The News-Times/Carol Kaliff Sisters Sandy Chadwick, left, of New Milford, and Stella Johns of Danbury participate in the rehearsal. Connecticut Master Chorale Director Tina Johns Heidrich, directs a rehearsal for an upcoming concert in Newtown.

Music can touch the soul, evoke a smile, release a flood of memories and pacify a broken heart.

On March 10, one day short of six months after the events of Sept. 11, the power and glory of music will be heard at St. Rose of Lima Church when the Connecticut Master Chorale will dedicate a performance of John Rutter’s "Requiem” to the victims of the terrorist attacks.

The concert begins at 3 p.m. The musical talent of a former Newtowner, soprano soloist Emily Martin, Joseph Jacovino, organist and choir director at St. Rose, and the Connecticut Master Chorale Orchestra are also being employed, said Tina Johns Heidrich, chorale founder and director.

The director is pleased to be able to offer the "Requiem.”

"John Rutter’s ‘Requiem’ has gained immense and widespread popularity throughout the world,” she explained. "It is considered a polished gem with its haunting beauty and dramatic effects.”

The 55-member chorale will also perform a rarely heard work by Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame): "Festival Te Deum,” last was performed in the United States in 1972 in Minneapolis.

"I first heard this piece on WMNR about a year ago,” said Heidrich. "I had never heard it before but was completely taken with it. It took me about four months to finally track it down and get the music scores so that the chorale could perform it.”

The Te Deum, commissioned in 1972 to celebrate Edward, The Prince of Wales’ recovery from typhoid fever, incorporates the hymn tune St. Anne ("Our God Our Help in Ages Past”). It is sung in English and "is decidedly cheerful and upbeat,” Heidrich commented, "including at one point a jaunty march set for a military band.”

Sullivan, she continued, "is so well remembered for his series of operas with W.S. Gilbert that a 40-year career of grand music for the church and concert hall has been overshadowed. The audience will be pleasantly surprised and exhilarated and will walk away completely and gloriously uplifted.”

St. Rose of Lima Church is located at 41 Church Hill Road, Newtown.

Tickets to this performance by the Connecticut Master Chorale are $12 in advance; $15 at the door.