Duke Chapel Choir

With orientation complete and classes about to begin, today the Chapel Choir returns to worship leadership at Duke University Chapel! Today's music includes:

• From the Rising of the Sun (Brown)
• Psalm 34:15–22 (Bengston)
• Fight the Good Fight (Gardner)
• Bwana awabariki (Swahili folk hymn)

• Come, Thou Almighty King / ITALIAN HYMN
• Open Wide the Doors of Mercy / RUSTINGTON
• God of Grace and God of Glory / CWM RHONDDA

Join us in person or online at 11:00 am Eastern (link in comments).

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Congratulations to the Schola, the Chapel Choir’s chamber ensemble, on this invitation to perform for the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) national conference!

👏 Congratulations to the Chapel’s Schola Cantorum who received an ACDA national conference invitation—a first for a Duke choir! 🎶

The ensemble was selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA)'s March 2025 conference in Dallas through a competitive, peer-review process based on submissions of recordings from the last three years. The invitation is the latest marker in a rise in the national and international reputation of Duke Chapel’s music program.

“An invitation to perform at the ACDA national conference is one of the highest recognitions a choral program can receive,” said Dr. Zebulon M. Highben, the conductor of the Schola Cantorum, Chapel Choir, and director of Chapel Music at Duke Chapel. “This invitation represents the sustained excellence of Duke and Duke Chapel as a vibrant center of sacred music performance and education.”

Read the announcement: https://buff.ly/4dzGcNk

Plus, watch a video recording of one of the songs that earned the Schola their honor: https://buff.ly/4dwmh1I

🎶 Raise your voice in the beauty of Duke Chapel!

⛪ Campus and community members are invited to sing in the Chapel Summer Choir this Sunday, August 4. Arrive at 9:30 a.m. for a rehearsal before singing in the worship service at 11:00 a.m. Robes and music will be provided.

There are many ways for Duke staff and faculty to connect at Duke University Chapel, including singing in the Chapel’s choirs! Chapel Choir members Karen Steinhauser and Margot Wuebbens—and last year’s performances of Handel’s “Messiah”—are featured in this video from Working at Duke.

Discover Music, Art and Worship on Your Doorstep at the Duke Chapel No matter your role at Duke, among the places where community members can find an open invitation to engage is Duke University Chapel.At Duke Chapel, staff a...

This episode of “Sounds of Faith” features excerpts from the recent Centennial concert, featuring the Chapel Choir, Schola Cantorum, and guest artists:

Check out these photos—and the YouTube recording!—from today's "Our First Lady of Jazz" concert.

In this morning's service for the third Sunday of Easter, the Chapel Choir sings works by Florence Price, John Rutter, and a gospel setting of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow (I Sing Because I'm Happy)" by Kenneth Paden and Rollo Dilworth. Guest artist Patrice Turner, M.Div. candidate at Duke Divinity School and Director of Worship & the Arts at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, joins the choir and Chapel organists in worship leadership.

Sunday Morning Worship Service - 4/14/24 - Dean Luke Powery View the worship guide for this service:https://chapel.duke.edu/sites/default/files/041424ThirdEasterWORSHIPGUIDE.pdf .Join us in worship that offers stirri...

Who’s playing the 5 p.m. Chapel bells? Meet Duke’s two carillonneurs Every day at 5 p.m., rich melodies roll over the lawns of West Campus, washing over the masses typing on laptops at tables in the Bryan Center plaza all the way to students tossing frisbees in the Duke Gardens.  

It's "Mary Lou Williams" weekend at Duke! Read more about the concerts by the Duke University Department of Music and Duke University Chapel at the link below. And we hope you'll join the Chapel Choir and our featured guest artists on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 pm. The concert and parking are free of charge.

A Fabulous Weekend of Music Celebrating Mary Lou Williams | Duke Today A Fabulous Weekend of Music Celebrating Mary Lou Williams Two concerts highlight Duke’s first artist-in-residence Image Published April 9, 2024 Tags Music Duke Chapel Schools Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Scholars Anthony M. Kelley Professor of the Practice of Music Director of Undergraduate ...

Christ is risen! Alleluia! The Chapel Choir, Chapel organists, carillonneurs, and Amalgam Brass will lead music for tomorrow’s 9 and 11 am services at Duke University Chapel. Repertoire includes:

• Fantasy in G (J. S. Bach)
• Easter Introit (John Ferguson)
• Christ the Lord Is Risen Today / EASTER HYMN (arr. Johnson)
• Alleluia (Randall Thompson)
• Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain / ST. KEVIN (arr. Jacky)
• Thine Be The Glory / JUDAS MACCABEUS (arr. Hobby)
• Antiphon (Ralph Vaughan Williams)
• Crown Him with Many Crowns / DIADEMATA (arr. Eithun)
• Carillon de Westminster (Louis Vierne)

The 11 am service will be streamed at the link below.

Easter Sunday Morning Worship Service - 3/31/24 - Dean Luke A. Powery Join us in worship that offers stirring preaching, inspiring sacred music, and faithful prayer. Held year-round amid the beautiful, soaring architecture of D...

Tonight's 7:30 pm Tenebrae service marks Christ's journey to Golgotha through scripture and sermon, silence and song, and ends in complete darkness. Music includes organ works by Johannes Brahms, K. Lee Scott's "The Tree of Life," and numerous congregational hymns, spirituals, and chorales.

Good Friday Tenebrae Service - 3/29/24 - Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery Tenebrae (Latin for "shadows" or "darkness") is a solemn observance of Jesus's passion and death. The service marks Jesus's journey to Golgotha and allows fo...

Music featured in Duke University Chapel’s Maundy Thursday service this evening includes:

• Pange lingua pour orgue (Naji Hakim)
• Go to Dark Gethsemane / REDHEAD 76
• Great God, Your Love Has Called Us / RYBURN
• Ubi caritas (Ola Gjeilo)
• O Food to Pilgrims Given / O WELT, ICH MUSS DICH LASSEN
• Ave verum corpus (W. A. Mozart)
• Psalm 22 (Chad Fothergill)

Join us at 7:00 pm in person or online.

Maundy Thursday Worship Service - 3/28/24 - Rev. Marc Antoine Lavarin This Maundy Thursday service includes stripping of the altar and holy communion.You are invited to make an offering here: https://chapel.duke.edu/offering .V...

Holy Week begins tomorrow with Duke University Chapel's 11:00 am Palm Sunday liturgy. The Chapel Choir and Chapel organists are joined by violinist Jeffrey Thurston, as our music moves us from Christ's triumphal entry to foreshadowing the events of the Passion:

• O Gott, du frommer Gott (Johannes Brahms)
• Hosanna (Randall Thompson)
• All Glory, Laud, and Honor / ST. THEODULPH
• Lamb of God (Mary Lou Williams)
• Hosanna, Loud Hosanna / ELLACOMBE
• When We Are Tempted to Deny Your Son (Zebulon Highben)
• Ride On, Ride On, in Majesty! / THE KING'S MAJESTY
• Allemanda, Partita no. 2 in D minor (J. S. Bach)

Join us in person or online:

Sunday Morning Worship Service - 3/24/24 - Dean Luke Powery Here is the worship guide for this service:https://chapel.duke.edu/sites/default/files/032424PalmSunday.pdf .Join us in worship that offers stirring preachi...

Over the past month, several guest ensembles have joined the Chapel Choir in worship on Sunday mornings, or led in Chapel Choir’s stead during spring break:

Feb. 18: The Marian Consort
March 3: The National Lutheran Choir
March 3: Carson-Newman University A Ca****la Choir
March 10: Millbrook High School Madrigals
March 17: Bell Durham

A shout out and thank you to all of these fine groups! 🎶

This morning's music includes a setting of the Trisagion hymn in Serbian and English by Lisa Milena Simikić; a spiritual by Undine Smith Moore conducted by the Chapel's Organ Scholar, Katherine Johnson; and the premiere of a new tune for the Susan Palo Cherwien hymn "Rich in Promise," composed by Chapel Organist Chad Fothergill.

Join us in person or online at 11:00 am Eastern.

Sunday Morning Worship Service - 2/18/24 - Rev. Bruce Puckett Worship guide: https://chapel.duke.edu/sites/default/files/021824WORSHIPGUIDE.pdfJoin us in worship that offers stirring preaching, inspiring sacred music, a...

This morning's singing centers on themes of healing and sustaining, based on the promise in Isaiah 40:28-31 that God upholds the weary and strengthens the powerless. Anthems include:

• Have Ye Not Known? (Thompson)
• The Lord Is the Everlasting God (Jennings)
• When Memory Fades (Southwick Cool, arr. Nelson)

Hymns include a new text by Delores Dufner, OSB: "What Led You, Christ, to Heal the Sick" / RESIGNATION was a finalist in Duke University Chapel's 2021 hymn text competition.

Sunday Morning Worship Service - 2/4/24 Here is the worship guide for this service:https://chapel.duke.edu/sites/default/files/2424CommunonWORSHIPGUIDE.pdf .Join us in worship that offers stirring...

We had a blast with Saunder Choi this week! Excited to premiere his “Blessed is the spot, and the house” in worship on February 11.

On this fourth Sunday after Epiphany, the hymns and anthems in this morning's service include:

• Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah / CWM RHONDDA
• God Is Seen (Parker)
• Cast Out, O Christ / CONSOLATION
• All Creatures of Our God and King (Sarsany)
• The Spirit of the Lord (Highben)
• Jesus Shall Reign / DUKE STREET

Join us in person or online at 11:00 a.m.

Sunday Morning Worship Service - 1/28/24 - Dean Luke Powery See the worship guide for this service:https://chapel.duke.edu/sites/default/files/12824WORSHIPGUIDE.pdf .Join us in worship that offers stirring preaching,...

More photos from Duke University Chapel's 2024 Sacred Choral Clinic with Dr. Anton Armstrong!

Under the direction of guest conductor Dr. Anton Armstrong, this morning the Chapel Choir sings “O Day Full of Grace” by F. Melius Christiansen and “True Light” by Keith Hampton.

Join us in person or online at 11:00 am Eastern.

Sunday Morning Service with Guest Conductor | Duke University Chapel Dr. Anton Armstrong will be the guest choir conductor in the worship service this Sunday, January 21, at 11:00 a.m. He will lead the choir, organists, and congregation in singing anthems and hymns, including "O Day Full of Grace" by F. Melius Christiansen and "Christ for the World We Sing." Dr. Arms...

As we mark the second Sunday after Epiphany and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth, the music in this morning's service includes:

• Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing / NETTLETON
• I Believe This Is Jesus (Smith Moore)
• Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service / BEACH SPRING
• What Joyous Song Unfolding (Highben)
• A Blessing (Shaw)
• This Little Light of Mine / THIS JOY

..and organ voluntaries by Franz Liszt and Calvin Taylor. Join us at 11:00 am Eastern, in person or online.

MLK Sunday Service with Guest Preacher Maurice Wallace | Duke University Chapel Our service this Sunday, January 14, at 11:00 a.m. honors the witness of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., recalling his conviction that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The guest preacher will be the Rev. Dr. Maurice Wallace, a professor and associate chair of English a...

Go Duke! Members of the Chapel’s choirs singing the national anthem at tonight’s men’s basketball victory against Georgia Tech.

Chapel Choir rehearsals for spring semester resume tonight!

It's going to be an exciting term: a residency with composer Saunder Choi, our Duke University centennial Mary Lou Williams concert, Holy Week and Easter services...but first, a sacred choral clinic with Dr. Anton Armstrong for area choirs!

Late registrations are still being accepted through January 12 (Link in comments.)

“For all that has been—thanks. For all that is to come—yes!”

(Dag Hammarskjöld, 1905–1961)

Looking Back with Gratitude on 2023 In 2023, we came together in community to give glory to God, mark milestones, comfort one another, learn from leaders, make meaning through art, celebrate ou...

The broadcast version of Duke University Chapel’s 90th annual Messiah has been viewed more than 42,000 times in ten days. Because of this popularity, we’ve extended the viewing period until Epiphany on January 6.

Please share and enjoy!

Handel's Messiah 2023 The Duke Chapel Choir and soloists, accompanied by Mallarmé Music with Dr. Zebulon M. Highben conducting, performed G.F. Handel's Messiah before sold-out aud...