Tuesday April 15th the Canta-Belles and Vox-Lucis preformed their annual easter vigil in the Blessed Rupert Mayer Chapel. The event was directed by chorus teacher Bernie Sauer, who has directed this easter vigil concert for 21 years.  

“This is our 21st year, of this tradition of providing music with the passion of Jesus Christ. What’s always special about this concert is, this is the one where we’ll choose music that is the most challenging and scholarly… when you’re able to celebrate that, right before Easter and put it all together, it’s always been such a special event,” Sauer said. 

Ora-Vera Konadu-Acheampong, a Senior Canta-Belles singer talks about the difficulty of preparing for the event.  

“So, we’ve been preparing for this since about January. We start the music as soon as we come back from Christmas break, so we really get into the swing of things. It’s a long concert so we need a lot of time,” Konadu-Acheampong said. 

The Choirs sang songs like Mary Did You Know, (Requiem) Lacrimosa from Mozart, Behold the Cross, and more.  

The songs chosen are chosen based on the gospels and how closely they relate to Easter.  

“The songs are chosen based off of being applied to the Gospel’s. It just so happens too that not only are they beautiful to listen to lyrically, they also happen to be scholarly in sound and the most pure when it comes to blending a choir together,” Sauer said.  

With many songs to choose from Konadu-Acheampong says that her favorite song from the Vigil is a tie between Behold the Cross and Lacrimosa. 

“It’s tied between Lacrimosa and Behold the Cross, Behold the cross has the most gut-wrenching beautiful lyrics, they are so pretty. Lacrimosa is just fun to sing. That one is usually one of our showstoppers. It’s such a powerhouse song so that one I also really love,” Konadu-Acheampong said.