advena: liturgies for a broken world
advena: liturgies for a broken world, featuring world premieres of choral music from composer Mark Buller performed by GRAMMY® Award-winning choir Conspirare and Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson.
Born of personal reckonings with inherited faith and culture, Mass in Exile and Requiem for the Light are liturgies shaped by the world of today. Composed by Mark Buller with librettist Leah Lax, these works reimagine these ancient forms with the immediacy our present moment demands. Composed by Mark Buller with librettist Leah Lax, these works reimagine ancient forms through the lens of our present moment. Buller’s vibrant musical language combines with mystical choral textures to create an emotional intensity that feels both intimate and urgent.
These works are presented between two companion works — Introit: Fruit of Your Heart and Communion: A Questioning— with texts by British poet and librettist Euan Tait which offer chant-like settings that extend the project’s core themes, anchoring the whole in a wider human arc.
Artistic Director and conductor Craig Hella Johnson is passionate about the power of Buller’s music in this moment, saying:
“We find ourselves in a pivotal cultural moment—one that calls for expressions of beauty and truth, offered both for inspiration but also as acts of resistance. This collaborative art—Mark Buller’s music and the words of Leah Lax and Euan Tait—creates a space of welcome where we are reminded of our shared humanity, our urgent need for bold truth-telling, and our capacity to heal and grow.”
Conspirare is at their finest in this music and singers Simon Barrad, Emily Yocum Black, and Michael Hawes can be heard in solo roles. Conspirare is joined by dynamic instrumental collaborators Patrice Calixte, Mariama Alcântara, Bruce Williams, Douglas Harvey, Jessica Valls, Marc Garvin, and Thomas Burritt.
Track Listing
- Introit: Fruit of Your Heart (3:19)
- I. For Want of Refuge. Miserere (5:20)
- II. Credo in Exile (9:38)
- III. Peaceable Kingdom. Gloria (5:58)
- IV. As Water Flows Away “Prayer for the Government” (2:18)
- V. Mercy. Kyrie (4:26)
- VI. Earth Sanctus “Body and Blood” (5:26)
- VII. When All Else Falls Away. Benedictus (4:25)
- I. Lacrimosa for the Murdered (8:05)
- II. Confutatis “Morning Light” (4:49)
- III. Prayer to the Body. Domine Jesu (3:12)
- IV. No Trumpets “Prayer to the Earth”. Dies Irae (4:21)
- V. Requiem. Agnus Dei (1:51)
- Communion: A Questioning (2:42)
Reviews
“Mark Buller ponders a host of moral issues in these works performed by the sterling choral ensemble Conspirare. Conspirare, led by founding Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson, respond to all of Buller’s emotional gestures with utmost cohesion and flexibility, and the soloists – basses Michael Hawes and Simon Barrad and soprano Emily Yocum Black – are first-rate.
” —Donald Rosenberg
“Conspirare carries this appealing interpretation above all with their exquisitely balanced sound, which brings the necessary emotionality and intimacy to the works.
” —Guy Engels
