Birmingham-Southern and Canterbury United Methodist Present “A German Requiem”

For Immediate Release
Mar. 21, 2022

Birmingham-Southern College will present Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem” at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 3 at Canterbury United Methodist Church. The College’s Concert Choir and Southern Chorale will be joined by the Canterbury Choir and several BSC choir alumni for the performance. The event is free and open to the public, and no registration is required.

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 join 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 and has sponsored this collaboration between the College’s students and alumni and local musicians.

“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.”

Media contact: Amy Bickers Abeyta, AVP of Communications, [email protected] or 205-226-4922.