The centuries old European tradition of choral singing by men and boys at the close of the day is accessible to Mississippians during Mississippi Boychoir’s Evensong Service presentations in April and May, 2009. The services are in collaboration with Parkway Heights United Methodist Church in Hattiesburg, Fondren Presbyterian Church in Jackson, and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Laurel.

Evensong is an outgrowth of the Catholic tradition of holding Vespers at the close of the day and Morning Prayer each morning. In many cathedrals of The Church of England an Evensong Service is held daily. Anglican and Episcopal churches in the United States hold the service less often, and it is rarely presented in other denominations. The brief service contains primarily scripture readings, songs, and prayers.

A variety of music is included in Mississippi Boychoir’s presentation, and it is sung by the choir’s combination of unchanged and changed voices—sometimes in unison, two, three, or four-part harmony, and sometimes with tenors and basses singing in the treble range with the unchanged voices. Selections vary from Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, Joseph Corfe’s I Will Magnify Thee, O Lord, Benedictus from Gabriel Faure’s Messe Basse, and Zoltan Kodaly’s Evening Song to a Nineteenth Century Southern hymn tune and more contemporary pieces like the Brazilian composer Ernani Aguiar’s Salmo 150, Paul Halley’s Agnus Dei, and Ken Burg’s arrangement of This Little Light of Mine, with cello accompaniment.

The services are open to the public, and no admission fee is charged.