ECC presents Bluegrass Mass

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A musical fusion of bluegrass and choral melodies will combine for one night at the Elgin Community College during "The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass" on March 2. | Courtesy of ECC

Updated: February 21, 2012 8:09PM

Normally, you wouldn’t think of bluegrass music paired with a traditional choral mass, but be prepared to change your mind.

“The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass” will be at 7:30 p.m. March 2 at the Blizzard Theatre at Elgin Community College.

Acclaimed bluegrass band Monroe Crossing, of Minneapolis, performs this genre-busting work with Elgin’s Heartland Voices, under the direction of John Slawson.

Matt Thompson, the group’s mandolin player, said the Bluegrass Mass project came about a few years ago.

“It’s a pretty amazing thing that happened to us,” he said.

Adding twang

The bluegrass mass was originally commissioned for VocalEssence, an professional choir in Minneapolis, with composer Carol Barnett and librettist Marisha Chamberlain on board. Monroe Crossing was tapped to provide the twang. The program blends a classical Mass with a modern choir and traditional bluegrass instrumentation.

“It didn’t come together until we got together with the entire choir for the first rehearsal several months later,” he said. “It’s become this amazing thing. We’ve performed it in California, Washington, D.C., Texas, Notre Dame. … I think we’re doing 10 performances of the Bluegrass Mass this year. It’s a whole new range of performances that we’ve never done before and we love it.”

Monroe Crossing formed in 2000. They have 12 CDs under their belt, with the most recent being “Joy Joy Joy” released in December 2011. “A World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass” with VocalEssence was released in 2007.

They love performing with the choirs because the genre is so different, he said. The Bluegrass Mass is about 12 movements and lasts for 35 minutes.

He thinks it is popular because it’s unique.

“So many different pieces of new choral music and classical music are written every year, and they debut and I think a lot of them sort of disappear after that. It’s impressive and a good piece of music, but it just doesn’t catch on,” he said. “But this piece, from the moment it debuted, we immediately started getting offers to perform this with other choirs. It’s just an amazing piece — both the choral elements and the bluegrass elements are one of those pieces of special music.”

One of the most frequent comments he hears is from people who didn’t know they liked bluegrass.

“The thing that is most satisfying for us is when we get in front of these choral audiences and they go, ‘Not only do we love the mass, but we didn’t really know we liked bluegrass music.’ So they become Monroe Crossing fans and bluegrass fans. It’s a win-win-win situation.”

Music converts

He has always felt like somewhat of an ambassador of bluegrass.

“The objective in my mind was to promote this form of American music that not a lot of people know about and to educate the public on what bluegrass is,” he said. “Now with the Bluegrass Mass, we get to promote bluegrass in front of a whole new audience of people.”

Monroe Crossing — so named because the members’ paths crossed through the music of bluegrass legend Bill Monroe — consists of Derek Johnson on guitar and vocals; Lisa Fuglie on fiddle, mandolin and vocals; Thompson on mandolin, fiddle and baritone vocals; Mark Anderson on bass and bass vocals; and David Robinson on banjo.

“Lisa is married to the bass player. She sings most of the solos in the piece, depending on the choirs,” Thompson said. “She’s got a beautiful voice and is able to cross the boundaries between bluegrass and choral music with very little effort. It’s amazing how she does that.”

While the first half of the show will be the Bluegrass Mass, during the second half, Monroe Crossing takes audience requests.

“The majority of the songs are songs that maybe the audience is familiar with us having played before, but once in awhile they will request a song we’ve never done before. And if someone knows it, we’ll play it, but sometimes we’ll regret it afterwards,” Thompson said. “The audience has fun with us, too.”