Duke Chapel will host the U.S. premiere of Scottish composer James MacMillan's new "St. Luke Passion" at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 13.
The commissioned piece offers a fresh and dramatic interpretation of the Apostle Luke's biblical account of Christ's suffering and death. The Palm Sunday performance will involve the Duke Chapel Choir, the Durham Children's Choir with the Riverside High School Sirens, and Orchestra Pro Cantores. Rodney Wynkoop, director of Chapel Music, will conduct.
Tickets to the concert are $20 general admission and $5 for students. They are available at the Duke Box Office (http://tinyurl.com/olf9ns4) or by calling (919) 684-4444.
"Dr. MacMillan has created visceral music that casts the words of Luke's Gospel in highly textured, vivid and expressive music that captures the agony and drama of Christ's final days on earth," said Wynkoop. "The words of Christ are presented in the pure sounds of a children's choir, while the Chapel Choir describes the action and the orchestra enfolds the choirs in graphic, sonorous and highly coloristic sounds."
The commissioning of "St. Luke Passion" was shared by Duke Divinity School, Duke University, Soli Deo Gloria, the Concertgebouw/Zaterday Matinee Series of the Netherlands, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia.
The concert is the culmination of a series of events taking place from April 9-13, "Sounding the Passion: Encounters in Poetry, Theology and Music," a product of a four-year interdisciplinary theology and arts collaboration between Duke and Cambridge universities.
The events are sponsored by a Visiting Artist Grant from the Arts Council, Office of the Provost; by Duke Divinity School, Duke Chapel and the Duke University Music Department, in collaboration with Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts.
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