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Ångström Brass presents: Memento Mori
Join the musicians of Ångström Brass for Memento Mori, a unique concert experience at The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Kansas City, MO. Based on the classic “Lessons and Carols” format of alternating musical selections and scripture readings, our Memento Mori program is a meditation on the Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell.
This is a non-denominational concert program with no preaching or commentary on the Biblical texts, and solely instrumental music.
Every piece on the program was written or arranged by or for Ångström Brass. You will not hear a program like this one anywhere else. Dr. Dustin Williams’ Requiescat in Pace was written specifically for this performance and this venue. The programming for this concert has been fully tailored to the cathedral’s incredible acoustics, using the space almost as an integral member of the ensemble itself.
Insider info: when we began thinking about the repertoire for this concert, we had a Halloween concert in mind but the scheduling didn’t work out. Mid-November is too late for a Halloween program and too early for Christmas carols, but many Christian churches spend the month between All Saints Day and Advent focusing on the Second Coming and themes of death, judgment, and eternity.
We decided to combine some of those elements into this program, and chose the Latin phrase “memento mori” (“remember [your] death”) as the title. Unlike a typical Halloween concert where the focus is on “spooky” and “scary” music about death and the demonic, our expanded theme gave us room to bring in a lot of beauty, hope, and ultimately triumph into the program.
While this type of program is a bit of an experiment for us, it builds off of several threads that have been running through our post-pandemic evolution as an ensemble. We have been playing a lot more newly written music, exploring a wider variety of sound colors, and incorporating spoken-word elements into our performances. We have also played at the cathedral many times for Christmas, Easter, and other special events, giving us a great understanding of how to program for the acoustics.
We hope you will join us for what is sure to be an unforgettable evening.