 


The Friends of Music Series 
is an offering to the community as well as
an enrichment to the church's congregation. We hope you will plan to be with us as often as you can.

Click here to join our mailing list

  Become a Friend of Music – these concerts are offered free to everyone, so your assistance is needed to help meet the costs.   

For more information about the 
Friends of Music, or to make a donation to support this program, contact Director of Music, Timothy Howard
(626) 793-2191, ext. 243 


Or click here to send email 
to Timothy Howard