The premiere of an arrangement of a jazz-based anthem along with African American spirituals and early American hymns help to herald South Holland Master Chorale’s new season.

“Travelling Music” on Oct. 13 at First Reformed Church in South Holland and Oct. 20 at St. Victor Catholic Church in Calumet City is the first of three programs for the 2019-20 season titled “From the Heart to the Heart.”

“What I’ve tried to do is outline a journey through life and a journey beyond life so a lot of the pieces talk about life as a journey,” said Albert M. Jackson, director of South Holland Master Chorale.

“Some of them are talking about crossing over the Jordan River.”

Atlanta-based Zac Lavender’s arrangement of “He Looked Beyond My Faults” debuts at “Travelling Music.”

“It’s an arrangement of a piano piece that jazz pianist Keith Jarrett played. Zac took that and arranged that for chorus,” said Jackson, of Chesterton, Indiana.

“It is a fantastic piece. It’s wonderfully written. The harmonies in it are tremendous. They’re great so we’re very much looking forward to performing it. It’s a great honor to premiere this arrangement.”

“Travelling Music” also includes standards by Felix Mendelssohn and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

“There is something for everybody in this concert. If you like the straight classics, there’s stuff like that. If you like jazz, there’s something like that. If you like hymnlike songs, there’s something like that,” Jackson said.

“It’s a great way to get people interested in the Chorale, our music and the venues themselves.”

First Reformed Church is a familiar venue for fans of South Holland Master Chorale.

“It’s a great place. It’s one of our home venues. We sing there pretty much every year. It’s a lovely space to sing in and a lovely places to be an audience member in as well,” Jackson said.

He added that St. Victor Catholic Church is another great venue.

“That is just a beautiful church. It’s got some of the finest stained glass windows in the entire Chicago Southland. The windows are iconic. The acoustics are just glorious. It’s a wonderful place to sing in.”

South Holland Master Chorale includes Beecher, Calumet City, Chicago, Chicago Heights, Country Club Hills, Crete, Dolton, Flossmoor, Frankfort, Glenwood, Harvey, Homewood, Lansing, Matteson, Olympia Fields, Orland Park, Park Forest, Richton Park, South Holland, Steger, Thornton and Tinley Park residents.

The group of more than 100 members also includes Indiana residents of Chesterton, Dyer, Griffith, Hammond, Highland, Munster and Schererville.

“It’s wonderful to have singers from a good 50-mile radius from South Holland in all directions,” Jackson said.

“The very essence of community is when people from different places and as diverse as it comes in terms of race, age, social standings, income and whatever come together with a single goal in mind. That is to create beauty through music. It’s doesn’t get any better than that.”

The season also includes “The Morning Star” Dec. 8 at the Parish of St. Joseph in Homewood and Dec. 15 at St. Maria Goretti Parish in Dyer, Indiana, and “Little Diamonds — smaller works of great composers” June 6 at St. Jude the Apostle Church in South Holland and June 7 at St. Ann Catholic Parish in Lansing.

South Holland Master Chorale, which welcomes new members, rehearses at 7 p.m. Mondays at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 16500 Woodlawn East Ave., South Holland.

Jessi Virtusio is a freelancer for the Daily Southtown.