On Friday, April 25th, the Friday of Easter Week, Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Grand Rapids, Michigan, welcomed the world-famous Tallis Scholars to sing a choral meditation and Mass for the parish’s year-long Palestrina500 festival. The choral meditation consisted of:
- Palestrina: Missa “ut re mi fa sol la”
- Palestrina: Laudate pueri Dominum
- Lassus: Media vita in morte sumus
- Lassus: Timor et Tremor
- Palestrina: Tu es Petrus
The Mass featured the Missa Papae Marcelli as well as the maestro’s Tribulationes civitatum, and Descendi in hortum meum.
And on Thursday, May 29th, the feast of the Ascension, Sacred Heart welcomed VoxGR, a local mixed-voice professional ensemble, to sing for the festival as well. The choral meditation consisted of pieces sung by VoxGR alternating with the psalms from that evening’s Vespers, chanted by the Men’s Schola of Sacred Heart, including:
- Mendelssohn: Am Himmelfahrtstage
- Jonathan Dove: Into Thy Hands
- Manuel de Sumaya: Adjuva nos Deus
- Blake Henson: My Flight for Heaven
- Palestrina: Assumpta est Maria
- David Bednall: Assumpta est Maria
- Stephan Paulus: Splendid Jewell
The Mass featured Palestrina’s Missa Ascendo ad Patrem as well as the motet “Ascendo ad Patrem” (which the Mass parodies), and his “Surge, propera amica mea.”
On June 27, the Patronal Feast of the Sacred Heart, the parish welcomed Floriani for a Solemn High Mass celebrated by Fr. Michael Caughey, FSSP, and on July 16, the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Sacred Heart will welcome the London Oratory Schola Cantorum, under the direction of NLM contributor Charles Cole, to sing a Pontifical Mass celebrated by His Excellency, Archbishop Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco.
For the full schedule of Palestrina500 events, go to palestrina500.org
