The Tabor College Concert Choir and Concerto Bella Voce are teaming up to perform John Rutter’s “Requiem” at 7 p.m. May 11 at the Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church.

Rutter’s “Requiem” is a 40-minute work for chorus, orchestra, and a soprano solo. The orchestra is comprised of members of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, which will provide a professional combination with the choir.

Assistant professor of choral music Janie Brokenicky will be featured as the soprano soloist.

“I’ve been very pleased and impressed with how quickly the choirs have taken to the work,” choral director Brad Vogel said. “I’m pleased with the amount of detail and expression they are able to give to the performance.”

In addition to the full strings and wind sections, the orchestra also features a harpist Jayn Hyde.

Rutter composed his “Requiem” in response to a personal bereavement.

In the liturgy, a requiem (meaning “rest”) is a funeral service—a collection of prayers for the soul of the deceased. The “Requiem” is also a service of life. It contains those texts of the “Requiem” mass that are uplifting rather than terrifying, and texts that also present Christ.

Three movements from Rutter’s “Five Orchestral Meditations” will also be part of the program. These are orchestral arrangements of some of his work written for choir. They function as an overture, a postlude, and a “meditation” in the middle of the “Requiem.”