LEWISTON – Despite the lingering snow, this is the time of year when thoughts of spring and new life lift our spirits. Appropriately, the Maine Music Society and Bates College have collaborated for an ambitious performance of Brahms’ German Requiem – a celebration of eternal life instead of a plea for the dead.

“The music is just glorious,” said Susan Trask, an alto in the Androscoggin Chorale. “The Brahms Requiem is a very moving and very spiritual work.”

For the first time in the Lewiston-Auburn area, the Androscoggin Chorale and the Maine Chamber Ensemble under the Maine Music Society have joined forces with the Bates College Orchestra and Bates College Choir to perform “Ein deutsches Requiem,” known in English as Brahms’ German Requiem. They will sing in German, but English translations will be included in the program.

The choirs of Lewiston and Edward Little high schools will add their voices to two motets (taken from the book of Psalms) by Brahms to open the evening. Also for the first time, two high-school students, Melissa Dalton of Lewiston High School and Moriah Churchill of Edward Little, have been included in the Androscoggin Chorale.

The elaborate musical event, which boasts some 260 instrumental and vocal performers, will start at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 31. To complement the grandeur of the composition and performance, the concert will be in the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, 27 Bartlett St.

Unlike the traditional liturgical requiem, which is a mass for the dead, Brahms’ choral composition celebrates hope and mankind’s relationship with God. The 19th-century composer carries the listener on an emotional journey through biblical text of his or her own choosing and enormous swells of music that require such a mass of voices that it seems the whole of Earth is singing to the heavens.

Trask, who also is the chorale coordinator and a charter member of Maine Music Society, added that she anticipated a flood of emotion during the first rehearsal with full orchestra. “There are some amazingly poignant moments and some amazingly thrilling moments,” said Trask. “I have always wanted to sing this.”

The idea for this concert originally was spawned on the Bates College campus over a year ago, said John Corrie, artistic director for Maine Music Society and Bates College Choir director.

Shortly after joining the Bates music department, Orchestra Conductor Hiroya Miura approached Corrie about combining the choir and orchestra to perform the Brahms Requiem. Corrie admitted that he was reluctant to take on the daunting project.

“This is massive,” said Corrie. “We would need the kind of forces that we have now with the Music Society.”

As fate would have it, the Maine Music Society hired Corrie as its artistic director last spring, and the connection between the society and Bates opened the possibility for Miura’s proposal.

Corrie will direct the choirs singing Brahms’ motets. Miura will then conduct the full choral and orchestral production during the requiem, while Corrie joins the choir as a tenor.

Soloist Bonnie Scarpelli of Portland, who has sung the Brahms opus with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and baritone soloist Peter Allen, a 1966 Bates Alumnus, will join in the requiem.

“I didn’t know anything about the requiem when we started,” said Edward Little senior Churchill, one of the high-school students singing with the chorale. “It’s been exhilarating, just an amazing experience.”

Churchill noted how dedicated all of the singers have been to learning their parts, learning to enunciate German consonants, putting in time for practice, and making a genuine effort to produce perfect sounds.

“People in this really want to sing. They really care about their parts,” said Churchill. “It really blew me away. Mr. Corrie is incredibly funny, but he really pushes you hard, and everyone is OK with that.”

Singing in German also holds an attraction for Churchill because her grandparents came from Germany, and she has wanted to learn the language.

Churchill, who participates in other school activities, has had to stay up until midnight most nights to keep up with school work and make time for the concert. But she said that the experience of singing with a large, high-caliber group and learning music is giving her inspiration and energy.

And that is what Brahms arguably intended when he included, “the whole of humanity” in his dedication of “Ein Deutsches Requiem.”

Go and do

WHAT: Brahms concert

WHO: Maine Music Society, Bates College’s orchestra and choir, and choirs of Lewiston and Edward Little high schools

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 31

WHERE: Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul

TICKETS: $15 in advance, $17.50 at the door. Call the L/A Arts box office at 782-7228. Admission free to students with valid ID, but tickets are still required. Students can call Bates College at 786-6135 to reserve tickets.

“The music is just glorious.”

alto Susan Trask, Androscoggin Chorale