The St. Michael’s choirs have been working hard on their choral anthems for Holy Week. On Palm Sunday at the 9am service, the St. Michael’s Singers will present the 16th century motet Christus factus est by Felice Anerio, which will also be sung, appropriately, at our Good Friday service (“Christ became obedient for us unto death, even to the death on the cross”). At 11am, the Saints & Singers Choir will sing a traditional South African “Hosanna” as we focus on the liturgy of the palms at that service.

On Maundy Thursday, several young Choristers, who have been taking a Lenten class on Holy Communion led by Leslie Sackett and Brian Fairbanks, will join with the St. Michael’s Singers for the beautiful anthem I give to you a new commandment by Peter Nardone, with words taken directly from that evening’s main gospel passage.

The Easter Vigil will feature a wonderfully robust and complex Alice Parker arrangement of Hark, I hear the harps eternal with our first “Alleluias” of the season. Then, on Easter Sunday, our beloved Portland Brass Quintet is back with us live at last, featured in a new anthem for us: Canadian composer Stephanie Martin’s Now the queen of seasons.