The Troy University Concert Chorale will perform its fall concert, “Songs of Devotion,” at Bush Memorial Baptist Church on Sunday, Nov. 6, at 3 p.m.

The 45-voice auditioned mixed choir will perform a variety of sacred music centered on the themes of devotion, reflection, comfort and praise. Special guests include Dr. Michael Huff, Associate Professor of Music at Troy University, and the St. Andrew’s Episcopal School high school choir, Rhapsody.

Huff will be the featured trumpet soloist for Halsey Steven’s “Magnificat,” a setting of the Biblical text that expresses the Virgin Mary’s response to the angel’s proclamation. “This piece departs from the typical quiet response we have come to stereotypically expect from musical settings of this text,” said Dr. Diane Orlofsky, Conductor of the Concert Chorale. “This composition, with its purposeful dissonances, complex rhythmic structure and interplay between piano, trumpet and voices, seems to cast the Virgin’s response with a certain strength of resolve and depth of understanding of the enormity of the task ahead.”

Rhapsody, a 55-member choir from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Mississippi will be joining the Concert Chorale for three numbers and will be performing one of their own selections (“Wana Baraka”). Troy University alumnus and the director of choral music at St. Andrew’s, Scott Sexton, is a native of Troy. In addition to his duties at St. Andrew’s, Sexton is on the conducting staff of The Mississippi Girlchoir and the founding director of Mississippi Harmony, a community choir. He also serves on the state board for the Mississippi ACDA and the national board for the Organization of American Kodály Educators.

St. Andrew’s choir and the Concert Chorale will combine forces for John Ness Beck’s setting of “Psalm 67,” Franz Biebl’s antiphonal setting of “Ave Maria” and Rollo Dilworth’s arrangement “I Sing Because I’m Happy.”

Other pieces include four movements of Herbert Howells’ work, “Requiem,” which will feature student soloists as well as an antiphonal setting (where 12 voices are juxtaposed against the rest of the choir).

The concert is free and open to the public. “I urge folks to get there early to get a good seat,” Orlofsky said.