On Friday, November 8, 2019 at 8:00 p.m., as the church remembers all the faithful departed during the month of November, Concerts at Saint Mary will present the Saint Mary Festival Choir as it performs Requiem, K. 626, for Choir, soloists and orchestra, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg for a Requiem service to commemorate the anniversary of his wife’s death, Mozart composed part of his setting of the Requiem Mass in Vienna during the latter part of 1791.  His work was left unfinished at the point of his death on December 5 of that same year.  Following Mozart’s death, Franz Xaver Süssmayr, a pupil of Mozart’s, completed the work in 1792 at the request of Mozart’s wife, Constanze, and was first performed as a public benefit in Constanze’s honor.  Due to the fragmented state of Mozart’s manuscript, in addition to the Süssmayr version, a number of alternative completions have been developed by musicologists in the 20^th century.

Joining the Saint Mary Festival Choir, Concerts at Saint Mary welcomes back guest soloists Aani Bourassa, Veronica Tschirhart, Allan Palacios Chan and Emmett Potts, as well as an orchestra comprised of musicians from the greater Fredericksburg area, all under the direction of Saint Mary’s Director of Music and Organist, David Uschold.  Following the concert there will be a reception in the Parish Life Center where there will be an opportunity to greet the performers and share fellowship.