Solo Homiletic Performance & Voiceless Mass

October 30, 2022

Raven Chacon

The 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning composition will be featured at a special service next Sunday, October 30 at 10am, along with a homiletic solo performance by the composer. Free admission. Earlier this year, Raven Chacon became the first Native American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, for his Voiceless Mass. The piece, which was premiered by Present Music in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 21, 2021, is a meditation on the meaning of voicelessness, both in the context of grand physical spaces (churches and cathedrals) and instruments (the pipe organ), as well the historic and ongoing silencing of oppressed peoples by those in positions of privilege. As the composer writes: “[Voiceless Mass] considers the futility of giving voice to the voiceless, when ceding space is never an option for those in power.” Voiceless Mass, for pipe organ and chamber ensemble (solo strings, winds, percussion, recorded sine tones), will be presented as part of a special Sunday worship service at Claremont United Church of Christ. It will be the third public performance of the work (following the 2021 Milwaukee premiere and a performance in Toronto on September 30 of this year). The service will also include a solo homiletic performance, conceived for the occasion by the composer. Claremont United Church of Christ (CUCC), lead producer of the event, invites all to attend this special service, which is open to the public and free of charge. Voiceless Mass will be co-conducted by CUCC co-Directors of Music and Fine Arts, Alexandra Grabarchuk and David Rentz. Orchestra Collective of Orange County and the Scripps College Music Department have provided additional artistic and production support for the performance of Voiceless Mass. Raven Chacon: http://spiderwebsinthesky.com/ Pulitzer announcement: https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/raven-chacon