Marquette Choral Society will present two concerts in December. The theme of the programs is “Transcendence: Celebrating the transcendence of life over death and peace over strife.”

The concerts will be at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, December 16; and 3 p.m., Sunday, December 17, in Kaufman Auditorium in Marquette. Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students and may be purchased at nmu.edu/tickets.

The group will perform Tarik O’Regan’s “Martyr,” written in 2008; and Joseph Haydn’s “Paukenmesse,” or “Mass in the Time of War,” written in 1796.

Tarik O'Regan is a London-born composer based in San Francisco, whose recent work investigates and has been influenced by his dual Arab and Irish heritages. His setting of the “Agnus Dei” was performed at the Coronation Service of King Charles III. “Martyr,” the piece to be performed by MCS, celebrates the life of St. Alban, the first known British Christian martyr.

It was written as a counterpart to Joseph Haydn's “Missa in Angustiis” (Nelson' Mass), using the same orchestration.

Haydn’s “Mass in the Time of War” is one of the most popular of the composer’s 14 settings of the Mass. Haydn composed this Mass during Austria’s mobilization into the European war that followed the French Revolution,

Marquette Choral Society is a mixed-voice, non-auditioned, adult choir of approximately 100 singers from a four-county region in the Upper Peninsula. MCS strives to engage, enrich, and inspire this region through the art of choral music. The ensemble was founded in 1971 by Dr. William Dehning and is currently led by musical director Dr. Erin Colwitz.

For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/MarquetteChoralSociety,    www.marquettechoralsociety.org, or email choralsociety906@gmail.com.