An Experience of Transcendence through Music

Once a year, I have the privilege of taking part in a concert series in Pennsylvania that is fast becoming a high point in my year. My friend and fellow conductor, Benedict Sheehan, has gathered a professional choir on Memorial Day for the last four years now. This choir usually performs new music of some kind, but this year was special.

This year, Benedict premiered a full Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for a large choir. This was an officially commissioned work that Benedict used to commemorate his father, who was himself a man of letters and an inspiration to many. But more than that, Benedict created a work of art that is sure to resonate with people for decades, if not centuries from now.

Perhaps even more wonderfully, Benedict created an experience shared by choir members and audience members alike that had the power to truly move, maybe even to provide a glimpse of transcendent beauty. Here’s what one of the singers had to say about the experience of singing this piece:

Words fail to express just what this piece and the entire Liturgy mean to all of us who had a part in bringing this to life. Heaven revealed itself to us all through this aural icon. None of us will ever be the same having been taken to the peak of this mountaintop, this Transfiguration. Thank you, Benedict, for opening your soul to God’s in-flooding of grace and beauty and for opening it to us all.

What happened was a rare thing–people of different confessions and political views came together to create beauty. And all of us were changed by the experience. Here’s a short video from the concert of one of the most vivid pieces. I hope you enjoy it:

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