Where did the beautiful stained glass image on our poster for Bach’s B Minor Mass come from? Well, it’s quite a story ...

After weeks of scouring the internet, poring over dozens of books and pictures, and despairing talks with our printers, we finally stumbled across the website of the St John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Amherst, New York - and saw these glorious stained glass windows! Not only beautiful to look at, but also expressing visually what Bach had voiced musically - a deeply held Lutheran faith. In JSB’s own words "The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul".

But could we get permission to use the images? An email to Pastor Peter Breitsch was despatched, and a follow-up phone call to New York confirmed that he would be delighted for us to use the pictures of the windows. There was just one problem - the images on the website were not good enough quality. So a member of the congregation, Conrad Sorenson, went off on the first sunny day to take new high-resolution photos of all the windows - just for St George’s Singers!

There are twelve windows in all located in the Sanctuary of the Church, each one portraying one of 'I Am' sayings of God and Christ. The window that we chose for our poster is the fifth in the series, 'I Am the Light of the World', and portrays a radiant Christ (left panel) as the source of true Light. That Light reaches for a man (right panel) bringing him out of the darkness into the brightness (John 8:12).

The windows were designed and manufactured by a company called Willet Hauser, one of the most famous architectural and stained glass designers in the United States. Willet Hauser have designed the windows for countless churches, cathedrals and public buildings throughout the USA, including the United Nations and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and are currently restoring many of the churches damaged in the recent hurricanes in the southern states.

The 'I Am' windows were purchased by St John’s in 1965, the first six windows reported in the official Church Minutes on 26 April 1965 as follows:

"six windows for the east side of the nave of the church, illustrating six of the 'I Ams' of Christ in epoxy mounted faceted stained glass, be purchased from the Willet Stained Glass Studios of Philadelphia for a cost of $450.00 per window. Moved by William Baumer, 2nd by George Strohel that this recommendation be adopted. Adopted."

We are immensely grateful to Pastor Breitsch, to Conrad Sorenson and to the entire congregation of St John Evangelical Lutheran church for allowing us to use their windows to publicise our concert. You can see all the windows at St John’s website.