When the awards are presented at the 50th annual Grammys in February, acclaimed conductor Charles Bruffy and members of his Kansas City Chorale will be just some of the nominees in the audience awaiting their call to come on stage.

The group has drawn worldwide acclamation and is in the running for five classical music Grammy awards.

But before the group will be competing against the likes of Riccardo Muti and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and sitting around some of the most lauded musicians from around the world, the Kansas City Chorale will be performing in Leavenworth.

“There’s a lot of hype about it. We’re real proud that they’re coming to Leavenworth while they have these Grammy nominations and are getting some international recognition,” said the Rev. David McEvoy, whose Saint Joseph Church will host the Chorale for a Christmas concert to celebrate Epiphany and the 150th Jubilee on January 6, 2008. “We’re celebrating our 150th anniversary as a Catholic parish. Most of our events are going to be for our parishioners or our fellow Catholics. But this is something for the whole community. This is something we can offer for everyone in Leavenworth who wants to come celebrate with us.”

Along with the 24 members of the Chorale, an 18-piece orchestra will also be performing the Carmelite Vespers. To bring a concert that has taken place at the Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, Missouri, and is scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City to Leavenworth was a treat that McEvoy said could not have come at a better time.

“We were aiming for December 30 to avoid the Christmas rush before New Year’s, but they were very, very busy with Christmas concerts and home visits. January 6th was a good day for everybody,” said McEvoy, who along with parish music coordinator Theresa Vitt scheduled the concert six months in advance. “You’re hearing something that people heard 700 years ago. You hear Bach and Handel, who wrote this Carmelite Vespers. That’s kind of exciting for me because we’re Carmelites here. He had written this piece of work 300 years ago in Rome for the Carmelites, and we’re able to hear it here again.”

Vitt said that a Chorale concert the church hosted in 2005 and the group’s success in the recording industry was evidence of why the Chorale is nominated for some of the most prestigious awards in classical music.

“They really try to be authentic to how the composer wrote. They want to be as correct in doing the music as to the style of the time,” Vitt said. “They’re being recognized as valuable and talented worldwide.”

In its 26th year, the Chorale is composed of 24 professional vocalists— most of whom live in the Kansas City area—and is conducted by Bruffy, the artistic director of the Chorale and the Phoenix Bach Choir. The Phoenix Bach Choir has often performed with the Chorale and is nominated along with them for the Grammys.

The Chorale has released six compact discs under Nibus Records, including Grechaninov Passion Week —which was nominated for four Grammys alone.

Don Loncasty, executive director for the Chorale, said that a little more than 60 people associated with the Chorale plan on attending the awards ceremony, which takes place on Feb. 10. The concert at Saint Joseph Church will mark the Chorale’s last performance before March 11.

“I think we have a great shot at the best choir performance category,” Loncasty said. “One of the better quotes about the nominations that Charles Bruffy told me was that he didn’t feel any better. There was just a sense of great awareness now.”

That same type of awareness is what McEvoy is hoping will generate an audience. Although he booked the Chorale months before the Grammy nominations, McEvoy is hoping the recent accolades will encourage more people to attend the event.

“The Grammy thing on TV lately kind of ups the interest in them,” he said. “We’ve already told our custodian to get the choir loft clean. We’re thinking we could accommodate 500 (if we open the choir loft).

“We’ll take anyone who’s here,” he said.

Prior to the concert date of January 6, 2008, the Leavenworth Times ran the above story. At the time the Carmelite Review was printed, the Grammy nominations were still not announced.