The Summer Singers of Kansas City, 165-voices strong, joined with organist Dr. Jacob Hofeling, baritone Dr. Joshua Markley (in the role of the cantor) and percussionist Mark Lowry to perform the “Avodath HaKodesh” (Sacred Service) of Swiss/American Jewish composer Ernest Bloch.
The concert was led by Music Director and Conductor Dr. William O. Baker before an audience of nearly 500 people in Helzberg Hall of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The performance, held on Sunday, Aug. 25, also included Max Bruch's “Kol Nidrei” for cello and organ, performed by Dr. Hofeling and young cellist James Farquhar.
Composer Ernest Bloch was commissioned by a Reform congregation in the San Francisco area to compose a choral-orchestral setting of the temple service from the Union Prayer Book in the early 1930s. The commission was generous, and the composer took two years to compose one section of the work alone. He spoke often of how he had considered himself "Swiss by birth, American by adoption and Jewish by heritage." Before his work on “Avodath HaKodesh,” Bloch considered himself a largely secular person, but his Jewish faith grew during his work on the piece.
The Summer Singers of Kansas City is an ensemble of the Roeland Park-based William Baker Choral Foundation, an organization with a long history of supporting music of the Jewish tradition. The semi-professional William Baker Festival Singers, an ensemble of the Choral Foundation, commissioned, performed and recorded William W. Dreyfoos' “Songs of the Holocaust” in Atlanta, Kansas City and Charleston's Piccolo Spoleto Festival. It was broadcast on the eve of Passover on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" in 2012.
In 2014, the Choral Foundation created a year-round Jewish chorus, Zimria Festivale Atlanta. In 2023, in Lee's Summit, Missouri, and 2024, in Marietta, Georgia, the Choral Foundation mounted two performances of Donald McCullough's “Holocaust Cantata.” The Lee’s Summit event was in partnership with the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education and the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy.
The Summer Singers of Kansas City expressed appreciation to the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City through the Louis and Frances Swinken Supporting Foundation; the Kenneth Babcock Memorial Masterworks Fund; the Martha Lee Cain Tranby Music Performance Fund; and the Kansas Arts Commission for their generous support of the project.
Additional information about the work of the Choral Foundation is available at ChoralFoundation.org, by emailing or calling (913) 488-7524.
