Lux Cantorum Chicago launches community outreach with spring gospel concert series
77th season launches programming initiatives to reach and engage new singers and audiences
Lux Cantorum Chicago presents it spring “Gospel Extravaganza” concert series May 2, 4, and 10 in Chicago, Glen Ellyn, and Oak Park. They also are announcing a new “Community Connections Initiative,” with an invitation to new singers and audiences in the metropolitan area.
Billed as a tribute to the historic and uniquely American tradition of the gospel music genre, the “Gospel Extravaganza” concerts feature selections ranging from Black Gospel and spirituals to southern, country, blues, and contemporary/urban gospel. It includes composers/arrangers Thomas A. Dorsey, Paul Caldwell & Sean Ivory, and CeCe Winans. Of special note is Robert Ray’s complete “Gospel Mass.”
Under the baton of artistic director Wilbert O. Watkins and Chicago area guest musicians, the concerts explore the two major paths that gospel music forged since the early 19th-century American religious revivals that nurtured its development.
The concerts will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2, in the Buchanan Chapel of Fourth Presbyterian Church on Chicago’s Mag Mile; 4 p.m. Sunday, May 4, at First Congregational Church, 535 Forest Ave. in Glen Ellyn; and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 10, at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake St. in Oak Park.
A recorded concert streaming option is also available from May 14 -24. Ticket prices range from $20 to $30, and further concert information is available at LuxCantorum.org.
Besides sharing the “good news,” these concerts also provide an opportunity to spread the word about LCC’s new Building Voices Together grant program — part of their Community Connections Initiative.
The program aims to further Lux Cantorum’s mission by welcoming talented singers from across our region, especially those underrepresented in the choral music community or with limited access to choral music participation into their artistic group.
Invitations are extended to educational and community organizations throughout the Chicago area for participation in the upcoming 2025-26 season.
Lux Cantorum Chicago’s vision is to provide opportunities for all persons to share sacred music in new and profound ways — building respect, empathy, peace, and reconciliation for all, and finding the divine in one another and our common experiences. This is achieved through artistic excellence, insightful repertoire, and collaboration with the interfaith and artistic communities.
Originally founded in 1947 as The Lutheran Choir of Chicago, but reborn as Lux Cantorum in 2017, LCC strives to “nurture an inclusive creative community by sharing the transformative power of sacred choral music.” By shedding any specific religious affiliation, it also changed its performance focus, “redefining the sacred music experience,” with repertoire that embraces spiritual practices and traditions from around the globe.
In furtherance of its mission, the ensemble has recently collaborated with other organizations from the Chicago area including the Parliament of World Religions, Access Contemporary Music, the Lake Forest Civic Orchestra and Chicago Master Singers.