Stained Glass Vespers is an event series that celebrates the intersection of fine arts and spirituality brought together with the liturgy of evening prayer, also known as Evensong.
Inspired by the sanctuary's stained-glass windows, designed by Cecil Casebier, each event features a different art form, such as music, literature, film, sculpture, painting, architecture, or performance.
The event is free, open to the public, and designed to be accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds.
Light and Shadow in Choral Music
May 18, 2024 at 7 pm
Take a spiritual journey as we meditate through sound on the light within and shadow beyond. Held in King of Glory's acoustically splendid Atrium, this Stained Glass Vespers features the Sanctuary Choir and soloists with responses, hymns, and anthems by Helvey, Lauredsen, Nagy, and Visser.
PAST EVENTS:
Reflections on the Cross
Multimedia Meditations on the Cross
Through Music, Images, and Film
Inspired by a series of paintings by American abstract painter, Barnett Newman. Featuring multimedia electronic music and video. The series of meditations on the cross offered a contemplative space for Lenten reflection.
Lema Sabachthani — why? Why did you forsake me? Why forsake me? To what purpose? Why? This is the Passion. This outcry of Jesus. Not the terrible walk up the Via Dolorosa, but the question that has no answer. This overwhelming question that does not complain, makes today’s talk of alienation, as if alienation were a modern invention, an embarrassment. This question that has no answer has been with us so long — since Jesus — since Abraham — since Adam — the original question.
Lema? — to what purpose — is the unanswerable question of human suffering.
Can the Passion be expressed by a series of anecdotes, by fourteen sentimental illustrations? Do not the Stations tell of one event?
The first pilgrims walked the Via Dolorosa to identify themselves with the original moment, not to reduce it to a pious legend; nor even to worship the story of one man and his agony, but to stand witness to the story of each man’s agony; the agony that is single, constant, unrelenting, willed — world without end. - Barnett Newman
Organ Improvisations based on Sanctuary Windows
performed by Dr. Zvony Nagy
October 7, 2023
The inaugural event featured organ improvisations by Dr. Zvony Nagy, King of Glory’s Director of Music and Worship, based on the four themes illustrated in the panels: Creation and Redemption in the north windows, Sanctification and Consummation in the south windows.
About the Artist:
Zvony (Zvonimir) Nagy (pronounced /zvônimiːr nadj;/) is a Croatian-born, American organist and pianist, choral conductor, composer, and educator. He earned a Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University; he also trained in piano and organ performance at Texas Christian University. As an organist and pianist, Nagy has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and choral conductor throughout the United States and Europe. He has a repertoire that ranges from classical to contemporary music. He received the second prize in the César Franck/Olivier Messiaen International Organ Competition in Haarlem, the Netherlands. His piano and organ recordings are available at PARMA Recordings-Ravello Records, Albany Records, and MSR Classics. Nagy has served as director of sacred music at churches and cathedrals throughout the United States; he has an ongoing commitment to church music and leadership experience with different music programs. As an improviser, he draws from experimental, popular, and historical improvisation practices, interactive media technologies, and interdisciplinary collaborations. For more information, visit nagymusic.
About the Organ:
Rosales pipe organ (1992)
3 manuals, 48 ranks, 35 stops; mechanical action