Pioneer Valley Cappella Choral Concert performance "Seven Last Words of the Unarmed" by Joel Thompson. And "Heavenly Hurt: Songs of Love and Loss" by Alice Parker
Date/Time
Location
Edwards Church (297 Main St, Northampton MA)
Pioneer Valley Cappella Choral Concert: “Last Words”
Pioneer Valley Cappella, led by music director Geoffrey Hudson, performs its spring 2025
concert on May 2nd. “Last Words” presents two contrasting masterworks of contemporary
choral music along with smaller works from the Renaissance and Shaker traditions.
The central work on the program is Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed,
composed in 2015. Thompson sets to music the last words of unarmed Black men just before
they were killed by police officers. The musical impact is stunning and heart-breaking.
Thompson composed the piece as a “sonic diary entry, expressing [his] fear, anger, and grief in
the wake” of a grand jury’s decision not to indict the police officer who killed Eric Garner, even
though the killing was recorded on video. Since its premiere in 2015, Seven Last Words of the
Unarmed has been performed across the country. Pioneer Valley Cappella’s concert is believed
to be the first full performance of the piece in the Pioneer Valley.
Thompson’s masterpiece is paired with another contemporary choral work: Alice Parker’s
Heavenly Hurt: Songs of Love and Loss, a setting of seven poems by Emily Dickinson. Parker
describes the piece as “a kind of Requiem.” She composed the set in 2016, when she was
already more than 90 years old. As she wrote, “In trying to find the voice for each poem, I aim
for that elegant simplicity which informs [Dickinson’s] art.” She achieves that goal in exquisite
fashion. Heavenly Hurt is a masterful distillation of the art of choral composing, showcasing all
the skills Parker had honed during her illustrious six-decade career at the forefront of American
choral music.
Three Shaker melodies, an energetic and graceful setting of the Kaddish prayer by 16 th century
composer Salomone Rossi, and two exquisite choruses by the Elizabethan master William Byrd
round out the program.
Pioneer Valley Cappella, an auditioned chamber chorus based in Northampton, has been
performing locally for more than 40 years. Music Director Geoffrey Hudson leads the ensemble,
who are joined for this concert by tenor soloist Hanif Lawrence and instrumentalists Gregory
Hayes, Karl Knapp, Colleen Jennings, Kaila Graef, Charlotte Malin, and Emery Wegh.