Messiah Project gathers a company of artists intent on diving deeply into the source material of Handel’s masterpiece. The company invites the community into this process through performances marked by honesty, spiritual integrity, and artistic excellence.
More About Messiah Project
The Wheaton College Concert Choir and Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. John William Trotter, join forces to reimagine Handel’s beloved Messiah. Sung entirely from memory, Messiah Project stages Handel’s masterwork with dramatic movement and moments of dance. Both iterations of this project (2024 and 2026) have connected ancient texts to contemporary questions, inviting the audience into a renewed encounter with the gospel story. More than a concert, Messiah Project immerses the company and audience in an experience of music, story, and transformation.
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Messiah Project in Prisons
Both the 2024 and the 2026 tour included performances in prisons. The conductor of the choral ensemble at the Florida men’s prison shares a conversation with an inmate who conducted part of the performance...
“When I got to the performance, [an inmate] pulled me aside, and he was already crying, and he was like, ‘You know that I'm gonna have more to say, but I have to just say thank you for encouraging me and asking if I could conduct”. He said, “We forget how beauty propels us through life...[Messiah Project] was a moment that's going to help me hold on.’”
Reflections on the Creative Process
Concert Choir chaplain and journalist Hannah Morris (’26) created this reflection of quotes and text to describe the journey of creating Messiah Project.
“Messiah Project sounds like something we did, but actually, we felt like we were following, not leading.” - Dr. John William Trotter
It was communal work—slow and messy, but in it, each person's beauty was increasingly illuminated. It taught us to love one another better.
Diligent memorization and musical flexibility liberated the company to move and engage kinesthetically with the story of Messiah.
The Creative Team consisted of a group of roughly twenty members led by student Lillian Evans, our staging director. They met each week to envision the 2026 installation of Handel’s Messiah. The decisions for choreography, scripture recitation, and much more all came out of this team’s unproductive, uncredited, and non-mandatory meetings.
Messiah Project’s artistic decisions emerged from two wells of subject matter: the scriptures of Handel’s Messiah and the musical exegesis of those texts.
“What comes to mind is the idea of excellence. Every single person both making music, or listening, or backstage, or passing by, is completely and fully human. What I mean is that even if our paths cross for a short time, it doesn’t mean that they’re any less valued.” - Jay Henry Gregg, cellist
Being infallibly practiced was not the key. Parker Ohman, the staging director of Messiah Project 2024, said, “What I was able to trust the company to do was make it up in the moment. The bigger part of rehearsal was forming the ensemble and shaping their imaginations in a way that they could adapt to capture the heart of the thing.” Ever-changing venues required this flexibility.
The audience was as much a part of the making of Messiah Project as the company. Every concert was altered by each audience member’s unique presence. Their voices continue to shape the narrative and future of Messiah Project today.
As the beginning of our journey is prayer, so the journey itself is a gift; the ending is gratitude, and all along the means is faith—faith in the only giver of all good gifts— our God, our Messiah.
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Download the Messiah Project 2026 Program
Download the Messiah Project program to learn more about the Director's artistic vision, the performers, and follow along.
