Missouri Arts Council Grant Helps Keep Musica Sacra Singing Along

Music Sacra Chorus and Orchestra, the ensemble-in-residence Rockhurst University, is a unique musical entity.

Performing three concerts each year of sacred masterworks, on any night Musica Sacra can be performing works by Bach or Mozart, lesser-known names such as Isabella Leonarda (one of the few female composers of the time) and even contemporary compositions.

For approximately 15 years now, they have done so with the support of the Missouri Arts Council, which again this year has awarded the ensemble a grant of more than $8,000 to support its season.

“It’s very competitive,” said Timothy McDonald, Ph.D., professor of music and the musical director of Musica Sacra, of the grant process. “So I’m very happy and grateful to have received this again.”

McDonald said he plans the season’s works ahead of the grant application process, balancing newer and older, crowd pleasers and less commonly heard works.

“There are pieces that are always going to draw people in, and that's why I typically do the Mozart Requiem about every five years, because that draws in an audience,” he said.

But McDonald also proposes works that will sound just as majestic with a small ensemble as with a large one, because as part of the grant process, he typically dreams big.

“You ask for a full cement of instruments, but even when you use a chorus, string ensemble and an organ, it still sounds great,” he said.

Musica Sacra begins its season exactly one month from today, on Oct. 20 with a performance of works by Mozart and Bach. The 34^th annual Ceremony of Lessons and Carols is scheduled for Dec. 7. But fans of large ensembles rejoice  —  McDonald said he has planned a big finale for the April 27, 2025, concert, performing Haydn’s “Mass in the Time of War,” also known as the “Paukenmesse” or “tympani Mass” in German for the prominence of the giant drums in its finale.

“We will have a chamber orchestra for that one — multiple strings, oboes, trumpets, timpani,” he said. “It’s a really exciting piecem and a great one to end the season on.”