Christmas through the Ages

It's been a tradition as Sacred Heart for at least fifty years. On Friday evening, December 1, the seminary sponsored its annual Christmas concert, enjoyed by a chapel full of attendees from across the metro Detroit area.

The theme of this year's concert was "Sacred Music of the Season through the Ages," directed by Sacred Heart's liturgical music director, Dr. Ronald Prowse. Concert-goers were treated with an historical smorgasbord of seasonal music spanning ten centuries. The earliest piece was a medieval liturgical drama from the 900s; the latest work, "Totus Tuus," was composed by second-year theology seminarian Michael Wilkes. Wilkes wrote the music and performed on the piano, supported by soloists Lee Acervo and Mathias Thelen, both seminarians. Wilkes took his lyrics from a poem by Pope John Paul II, in which the late pontiff expresses his devotion to the Blessed Mother and the Christ Child.

Dr. Prowse skillfully directed pieces performed by Sacred Heart's standing liturgical choir, its Schola Cantorum (which specializes in Gregorian Chant), and its Concert Chorale (which performs for the Christmas and spring concerts only). Special guest was the Michigan Sinfonietta, an orchestra of splendid musicians mainly from the Ann Arbor area coordinated by Gregg Emerson Powell.

If you missed this year's Christmas concert, consider marking your 2007 calendar early. Without fail, the concert is on the first Friday of the first week in December.

 Listen to the concert audio by clicking   below or use

 Quem Quaeritis/Puer Natus Est - Schola Cantorum

 Riu Riu Chiu - Seminary Choir

 Totus Tuus - Michael Wilkes

 Hodie Christus Natus Est - Concert Chorale

 Virgin's Slumber Song - Ruth Lapeyre

 Comfort Ye/Every Valley - Clint McDonell

 Christmas Medley - Combined Choirs