Brigham Young University-Idaho choirs and orchestra will premiere a new sacred work in November in Rexburg, Twin Falls and Salt Lake City.

Robert Cundick, a Utah composer, wrote the oratorio-like work titled "God's Everlasting Love" based on text by Elder David A. Bednar, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former president of BYU-Idaho.

In Rexburg, the premiere performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Hart Auditorium, and a final performance at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 in the Barrus Concert Hall. The Twin Falls performance will be at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13 in Roper Auditorium.

Free tickets for concerts in Rexburg and Twin Falls are available at the BYU-Idaho Ticket Office: (208) 496-2230 or (800) 717-4257, or www.byui.edu/tickets. Standby tickets will be available at the door.

The performers will include Kristina Nye of Filer; Brennan Ontiveros, Ingrid Hansen and Helen Neilson of Burley; and Jared Neibaur of the Paul-Rupert area.

The Salt Lake City performance will be at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Tabernacle on Temple Square.

Free tickets are available at the Temple Square Events Ticket Office at (801) 570-0080 or toll free at (866)537-8457.

Under the direction of Robert Tueller, the BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra will combine with more than 250 voices from the Collegiate Singers and the Men's and Women's Choirs.

Cundick, who retired as a Salt Lake Tabernacle organist in 1991, was commissioned by BYU-Idaho to write the work. It is patterned after another choral work that he wrote for BYU in Provo, Utah, in 1978 called "The Redeemer." It also is performed continuously without pause or applause.

The work's structure is much like a church service, with a prelude and postlude, invocation and benediction, the main body of the work, and two hymn arrangements.

"It's worship through music," Cundick said in a university press release. "I hope this work will serve as a catalyst for each listener to meditate on God's love for them. I feel strongly that a combination of music and spoken word intensifies the spiritual experience."

In 1989, BYU-Idaho began commissioning LDS composers biennially to create religious oratorios.

Sacred oratorios are generally based on scriptural text, but Cundick said he asked Bednar to write this text.

"The text for this work was written by a living apostle," he said. "This has not been done before, so we are plowing new ground."