The Austin Community College Choir will join the Austin Singers and Lamar Middle School Choir to present “Better is Peace,” a performance of Karl Jenkins’ “The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace,” on Friday and Saturday, November 19-20.

The concert, featuring 140 singers and a chamber orchestra, will be 7:30 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa Drive. Tickets are $15 for regular admission, $12 for seniors, and $5 for students. Ticket information is available at austincc.edu/choral.

“This performance will be a stirring reminder about the power of peace,” says Dr. Jim Shepherd, ACC choir director and artistic director of the Austin Singers. “The music boldly includes a variety of religious and historical elements to produce the work’s moving theme.”

Britain’s Royal Armouries Museum commissioned “The Armed Man” in 2000 to honor the victims of the Kosovo War. Â The piece is based on the Catholic Mass and incorporates excerpts from the Bible, the Islamic call to prayer, and the Mahabharata, an epic narrative from ancient India. The writings of Rudyard Kipling, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Sankichi Toge also appear in the music.