Our 2025-2026 season!
Shir Hama'aloth: Psalms of Ascent
Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 4:00 p.m.
Rainbow Mennonite Church
Hail Bright Cecilia: A Purcellian Feast
Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 3:00 p.m.
Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral
Celebrating America's Hidden Musical Heroes
Sunday, May 31, 2026 at 3:00 p.m.
Immanuel Lutheran Church at 42nd & Tracy Ave
Unsung
Celebrating America's Hidden Musical Heroes
Sunday, May 31, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Immanuel Lutheran Church
4205 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, MO
This is a free concert and no tickets are required.
Donations welcome!
Unsung celebrates music from the American choral tradition written by composers rooted in identities that have faced obstacles to the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The crucial impact of these works and the parts of American identity they represent have always deserved recognition—and in this period of intense change and self-examination we have opportunities to discover and advocate for deserving works and composers that have been neglected.
Each of the pieces on this program are exceptional simply on the basis of exellence, and merit recognition alongside the rest of America’s celebrated choral works by composers. Included are works from a panoply of overlooked music by American women, Black Americans, Immigrants, and Native Americans, and many other identities. Some speak to the experience of these identities, pulling from unique traditions—while others address more general themes. All contain a piece of what it means to be a human being in our desire to create and express in the American context.
Pioneering women in the field of choral music, Margaret Bonds and Undine Smith Moore are featured alongside living composers active in the last fifty years, Evelyn Simpson-Cureton, Mari Esabel Valverde, and Patricia VanNess.
In addition to the contributions of women of color (Bonds, Moore, and Simpson-Cureton) we are featuring additional works by Black men, Nathanel Dett and Adolphus Hailstork. Notably, this concert features Dett’s cantata The Chariot Jubilee, a work that was lost for nearly a century after its’ acclaimed premiere in 1921.
Indigenous American composers have far too little attention within the Classical music community. Awareness of contemporary Native American composers is growing, particularly after Raven Chacon became the first Native American composer to receive the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2022. Our performance of choral works by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and Linthicum Blackhorse represent a far larger body of Native American composers who are actively creating new works for America’s best ensembles.
Past Concerts this season
Shir Hama'aloth
Psalms of Ascent
Musica Vocale with members of the Kansas City
Baroque Consortium
Jay Carter and Ryan Olsen, conductors
Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Rainbow Mennonite Church
1444 Southwest Blvd
Kansas City, KS
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This is a free concert and no tickets are required.
Donations welcome!
Click the image above to
view the concert program.
Jerusalem's temple was the focal point of Jewish pilgrimages, until its destruction in 70 C.E. One’s final ascent up the Temple Mount was marked with a pause at each of the last fifteen steps to sing a specifically prescribed Psalm, each beginning with the phrase Shir hama'aloth, or “A song of ascent." Centuries later, these same texts became essential parts of the European, Christian musical tradition and inspired some of the most memorable works by leading composers. Despite a shared scriptural heritage, Jewish and Christian musical traditions have often remained separated by imagined barriers and the long shadow of antisemitism—though in a few fleeting moments artistic endeavors allowed for connection.
The northern Italian city of Mantua was one musical exception to the rule, housing a large Jewish population that was essential to the artistic infrastructure of one of the Renaissance’s most vibrant ruling cities. One of the most prominent and long-serving artists at the Gonzagan court was the Jewish composer Salamone Rossi, a colleague and contemporary of Claudio Monteverdi. Alongside numerous madrigals, stage works, and instrumental sonatas, Rossi composed Hebrew-language choral works that incorporated the latest musical styles into Jewish liturgy. His works were published in a cheekily titled 1623 publication, Ha'shirim asher li-Shlomo, or “The Songs of Solomon,” the first published collection of choral music for use in synagogues.
This concert highlights several of Rossi's extraordinary works alongside others by Catholic and Protestant composers exploring the Psalms of Ascent. Rossi’s Hebrew-language settings are presented along with psalms by his Catholic colleague Monteverdi (from his Vespers of 1610) and others by two giants from the realm of Protestant music: Henry Purcell and J.S. Bach (Aus der Tiefen, rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131). The result is a rare meeting of traditions and a musical pilgrimage toward understanding.
Psalm 126: Nisi Dominus
Monteverdi
Psalm 128: Ashrei kol yere Adonai
Rossi
Psalm 128: Beati omnes qui timent Dominum, Z. 131
Purcell
Psalm 130: Aus der tiefen, BWV 131
J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
Program
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Psalm 3: Jehovah, quam multi sunt hostes mei, Z. 135
Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Psalm 121: Esa einai
Salamone Rossi (1570-1630)
Psalm 122: Laetatus Sum
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Psalm 124: Lulei Adonai
Rossi
Hail, Bright Cecilia!
A Purcellian Feast
Musica Vocale with members of the
Kansas City Baroque Consortium and guests
Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 W 13th St, Kansas City, MO
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This concert made possible in part with a generous gift from
M. Wayne Alexander & John W. Braum.
​
This is a free concert and no tickets are required.
Donations welcome!
Click the image above to
view the concert program.
Though he died in 1695 at the young age of 36, Henry Purcell’s musical influence and remarkable gift for musically depicting English poetry have resonated for centuries after his death. In his lifetime, he simultaneously held positions at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, while also serving the courts of Charles II, James II, and William and Mary. Even today, Purcell’s celebratory works remain an important part of coronations and other festive occasions. His semi-opera Dido and Aeneas is presented by both professional and academic organizations with impressive regularity.​
Ironically, smaller scale works have largely overshadowed the music for which Purcell was most acclaimed in his lifetime—his many odes for royal events, feast days, and other festive occasions. Among these, his 1692 ode Hail, Bright Cecilia! is certainly the grandest, and showcases Purcell’s skill at conveying complex musical and poetic ideas with disarming ease and conversational naturalness. It is a perfect musical illumination of the text by his contemporaries Nicholas Brady and John Dryden. Notably, the work has never been presented in its entirety in Kansas City.​
Bookending the ode are two works written for other regal ceremonies. I was glad when they said unto me was written for the coronation of James II in 1685, and was the favored version for English coronations until it was displaced by C.H.H Parry’s 1905 setting. The anthem Rejoice in the Lord, Alway was written for the opulent Chapel Royal where English monarchs worshipped at a time when expressive instrumental interludes, florid vocal solos, and jubilant choral passages were the favored musical style. Rejoice… was quickly nicknamed “The Bell Anthem” in reference to a recurring melody played by the instruments that precisely mimics the celebratory pealing of church bells.
Program
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Henry Purcell (1659–1695)
I was glad when they said unto me, Z. 19
Hail, Bright Cecilia, Z. 328
Rejoice in the Lord Alway (The Bell Anthem), Z. 49