The Windhoek-based Maranatha Singers, accompanied by the Namibian Chamber Ensemble, will be performing work by composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Windhoek next weekend.
On Friday, 13 and Saturday, 14 November, audiences will be treated Mozart’s 1768 work ‘The Missa Solemnis in C Minor’, which is also called ‘The Waisenhaus-Messe’.
Tickets for the mass, which will be conducted by Waldorf School teacher Konrad Hildesheimer, will cost N$100 for adults and N$50 for children and pensioners. They will be available at Computicket. The mass will commence at 19h30 on both nights.
The mass was composed by Mozart, who was 12 years old at the time, in response to a request by a priest who asked the composer for music for the consecration of the new orphanage church and was first performed by a choir of orphans. It was conducted by Mozart.
The work is made up of six parts which last about 40 minutes. It comprises Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei.
Audiences will also hear the Te Deum Laudamus by Mozart as well, two choruses from 18th century composer George Frideric Handel’s messiah and 19th century composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ Tollite Hostias.
The mass is in honour of the Maranatha Singers’ 10th anniversary. The group describe themselves as “a multi-cultural, autonomous adult mixed choir” and was founded in June 2005.
Their aims are to “be a bridge-builder across language, religious and cultural boundaries locally and abroad, to portray the cultural diversity of Namibia and Africa through song and dance and to be used by the Holy Spirit to minister through song, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.
They are part of a larger collective of Maranatha Singers as it was founded in the 70s in the United States.
For more information, contact Evy George at 081 255 4072 or Ivan Scheffers at 081 870 1948.
– @MissAnneDastood on Twitter
