Making Peace

Last season, we performed movements from ten Masses, and audiences voted on two to hear performed in full. This concert presents the winners! Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G minor, a cornerstone of twentieth-century unaccompanied choral music, draws on ideas the composer absorbed from English Renaissance masters. Receiving its world premiere, the Missa brevis by local composer Max Marcus reveals his affinity for French harmonic language. Together, these two works reimagine an ancient sacred text through very different musical traditions. Composer-in-Residence John Muehleisen bookends the program, opening with a prayer for peace and closing with a reflection on finding peace in our lives and in the world.