01 Mar Te Deum, Inc. Receives $4,424 Grant from the Missouri Arts Council

Te Deum, Inc. recently received a grant for $4,424 from the Missouri Arts Council to support their ensemble, Te Deum Antiqua. 

Te Deum Antiqua premiered in the fall of 2013.  The purpose of this professional ensemble is to present early, historically informed choral music to the Kansas City community.  These highly trained musicians will seek to provide audiences with as authentic a portrayal of early music as possible.

Te Deum’s artistic director, Matthew Shepard, felt inspired to create Antiqua as a result of performing J.S. Bach’s Mass in B-minor. This masterwork featured many brilliant compositional forms and techniques that had been developed over several centuries beginning in the Medieval period. These developments are underappreciated in modern choral performances. By creating an ensemble dedicated to the compelling and historically accurate performances of early music, Mr. Shepard hopes to foster a heightened appreciation of early music while still touching people’s spirits with Te Deum Antiqua’s performances.

Over the past three years, Te Deum has produced at least four concerts a year, and has presented as many as four concerts in a single semester. In the spring of 2013, Te Deum presented J.S. Bach’s Mass in B-minor at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts’ Helzberg Hall to an audience of over 1,200. Te Deum Antiqua made its premiere with two concerts in Kansas City, MO. With the addition of Antiqua, Te Deum anticipates that it will present between eight and ten concerts per year in the Kansas City area.

Te Deum’s mission is to present sacred choral music that is both musically gratifying and spiritually stirring.  Through the development of new audiences for sacred music at the highest levels of refinement and beauty, Te Deum will uncover a distinct niche for outstanding sacred choral music in Kansas City.