Pacific Chorale Presents Newly Discovered Groundbreaking Work by Florence Price

Pacific Chorale concludes its season with Artistic Director Robert Istad leading the West Coast premiere of the choral-orchestral version of groundbreaking composer Florence Price’s newly discovered Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a setting of Springfield, Illinois-native Nicholas Vachel Lindsay’s ardent anti-war poem of the same title. The long-lost manuscript by Price, one of the first Black American women to be widely recognized as a symphonic composer, was recovered from an abandoned house in Illinois in 2009 and is thought to have been completed between 1914 and 1949. Her work will be paired with Haydn’s masterpiece Missa in Angustiis (Mass for Troubled Times) “Nelson Mass,” composed in 1798, at a time of tremendous turmoil when the citizens of Austria feared defeat by Napoleon’s troops. These works, although grounded in the new and old worlds respectively and composed more than a century apart, both address the futility of war.

Guest artists joining Pacific Chorale include Pacific Symphony, one of the choir’s frequent collaborators; Aundi Marie Moore, soprano, applauded for “her vivid, rich voice” (Washington Classical Review); and bass-baritone Michael Sumuel, lauded for his “luminous tone and theatrical presence” (San Francisco Chronicle). This marks Moore’s second appearance with Pacific Chorale, having previously sung with the choir in 2021 on the West Coast premiere of Damien Geter’s Cantata for a More Hopeful Tomorrow.

For the Haydn piece, Pacific Chorale members I-Chin Betty Feinblatt, a mezzo-soprano noted for her “delicate and aristocratic singing” (Orange County Register), and Nicholas Preston, “a ringing stentorian tenor” (backtrack), will also be featured soloists along with Moore and Sumuel.

Immediately following the concert, the Chorale will host its annual Gala to celebrate and benefit its upcoming European tour and its artistic and education programs. For concert tickets ($26 – $142) and information, visit www.pacificchorale.org or call 714-662-2345. Gala tickets ($300) are sold separately and do not include admission to the concert.