Concordia Seminary, St. Louis will host a new musical concert series beginning in the 2018-19 academic year known as the Concordia Seminary Concert Series — the first of its kind for the Seminary.

The inaugural concert will be the Opening Weekend Hymn Festival at the conclusion of the Seminary’s Orientation week. The concert will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 26. The concert will feature Kevin Hildebrand, kantor of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind., as guest composer, conductor and organist. An ensemble choir of students, faculty and staff, and musicians from across the St. Louis region will be featured.

Two additional concerts are scheduled for 2019.

The internationally acclaimed Valparaiso University Chorale, the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, the Valparaiso University Bach Orchestra and Choir, and the Fort Wayne Children’s Choir will present J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 3.

One of the country’s oldest Lutheran collegiate choirs, the University A Cappella Choir from Concordia University, Nebraska, Seward, will present Spring Midwest U.S. Tour: A Celebration of 80 Years at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 31, in celebration of the choir’s 80^th anniversary.

“We are so pleased to be able to offer these concert events as a gift to the St. Louis community,” said Dr. James Marriott, Kreft Chair for Music Arts. “Music gives us an opportunity to celebrate and proclaim our faith in profound and enriching ways, and these concerts are designed toward that very end. Whether through a festival of hymns, a prolific performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion or the voices of one of our premier Concordia University choirs, this particular 2018-19 series promises to be truly outstanding.”

All performances will be held in the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus on the campus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 801 Seminary Place, St. Louis, MO 63105. A freewill offering will be taken. All concerts are free and open to the public. Learn more at www.csl.edu/concertseries.

About Concordia Seminary
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis provides Gospel-centered graduate-level theological education for pastors, missionaries, deaconesses, scholars and other leaders in the name of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). To learn more, visit www.csl.edu.