The Psalterium Institute present “Advent & Christmas: An Evening of Sacred Choral Music” in both Brunswick and Lewiston the weekend before Christmas. Admission to both concerts is free, but a freewill offering of $10 per attendee is appreciated.

The performances are under the direction of Leon Griesbach and feature the Psalterium Institute Chamber Choir, Boy Choir and Magnificat Girl Choir. The first performance is at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, at St. John the Baptist Church at 39 Pleasant St. in Brunswick. The second is at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 18, at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul at 122 Ash St. in Lewiston.

The Psalterium Institute is dedicated to the mission of training singers to produce beautiful choral music while also instructing them in the traditions of Catholic sacred music including Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony and modern sacred repertoire.

Griesbach, the executive director and founder of the institute, is the former director of music at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland and former director of liturgical music at the Pontifical North American College in Italy, where he led the seminary’s 45-voice choir in liturgies at the seminary and St. Peter’s Basilica.

​“My experiences in choral music over the last 30 years have all formed me deeply,” he said. “Every time I hear a powerful performance, see a brilliant work of art, find myself in an awe-inspiring structure or in other situations where beauty is apparent, I am most often brought back to moments as a boy chorister, weeping because something is so beautiful it hurts. One of the reasons I founded the institute was to ignite in each heart a desire that takes them on a lifelong journey punctuated by moments of deeply consoling and satisfying beauty.”

For more information about the concerts or the institute, visit psalterinstitute.org.