Friday evening I attended a chamber concert by the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra at St. Andrews Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Jackson. I especially love the MSO’s chamber series, because each of the four concerts is held in a church, not only a more intimate venue than Thalia Mara Hall (which I do enjoy but which couldn’t be called intimate) but also beautiful interior architectural space.

Of course St. Andrews is an amazing space, made more so by the baroque-period music the orchestra played, using the call and response phrasing that originated from two groups of brass players facing each other from the outer aisles of the medieval churches. But in addition to the gorgeous Gothic that is St. Andrews, next in the chamber series we’ll get to see the Modern austerity of Belhaven’s Riverside church by candlelight, an organ concert in the restrained neoclassicism of Galloway Methodist, and to finish off the season, the stained beadboard and pure atmosphere of Tougaloo’s Woodworth Chapel. Even if you don’t really get into classical music but love religious architecture and beautiful acoustics, I highly recommend MSO’s chamber series. Check it out!

Woodworth Chapel, Tougaloo College. Imagine this space full of people and a chamber orchestra on stage. The sound is amazing!

Categories: Churches, Preservation People/Events