Vox Musica Choral Society to host Requiem performance

By Lethbridge Herald on March 20, 2026.

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Lethbridge Herald

Vox Musica Choral Society, joined by Musaeus String Quartet, local musicians and soloists Peter Monaghan and Reid Roberts, will present “Requiem” at Southminster United Church on March 28. 

Vox Musica’s musical director, Joanne Collier says the program is suitable for the period before Easter.  

“We are doing Gabriel Fauré’s exquisite ‘Requiem’ which is a requiem mass, a mass for the dead,” says Collier. 

She says that since Easter time is about death and resurrection, the Requiem it is fitting for the concert. 

First performed in 1888 at a funeral service at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, the Requiem has undergone several revisions over time, with this performance edited by John Rutter being very close to Fauré’s 1893 version. 

“What’s different about this mass, from the regular mass that would be said at a Catholic funeral service for example, is that the composer chose different texts. It’s not the standard mass text,” says Collier. 

She says instead of focusing on the darkness of death, this work focusses on hope, light and peace. 

“The music is timeless and exquisite. Fauré chose to leave out many parts of the traditional liturgy that depict hell and damnation, choosing instead to lead us on a journey of longing, sorrow, hope, and eventually, a beautiful and blissful peace,” says Collier. 

When talking about the concert, Collier shares that there will be something unique taking place. In the Requiem, there is a soprano solo that is usually sang by a female, but during this concert it will be sang by a young boy. 

“We’ll have young treble Reid Roberts, who is 12 years old, singing with us joining Peter Monaghan, our bass soloist,” says Collier. 

She adds that for the Requiem singers will be joined by Southminster’s Casavant pipe organ and a small string orchestra.

Also joining the choir will be Musaeus String Quartet, now establishing themselves as MSQ, and will offer Puccini’s Crisantemi, an elegy written on the death of the composer’s friend and named after the traditional Italian flower of mourning. 

The quartet will also collaborate with the choir on Mozart’s Ave verum corpus which was written towards the end of this composer’s life and according to Vox Musica, is arguably one of the most simple and perfect works of his extraordinary career. 

Complementing the ‘Requiem’ will be four pieces, one of them is Felix Mendelssohn’s 8-voice a cappella motet, Richte, Mich Gott, a setting of Psalm 43 and prayer for deliverance seeking light and truth.

Another one is Cantique de Jean Racine, a heartfelt prayer for light and guidance written when the young Fauré was only 19 years old.

Another one is The Ground, based on the final movement from Ola Gjeilo’s “Sunrise Mass”, conveying a message of peace and the idea of being grounded at the end of a long, emotional journey.

The concert will take place on March 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southminster United Church.