First Presbyterian to host Good Friday concert

In addition to the church Chancel Choir, guest instrumentalists and soloists will be featured in Faure Requiem.

“There will be two major organ pieces because we have one of the best organs in the area, and we are bringing in an organist from Raleigh who has his doctorate from Florida State University,” said Matthew Moore, director of music at First Presbyterian. “And then the choir with the organ and a small string ensemble will do the Requiem by Gabriel Faure.”

Adam Cobb is an organist at Christ Church Episcopal in Raleigh, Moore said.

“He’s an excellent organist, and he had done some study in his master’s degree on the Fauce Requiem, so he was especially suited to play that and help us with that,” he said. “He’s a wonderful performer. He does recitals all over the southern United States and different places.”

Likewise, the ensemble is mostly from the Raleigh and Greenville areas.

The back story on the concert is as deep and rich as the Easter season it represents, says Moore, who stepped into his role in June.

“This is something I’ve done before at other churches, but this church has not done this before,” he said. “In the Catholic and Episcopal tradition, Good Friday is a big deal for services, but for Protestants, there isn’t such a big thing to honor Good Friday. So we thought we would do a concert.

“It’s really not a service of worship but for people to just come and reflect on the events of the week and the crucifixion and Easter and just hear this beautiful piece of music.”

The Faure Requiem is often performed on Good Friday, Moore explained.

“Most of the requiems done by classical composers are for the funeral mass of the Catholic church, and this is more of a performance piece,” he said. “It’s focused on prayer and consolation and the hope of eternal life, which is what Easter is about for Christians.

“It leaves out some of the big huge parts that are in most requiems, so it’s smaller and sort of more intimate and thoughtful.”

Approximately 45 instrumentalists and choir members have been working on the musical since January. In addition to distributing professional practice tracks for choir members to use, there have also been extra Saturday morning rehearsals in preparation for the upcoming event.

The bulk of the singers are from the church Chancel Choir, with some added treats.

“There’s a baritone soloist named Christopher Short, who founded a professional choral group of Raleigh called Servire,” Moore said. “He was an East Carolina University graduate, and a lot of these professional singers were ECU grads who’ve gone on to other places but come back and do concerts here as well.

“And then the choir is mostly my choir with some guests from other churches in the community, like the directors of music from the First Christian Church and St. Stephens Episcopal and St. Paul’s Methodist Church will be singing with us, too.”

The resurgence of such a musical presentation has been especially appreciated by the participants, Moore said.

“Everybody is so excited about it here,” he said. “It’s not something that this church has done for quite some time, probably a couple of decades.

“They used to, in the heyday of churches, like the 60s and 70s when we had tons of people, they used to do some major works on a regular basis. It’s sort of a revival for them, so it’s exciting for them.”

The Concert of Reflection is free and open to the public.

In fact, Moore called it an “offering to the community.”