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Musical groups to sing in 9/11 remembrance

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A church in Huntington Beach and others in Newport Beach on Sunday will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with public musical performances in memory of the victims.

At 6 p.m. Sunday, the Music Guild at St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church, 18631 Chapel Lane, Huntington Beach, will present a concert billed “Hope and Reconciliation: Music of Remembrance.”

“There’s something about music that intrinsically brings people together in community, that helps us realize that we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves and raises social awareness to issues for the larger community as well,” said Christopher Gravis, the church’s minister of music and arts and director of the Orange County Choral Society.

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The concert will feature LA Schola, a 12-voice professional group, performing Tomás Luis de Victoria’s “Requiem.” The ensemble will join singers from St. Wilfrid and St. Thomas the Apostle church in Hollywood.

Prayer stations will be set up with candles that visitors can light. A freewill offering will be accepted. For more information, visit https://www.stwilfridschurch.org or call (714) 402-8112.

St. Wilfrid has extended invitations to all community members, including local Jewish and Islamic congregations, in hopes of incorporating multiple perspectives into Sunday’s program.

“Art creates understanding,” Gravis said. “The more volatile culture is, the more we need art in music.”

Two other 9/11 commemorative concerts will take place in Newport Beach at 7 p.m. Sunday, at the Newport Harbor Lutheran Church and St. James Anglican Church.

St. James, 3209 Via Lido, will host a memorial concert featuring the 40-piece Orange County Collegiate Orchestra, which is made up of the county’s leading undergraduate and postgraduate musicians, organizers said in a news release.

Free child care for children ages 5 and under will be available. A reception will follow the performance. For more information, call (949) 675-0210 or go to https://www.stjamesnb.org.

Members of the Newport Harbor Lutheran Church, Costa Mesa’s Mesa Verde United Methodist Church, the Orange County Women’s Chorus and UC Irvine’s Men in Blaque will present “Requiem: A Concert of Hope and Remembrance.”

Eliza Rubenstein, artistic director of the Orange County Women’s Chorus and the choral director of Orange Coast College’s music department, will conduct a full professional orchestra in Mozart’s “Requiem.”

An accompanying combined chorus will include singers from the community and feature soloists Harriet Fraser, Deborah Winsor Williams, Alvin Brightbill and David Stoneman.

The suggested ticket donation for the program is $20. For tickets and information, call Newport Harbor Lutheran Church at (949) 548-3631 or visit https://www.nhlcs.org.

The concert at Newport Harbor Lutheran Church, 798 Dover Drive, will also feature “Perspectives on Peace” from Bradley Stienstra, pastor of the church; Maria Khani, a member of O.C.’s Islamic community who is a frequent speaker at the church; and Rabbi Mark S. Miller of Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach.

“Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ is one of the most powerful pieces ever written — the text is a memorial for those who have died,” said William Wells, a spokesman for the event.

“Bringing people together to sing creates community,” he added. “One of the goals of this program is to create community among people who have separate backgrounds.”

HBIndependent@latimes.com

Twitter: @HBIndependent

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