The Samford University MasterSingers will perform a concert of modern choral masterpieces Tuesday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m. in Beeson Divinity Chapel. The public is invited free of charge. Samford music professor Dr. Timothy Paul Banks conducts the 40-member choral ensemble.

The concert will be presented in three segments. The first will include the Southeastern U.S. premiere of Estonian composer Arvo Paert's Berlin Mass, a work of ethereal beauty and mystery for voices and strings.

Section two will feature Latin American composer Alberto Ginestera's Lamentations of Jeremiah for unaccompanied chorus.

The final section, Black Voices: An Anthology, will consist of a running compendium of music from African-American styles, including spirituals, work songs, "signal" songs (of the Underground Railroad), and gospels. According to Banks, who created the presentation, the section will round out a concert whose theme is the music and expression of oppression, "both despair and hope, pain and ecstasy."

The MasterSingers is comprised of Samford graduate students, faculty and alumni as well as community singers. Dr. Banks, professor of choral studies and conducting at Samford, is in his seventh season as MasterSingers conductor.