Crown Concert

Please join us for a Crown Concert on Sunday, April 22 at 4 pm as we welcome the Ephrata Cloister Chorus.

During the 1700s, music played an important role in the Historic Ephrata Cloister community. Nearly 1,000 hymns were composed by the community’s founder, Conrad Beissel, and his followers. Yet, the sound of Ephrata’s music remained silent for nearly two centuries. In the 1950s, Dr. Russell Getz began transcribing a selection of early Cloister Chorales into a readable modern notation. Under his direction in 1959, a group of volunteers set out to revive Ephrata’s musical heritage by forming the Ephrata Cloister Chorus.

In recent years, Dr. Lucy Carroll worked to continue the transcription of Ephrata’s music, adding nearly a dozen pieces to the modern repertoire.

In 2018, Christopher Dylan Hebert, a doctoral candidate at Julliard School of Music, based his dissertation on Ephrata’s music. For this concert the Chorus will be premiering Rose-lilie-Blume Sequence, composed by the Ephrata community, and transcribed by Dr. Herbert.

The Ephrata Cloister Chorus is composed of volunteers under the direction of Mr. Martin Hinckley and accompanied by Becky Degan. The Chorus has made several concert tours of Europe, visiting Eberbach, Germany, home of Ephrata’s founder, Conrad Beisel. They also traveled to restored Shaker communities in Massachusetts and New York. The group has recorded two CDs.

The concert is free and open to the public. An offering will be received. For more information, call the church office at 717-392-5718.