150th Anniversary Music Series

As part of our 150th anniversary celebration, the Church of St. Mary proudly presents a series of three Fall concerts and five Winter/Spring concerts led by Marek Rachelski, our Music Director and conductor of both the Niles Metropolitan Chorus and the Musica Lumina Orchestra. Each concert will showcase sacred masterworks that have inspired faith, reflection, and community for generations — performed by professional musicians and celebrated soloists in the beautiful setting of our church.

Join us throughout this anniversary season as we honor 150 Years of Grace through the universal language of music.

Come to LISTEN OR SING! Handel's Christmas Classic as performed by the NILES METROPOLITAN CHORUS and MUSICA LUMINA ORCHESTRA & SOLOISTS

Following a nearly sold-out performance of Faure's Requiem at Church of St. Mary in November, the Niles Metropolitan Chorus and Musica Lumina Orchestra return on Friday, December 5 at 7:30 p.m. for a performance of the world’s most famous and beloved Handel’s Messiah, renowned for stunning choruses and arias, thundering timpani and blazing trumpets.

Featuring the Musica Lumina Orchestra led by Marek Rachelski conducting from the harpsichord, an incomparable line up of soloists and one of Chicago’s finest vocal ensembles, this will be a sensational evening of delightful and thrilling music making.

The first ever performance of the Messiah took place at Neal’s New Musick Hall in Dublin’s Fishamble Street in 1742. The “subscription list of six hundred persons was quite filled,” according to Handel himself, as ladies heeded pleas by management to wear dresses ‘without hoops’ in order to make ‘room for more company’ – something we trust will not be a problem at the Church of St. Mary! Come and enjoy!!