Sep

1

A conversation with Jacob Bancks

Filed Under Bancks: Mass for All Saints, Videos, Interviews | 2 Comments

Soli Deo Gloria CEO Chandler Branch speaks with composer Jacob Bancks in advance of the world premiere of Mass for All Saints, a work written by Bancks under commission from Soli Deo Gloria.


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The premiere performance of Jacob Bancks’ Mass for All Saints will take place at 7 p.m. on Sunday, September 20, 2009, at St. John Berchmans Church in Chicago, Illinois, and will feature the Millennium Chamber Players and soloists, Jennifer Macfarlane-Haworth, Joanna Wernette and Brad Jungwirth, all under the direction of conductor Robert Katkov-Trevino. The program will also include a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. Tickets are available for purchase from St. John Berchmans Church, in person or by phone at: St. John Berchmans Church, 2517 W. Logan Blvd., Chicago (773) 486-4300.

Aug

17

Tickets now available for Bancks’ Mass for All Saints, Mozart’s Requiem

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BANCKS: MASS FOR ALL SAINTS / MOZART: REQUIEM
Millennium Chamber Players
conducted by Robert Katkov-Trevino
soloists: Jennifer Macfarlane-Haworth, Joanna Jamroziak
and Brad Jungwirth

Tickets are now available for the Millennium Chamber Players’ performance of Mozart’s Requiem, and the world premiere of Jacob Bancks’ Mass for All Saints, a work commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria. We invite you to join us at St. John Berchmans Church in Chicago on Sunday evening, September 20, to celebrate the SDG mission in action! With SDG projects more frequently culminating elsewhere around the world, we are especially excited to welcome the birth of Mr. Bancks’ SDG-sponsored work in our home town of Chicago!

Tickets for the Sunday, September 20 performance are $20 each (General Admission) until August 31, 2009. After August 31, 2009, tickets are $25 each. Cash, Check, Visa, or Mastercard accepted.

St. John Berchmans Church, ChicagoTickets may be purchased in person or by phone at:

St. John Berchmans Church
2517 W. Logan Blvd., Chicago
(773) 486-4300

Office Hours for St. John Berchmans Church:
M-F, 9:00am-8:30pm
Sat, 9:00am-6:00pm
Sun, 8:00am-1:00pm

Click here for more info on Jacob Bancks’ Mass for All Saints.

Feb

20

SDG commissions ‘Mass for All Saints’ by Jacob Bancks

Filed Under Bancks: Mass for All Saints, Commissions | Leave a Comment

Fra Angelico’s 'All Saints'
Soli Deo Gloria has commissioned award-winning composer Jacob Bancks to write a six movement mass for choir, soloists and chamber orchestra titled Mass for All Saints. Meditative, celebratory, reverent and joyous - Bancks’ new work is inspired by images of all the saints gathered in heaven. “…and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne…” Religious art depicting this description of “the great multitude” from the Book of Revelation stirs the composer’s thoughts as he completes the new work.

Jacob Bancks comments on the inspiration behind Mass for All Saints:

Jacob Bancks - photo: Artistic depictions of the saints intrigue me to no end. In my work as a church musician in the Archdiocese of Chicago, I’ve had the opportunity to see scads of religious art, good and bad, at dozens of parishes. While statues, paintings, and stained glass windows of individual saints can be interesting in themselves, I personally find any representation of a host of saints — all the saints — overwhelmingly fascinating. Rather than replicating their earthly lives (like the ubiquitous statues of St. Francis of Assisi, animals in tow), depictions of all the saints show them gathered in the afterlife, a motley crowd of extremely diverse, extremely imperfect people from every era, nation and race.”

The premiere performance of Mass for All Saints will take place on Sunday, September 20, 2009, at 7:00 p.m., at St. John Berchmans Church in Chicago. Conductor and Artistic Director Robert Katkov-Trevino will lead the Millennium Chamber Players in a program that will also include Mozart’s Requiem.

Award-winning composer Jacob Bancks, whose upcoming premieres include performances with the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley and eighth blackbird, holds the positions of 2008-09 composer-in-residence for the Millennium Chamber Players and Director of Music at St. John Berchmans Church in Chicago. Bancks’ SDG-commissioned piano concerto Lumen de Lumine received its premiere by the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra in March 2008. Click here for photos, videos and reports.