The Pittsburgh Compline Choir is a mixed-voice, auditioned ensemble that sings the weekly service of Compline at Heinz Chapel during the school term.
The auditioned choir is comprised of experienced singers, more than half of whom are professional musicians. Members of the choir are active in Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Greek Orthodox churches on Sunday mornings. They include five professional organists, a jazz singer, a surgeon, a Lutheran pastor, a computer scientist, a physicist, a mechanical engineer, a physical therapist, an executive administrator, a nurse, a television producer, a parish administrator, two attorneys, two music teachers, a professional pianist, a professional horn player, and a writer.
The choir rehearses every other week on Friday night at the Lutheran University Center from 7:00-9:00 p.m. and on Sunday starting at 6:45 (prior to the 8:00 p.m. service.)
Founded in 1988 by John W. Becker, the choir was organized to promote and teach the singing of chant. Today, chant remains at the core of the choir’s repertoire, including Gregorian chant, plainsong psalmody, Anglican chant, Russian Orthodox chant, and newly composed chant. Additional service music used during Compline at Heinz Chapel is drawn from the great and diverse historical repertoire of the Church. Typical service music includes Lutheran chorales, anthems and motets from the Anglican choral tradition, hymns in a variety of styles, polyphonic motets, compositions by founding director John W. Becker, and works by current and former members of the Pittsburgh Compline Choir and other contemporary composers. Each year the choir is proud to present the world premiere of several new works written especially for the Pittsburgh Compline Choir.
The Pittsburgh Compline Choir is a cooperative ministry of Lutheran Campus Ministry in Greater Pittsburgh and First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Downtown.
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