A Burnaby choir director will be at the helm when two local choirs tackle one of the greatest works in the classical choral repertoire.
New Westminster's Amabilis Singers are joining forces with the Shaughnessy Heights United Church choir and the West Coast Symphony to present Mozart's Requiem on Saturday, March 31.
The groups will be under the direction of Ramona Luengen, artistic director of Amabilis and a Burnaby resident.
The concert is at Shaughnessy Heights United Church, 1550 West 33rd Ave. in Vancouver.
The Requiem has long been an intriguing part of choral history, as it was left unfinished at the time of Mozart's death on Dec. 5, 1791, at the age of 35.
He had been commissioned by Count Walsegg, an amateur flutist and cellist, to write a mass to be performed annually to commemorate the death of the count's young wife.
Mozart himself was not physically or emotionally well at the time - paranoid of being poisoned, he felt he was composing the Requiem for himself.
His wife, Constanze, was left with an incomplete score of the Requiem and asked other musicians - Mozart's pupil F.X. Freystädtler, his friend Joseph Eybler and copyist Franz Süssmayr - to complete the work based on Mozart's partial work.
Tickets for the Shaughnessy Heights performance are $20, or free for children under 12. They're available from choir members, at the door or by calling 604433-6538.
See www.amabilissingers.org.
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