Upcoming Events:

This  year will mark the 200th anniversary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, the  Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, and Bahá'í communities will be celebrating  in cities, villages and neighborhoods all around the world. Festivities  from the Bahá'í House of Worship for North America, in Wilmette, will be  livestreamed. More details to come.

October 21, 2017 from 2:00–4:30 p.m.

Each Memorial Day Weekend more than 200 singers from diverse backgrounds and faiths come from around the globe to participate in the Bahá’í House of Worship  Choral Music Festival, which concludes with two public devotional concerts in the  auditorium of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. More  than a thousand people come to the Temple to hear the uplifting music  and spiritual readings from the world’s religions. This year, on Sunday, May 28th, 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. CST you can watch the concerts live on the web!

About the Festival:

Since its start in  2006, the annual Bahá’í House of Worship Choral Festival has attracted  singers and sacred music lovers from around the world. Each year 200 or  more voices soar in the 72-foot dome, adding harmonies to the holy words  of the world's religions, as audience members contemplate their  beautiful, uplifting sentiments. 

The multi-cultural  programs include classical choral arrangements, new Bahá’í Gospel  compositions, traditional folk songs, and Negro spirituals. The concerts  are sung entirely a cappella, in four or more parts. Singers memorize  their parts so they can sing without sheet music and be totally focused  on the director and each other. The music is offered as sacred,  devotional prayer.

The Memorial Day weekend festivals  provide opportunities  for diverse singers to share their musical  experience, to learn from  one another, to form fast friendships and to  pray together. Some  singers are accomplished, trained musicians, while  others sing simply  for the love of it.

In the weeks  leading up to the  festival, singers living in remote areas learn the  pieces individually  by way of video streamed rehearsals. Participants  then spend three days  together in focused rehearsals where they fit all  of their parts  together. The weekend culminates with two free public  performances that  regularly draw delighted audiences to the 1,000-seat  auditorium.

The gatherings underscore Bahá’í belief in  the oneness of humanity. Many  singers return year after year for the  chance to raise their voices in praise of God in the rarified space  under the dome of the Bahá’í Temple.

A sample of songs from previous Choral Music Festival Concerts.

 Session 1: Sunday, May 28th, 9:30am
Bahá’í Choral Music Festival Devotional Concert

Session 2: Sunday, May 28th, 12:30pm 
Bahá’í Choral Music Festival Devotional Concert

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