Hilo Community Chorus performs “Eternal Music, Eternal Light”

On Saturday, May 10 at 7 p.m. the Hilo Community Chorus, in conjunction with the Palace Theater, proudly presents a program of two master choral works, Haydn’s “Missa in Angustiis” (more commonly known as the “Lord Nelson Mass”), and a work by contemporary composer Morten Lauridsen, the “Lux Aeterna” (or “Eternal Light.”)

The “Eternal Music” of our program, the “Lord Nelson Mass” was written in 1798. Haydn’s chief biographer, H. C. Robbins Landon, has written that this mass “is arguably Haydn’s greatest single composition”. Under the baton of conductor Tom McAlexander, the Hilo Community Chorus is proud to feature four of the finest performers in the Hilo community doing the demanding solo work. Kaui Trainer, soprano; Gerdine Markus, mezzo-soprano; Pedro Ka’awaloa, tenor; and Barry Brandes, bass, will be joined at the organ by noted accompanist Walter Greenwood.

“Lux Aeterna” translates from the Latin as “Eternal Light”, and is a five-movement requiem which, according to its composer, “is an intimate work of quiet serenity centered around a universal symbol of hope, reassurance, goodness and illumination at all levels.”

Morten Lauridsen is the most widely-performed modern choral composer in the world. In 2006, Lauridsen was named an ‘American Choral Master’ by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007 he received the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, “for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide.”

Tickets on sale at The Palace Theater Box Office for only $12, or directly from Chorus members for $10