Good Friday: Words and Music from the Cross

The Virginia-Highland Church music ministry will tell the Good Friday story through a contemplative service of music and readings based on the seven last words of Christ. The evening will feature members of our string ensemble playing Rachmaninoff’s beautiful “Vocalise” for violin and piano, and “Reflection,” a haunting new work for three violas by Michael Kimber. Soloist Miffy Mistretta will sing Gabriel Faure’s elegant “Pie Jesu” from his Requiem, and Chad Gieseke will offer David Hurd’s blues setting of “O Sacred Head Sore Wounded.” The choir will join their voices on the music of two 20th-century British composers, singing “God So Love the World” by former King’s Singer Bob Chilcot, and a new setting of the familiar gospel song “Amazing Grace” by John Rutter. The evening will conclude with a dramatic and moving stripping of the altar.