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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

The following preview article will be presented in two installments. Later this month, the William Baker Festival Singers will present a concert of Bach’s immortal Mass in B Minor. Looking forward to that concert, Music Director William Baker spoke with our choral/vocal writer R. Douglas Helvering about the work and his organization’s preparation for this momentous event.

Capping one of Kansas City’s busiest and most advantageous months of choral music performances in recent history, the William Baker Festival Singers, along with distinguished guest soloists and members of the Kansas City Symphony, will present one of the most respected and cherished choral works in western music history, the Mass in B Minor of Johann Sebastian Bach. 

The William Baker Festival Singers is a 50-voice choir that specializes in memorized concerts of sacred, short-form a cappella repertoire.  Traditionally, they also present one concert per year focused on one or more masterworks for chorus and orchestra or chorus and organ.  Recent concerts here in Kansas City have included standard repertoire works such as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Durufle’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, and Haydn’sTe Deum.  They have also performed some lesser known modern works that have included Kodaly’s Laudes Organi and Bernstein’s Missa Brevis.  

 A national organization, the William Baker Choral Foundation is a based in Roeland Park, KS and currently sponsors seven choirs based in three states. The Festival Singers (www.festivalsingers.org) is the flagship ensemble of the organization. They are planning to add three more ensembles this coming fall for a total of ten choirs under their umbrellar. Additionally, the Choral Foundation sponsors Amber Waves Music Publishing, a year-round student intern program that alternates annually between Kansas City and Atlanta, and consulting services nationwide for community and church music organizations.

Music director and co-founder Dr. William Baker said that an emphasis on repertoire is a defining characteristic of the work of the Festival Singers. As with many choirs, they program unaccompanied repertoire from all periods, including leading 21st century composers. But a core value of the chorus is a scholarly investment in authentic performances of American folk hymns from the Southern or “Sacred Harp” traditions, African-American spirituals, and gospel music. Baker added, “I have a great affection for African-American music, and I am determined to do my best to approach it with the same dedication to authenticity and scholarship that I seek to apply to the works of Bach and Mozart.”

So, how does a performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor fit in with the mission and scope of the Festival Singers? Baker considers the performance of masterworks one of the key missions of his organization. “I think it is very important that we provide a forum where these great works can be performed in Kansas City for Kansas City audiences by Kansas City performers.” According to Dr. Baker, this performance of the Mass in B Minor will be the first performance by Kansas City-based musicians in over two decades. “It is a wonderful thing to have great touring ensembles from the coasts and from Europe to perform these great works here in the heartland, but it is critically important that our own community is able and willing to invest the money, the effort, the artistry, and the energy to mount such performances ourselves.”

In addition to performances, Baker explained that music education is also a critical mission of the Choral Foundation. Only a handful of the Festival Singers members, who are largely college-educated musicians, have performed this work. Preparing and performing it is a life-changing experience. “I believe that great music changes lives and destinies. I believe that great music and art changes communities. Changing lives, changing destinies, and changing communities is what the Choral Foundation and the Festival Singers is all about.”

The Festival Singers, now in their 11th season, has consistently programmed repertoire that many similar organizations wouldn’t dare attempt. The Mass in B Minor is one of the greatest achievements (and hardest works to perform) of western civilization. Baker feels that it is a thrilling opportunity and a humbling responsibility to bring the work to our home city. “It is a responsibility that I take seriously, not just for the musical community that I serve, but for my own children and for their children who I hope will make this great community their home as well.”

Log on to www.kcmetropolis.org next week to read the conclusion of this preview article, as Dr. Baker discusses his reasons for programming the work, his approach to the performance, the work’s sacred ramifications, and his favorite sections of the work. 

The William Baker Festival Singers
William O. Baker, conductor
Mass in B Minor, BWV 242
By Johann Sebastian Bach
Tuesday , March 31at 7:30 p.m.
Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral
Broadway at 13th Street in Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 913.403.9223 or online at www.festivalsingers.org  

By R. Douglas Helvering

Classical and Vocal Contributor (Past writer)

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