Members of the Jefferson City Church Choir to perform at Carnegie Hall

JEFFERSON CITY — Seven members of the Oasis United Church of Christ choir will perform at Carnegie Hall on May 30. They will join choirs from across the country to perform at John Rutter’s Memorial Day concert in New York.

Rutter is an English composer and conductor. One of his greatest choral works is called Requiem.

Choir member Nancy Luehrman said she had sung the Requiem since 1987. She said being able to perform any of its works alongside her was a dream come true.

“The choir people know who John Rutter is,” Luehrman said. “It’s going to be an amazing experience for us to be able to not only sing his music, but to sing with him as a bandleader.”

Luehrman said that two years ago their then choir director met John Rutter at a workshop. Luehrman said when the director found out about the Carnegie Hall performance, she jumped on it.

“She came back and she left, I signed you all up, do you want to go?” said Luhrman. “So because they knew her, she was able to sign us up.”

Rushan Sinnaduray, senior pastor of the Oasis United Church of Christ, said since the pandemic postponed the event, the anticipation has made this upcoming performance even more exciting.

“They’ve been looking forward to this for two or three years now that we’re supposed to say in 2020, and then they pulled it out,” Sinnaduray said. “So they had to postpone it, and eventually they’re going to go.”

Sinnaduray said he could tell the choir members were excited.

“For many of them, it’s like a lifelong dream come true,” Sinnaduray said. “It’s a top notch venue and to be able to do it with someone like John Rutter is a dream come true.”

Luehrman called it the dream of a lifetime.

“I’ve always dreamed of being on Broadway, and it’s not going to happen,” Luehrman said. “So you can sing at Carnegie Hall, one of the best halls in the world. It’s just a dream.”

Luehrman said she feels lucky, coming from a small congregation, to have the opportunity to participate.

“We are a small church, we don’t have enough voice to sing the Requiem,” she said. “So we’re really excited to join a much larger group of people and be able to do this work once again.”

Sinnaduray said music is important to both their choir and their congregation as a whole.

“Our choir shapes our worship, so they are at the center of everything we do and the music they bring helps unite the congregation and helps them enter more fully into the worship of God,” he said. declared.