\u201cIt\u2019s three different composers\u2019 take on how do we grapple with the reality of conflict and how do we hope for peace in the midst of it?\u201d said Cameron Gunsbury-Massey, who joined the Mendelssohn as its new executive director early this year.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/b8191be\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5504x8256+0+0\/resize\/880x1320!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F35%2Fee%2F0bfb7918439db18682fa5f819fd0%2Fd-singer-conducting-credit-paul-vladuchick.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Paul Vladuchick<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh<\/p>\n
Daniel Singer is music director of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
The concert\u2019s centerpiece is \u201cMass in Time of War,\u201d which Franz Joseph Haydn composed in 1796, as Napoleon\u2019s armies were advancing on his native Austria.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a 40-minute work for the full choir, soloists and piano, plus timpani and trumpet that summon a martial atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hear in this piece anxiety, concern, pleading for peace, and we start to see this breakdown in the sort of perfect classical enlightened society,\u201d Singer said.<\/p>\n
The concert also includes Florence Price\u2019s \u201cAbraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight.\u201d The 24-minute oratorio incorporating Vachel Lindsay\u2019s eponymous 1914 poem<\/a> depicts Lincoln\u2019s ghost pondering the never-ending tragedy of warfare.<\/p>\n \u201cHis head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings,\u201d reads one verse. \u201cYea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep? \/ Too many peasants fight, they know not why, \/ Too many homesteads in black terror weep.\u201d<\/p>\n Price\u2019s composition dates from the early 1950s, but it was not published during her lifetime and came to light only when the score was found among her papers in 2009. This will be its Pittsburgh premiere.<\/p>\n Singer said the Haydn and Price works function in tandem.<\/p>\n \u201cThe two pieces together really help paint an image of what war does to people, to the civilians, to society, and how it creates instability,\u201d he said. \u201cIt allows us to think on how we can work together to bring peace in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Cameron Gunsbury-Massey is executive director of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n The program will open with contemporary Estonian composer Arvo P\u00e4rt\u2019s \u201cDa pacem Domine,\u201d a brief 2004 work that ruminates on terrorism.<\/p>\n The 118-year-old Mendelssohn Choir consists of a 20-member core of professional singers and more than 100 volunteers.<\/p>\n It is known for its frequent pairings with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in concerts such as Mahler\u2019s Resurrection this past March. In December, the choir will perform both Beethoven\u2019s Mass and Handel\u2019s Messiah with the PSO.<\/p>\n But the Mendelssohn also programs its own standalone season. Upcoming events include February\u2019s CrosSING Bridges participatory singing workshop on gospel music<\/a> and May\u2019s concert featuring composer Eric Whitacre\u2019s “The Sacred Veil.”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"War, it seems, is always with us. With its season-opening concert, The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh hopes to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-301496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791370331_619_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n