The Queens College Choral Society (QCCS) will perform Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem on Sunday, December 15, at 4 pm in Colden Auditorium of the Kupferberg Center for the Arts. Originally called the Mass for Troubled Times, Haydn’s choral work is associated with Admiral Horatio Nelson’s victory over Napoleon. Williams’s work is a plea for peace that juxtaposes words from the Latin Mass with poetry by Walt Whitman.

The concert will conclude with the final anthem from 1001 Voices: A Symphony for a New America, which reimagines “The New Colossus”—the poem by Emma Lazarus that is inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty—as an alternative national anthem. It includes the well-known line, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." A project of earsay, 1001 Voices was composed by Frank London, with a libretto by Judith Sloan. The QCCS will be joined by over 200 local high school and middle school student singers for this performance, representing a vision for a hopeful and harmonious future.

Lazarus, a writer and activist, composed the work in 1883, inspired by her Sephardic Jewish heritage and her work with refugees and immigrants. The poem was published in the New York Times and Joseph Pulitzer's New York World.

Concert soloists include alumna Jennifer Grimaldi Toohey, soprano, and Andrew Wannigman, baritone, both of whom are faculty members in voice at the college’s Aaron Copland School of Music. School of Music graduate students pursuing Advanced Performer’s Certificates in voice, including Jinping Li, soprano; Zhe Nancy Xiong, mezzo-soprano; and Woojin Dong, tenor, will also perform.

Tickets are $25 and $5 for students with a valid QCID. Free parking is available. Visit the Kupferberg site to purchase tickets; Ticketmaster fees apply. For special family pricing, contact Emily John at qcchoralsociety@gmail.com.

Founded in 1941, the Queens College Choral Society (QCCS) is "a singing organization of and for the public, students and staff of Queens College." The Society typically performs two concerts per year with orchestra—in December and May—devoted to the great masterpieces of choral literature such as Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Bach’s Magnificat, and Handel’s Messiah. The QCCS has also performed multiple premieres of new works, including works commissioned by the Queens Symphony Orchestra. The group is open to singers of all backgrounds and skill levels, from high school students to adult community members.

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