May 4, 2024

Last year, at the conclusion of their regular concert season, the semi-professional William Baker Festival Singers presented a benefit concert for Hillcrest Transitional Housing, a unique organization active in Lee’s Summit that seeks to solve homelessness by moving individuals and families toward self-sufficiency. The 2023 concert raised hundreds of dollars to support the work of Hillcrest (www.HillcrestKC.org).

The Festival Singers will return to Lee’s Summit for a second annual benefit concert on Tuesday evening, May 7, 7:30 p.m., in the nave of the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 416 SE Grand Avenue in Lee’s Summit, MO. Admission to the concert is free, and there will be an opportunity for all present to make a free-will offering to support the mission of Hillcrest. All expenses of the concert will be covered by the Festival Singers, enabling every penny of donated funds to benefit the programs of Hillcrest Transitional Housing.

A Wine and Cookie Reception for all will follow the concert, courtesy of the Friends of St. Paul’s Music.

The William Baker Festival Singers have scored many triumphs in their 26 concert seasons.. The award-winning a cappella choir specializes in sacred classical works, early American sacred music, spirituals and gospel selections. They have performed in 14 states and the nation’s capital with performances in Helzberg Hall, the Washington National Cathedral, the Cathedral of the National Shrine, New York City’s Trinity Wall Street Church, the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis, the Basilica of St. Josaphat in Milwaukee, and many other venues from Texas to Iowa and from Georgia to Arkansas. Their residency in Chicago in April 2024 includes performances at the historic St. Stanislaus Kostka Church and the St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church, two of that historic city’s most spectacular sacred spaces.

The Festival Singers have won two national awards in recent years, second-place finishers for the 2021 American Prize for Choral Performance and the Ernst Bacon Award for Service to American Music. The Festival Singers have been broadcast across the country on numerous programs including National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Their 24 nationally released CD recordings have received glowing reviews in publications including The American Record Guide and the Journal of the Anglican Associate of Musicians. The group is led by Dr. William O. Baker, who has served as Music Director for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church since September 2020.

The concert program for the May 7 appearance at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will include classic works by Johannes Brahms, Maurice Durufle and Anton Bruckner, modern selections by Norman Dello Joio, Knut Nystedt, and the Festival Singers own Composer in Residence Sean Sweeden. The performance will culminate in a rousing collection of the choir’s signature spirituals and gospel selections.

The program will also include a tribute to one of the world’s most distinguished conductors, Sir Andrew Davis, who died on April 20. He recently retired as Music Director of the Chicago Lyric Opera, and is honored as conductor laureate of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Melbourne Symphony, among many others. Sir Andrew Davis has conducted in every major music venue in the world and created dozens of definitive recordings of musical masterpieces in a 60-year career. He was appointed “Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1992.

His one and only performance in Kansas City was with the Festival Singers and friends in March 2020 in Helzberg Hall. The occasion was a gala concert celebrating the music of his composer son, Ed Frazier Davis, a long time member of the choir. In the ensuing years Sir Andrew remained a treasured friend of the Festival Singers. The concert will include a rendition of Ed Frazier Davis’ “How Can I Keep From Singing?” in love and memory for the maestro known and adored by music enthusiasts across the globe.

Again, the public is invited to enjoy The William Baker Festival Singers performing a benefit concert for Hillcrest Transitional Housing on Tuesday evening, May 7, 7:30 p.m., at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 416 SE Grand Avenue in Lee’s Summit. Admission is free with all free-will donations benefiting Hillcrest Transitional Housing. For additional information, call 913-488-7524 or email [email protected].