In Praise & Protest
Saturday, March 21, 2026, 7:30 pm | St. Mark’s Church, San Francisco
Hail, Gladdening Light - Charles Wood | Magnificat á 8 - Giovanni da Palestrina
Mass in G Minor for Double Chorus - Ralph Vaughan Williams
The New Colossus - Saunder Choi | Après Moi, le Déluge - Luna Pearl Woolf
This bold and moving choral program explores sacred beauty, social conscience, and the enduring power of the human voice across five centuries. From luminous evening hymns to searing protest works, the evening offers a journey through music that elevates, interrogates, and ultimately calls us to act.
The program opens with Hail, Gladdening Light by Irish-English composer Charles Wood. Rooted in the Anglican choral tradition, this late-19th-century setting of the ancient Greek hymn Phos Hilaron glows with serene reverence. Scored for double choir, the piece rises from hushed invocation to radiant exultation, capturing both the mystical stillness of dusk and the joy of spiritual illumination. Wood’s harmonic language evokes the cathedral’s echoing vaults and establishes a mood of contemplative grandeur.
This atmosphere prepares the listener for Magnificat à 8 by Giovanni da Palestrina, a masterwork of Renaissance polyphony. Scored for two four-part choirs, Palestrina’s setting of Mary’s song of praise unfolds in noble arcs of imitative counterpoint and graceful interplay. The music’s clarity and balance reflect the composer’s gift for marrying form and devotion—crafting sacred architecture in sound. Its inclusion anchors the program in the sacred traditions of Western music, offering a moment of sublime equilibrium.
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor bridges past and present, drawing inspiration from the Renaissance masters while channeling a deeply personal spiritual vision shaped by the trauma of World War I. Composed in 1921, the Mass employs modal harmonies, plainsong-like melodies, and intricate choral textures to create a mystical and introspective work. Scored for double choir and solo quartet, it is at once a homage to the ancient church and a cry for transcendence in the modern world—a spiritual reckoning as much as a sacred offering.
The second half turns toward contemporary works that confront the brokenness of our world with prophetic force. Saunder Choi’s The New Colossus transforms Emma Lazarus’s iconic sonnet—engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty—into a choral act of protest and lament. As an immigrant himself, Choi sets the text with rich, layered textures and emotional urgency, challenging the myth of welcome in an era of exclusion. The piece becomes a meditation on national identity and moral responsibility, reframing a historic symbol as a site of struggle.
Luna Pearl Woolf’s Après Moi, le Déluge delivers the program’s stark and unforgettable conclusion. Scored for solo cello and a cappella chorus, the work juxtaposes 18th-century devotional poetry by Christopher Smart with excerpts from a 2005 speech by Congressman Jim McDermott, decrying the U.S. government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Woolf’s music is visceral and haunting, casting a spotlight on environmental collapse, systemic neglect, and political indifference. The cello wails and protests alongside the chorus, creating a soundscape of anguish and accusation.
Together, these five works create a concert experience that transcends time and genre. What begins in sacred stillness crescendos into collective outcry—a journey from light to reckoning, and perhaps, to the glimmer of hope born from awareness and action.