On Saturday, April 26, the La Salle University Choir performed their Spring Concert, Visions of Rapture, at The Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.  

 Directed by John Lewis, and accompanied by Charlene Angelini, the choir’s spirited program included nine arrangements, blending 10 voices, which provided a musical landscape exploring many ways to experience feelings of rapture or an “intense feeling of joy or pleasure.”

Opening with a traditional African America spiritual, My Lord What a Morning, through the closing song, The Lord Is My Shepherd, the La Salle University Choir offered the concert for Pope Francis on the day of his funeral. 

The program included: 

• My Lord What a Morning (African American Spiritual, arr. John Lewis) 
• Lo! He Comes With Clouds Descending (Charles Wesley, arr. John Rutter) 
• In the Shadow of Your Wings (John Leavitt) 
• The Call (Z. Randall Stroope) 
• Blessed Assurance (Phoebe Palmer Knapp, arr. Alan Bullard) 
• Jesus the Very Thought of Thee (Mark Hayes) 
• Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (Keith Getty) with soloist Fiona Ligouri, ‘25) 
• O How Glorious Is The Kingdom (Philip Stopford) 
• The Lord Is My Shepherd (Allen Pote) 

Dan Allen, president of La Salle University, and Alisa Macksey, vice president for Mission, Diversity, and Inclusion at La Salle University, were in attendance for the program, designed to transport the audience to places of rapture through music. 

This was the second time the La Salle University Choir performed their Spring Concert at the Basilica Shrine, and we look forward to filling it with their beautiful voices and music, and hosting their Spring Concert, in the coming years ahead.  

Watch the whole concert below.

For additional information and to support the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal and the Basilica Shrine in our devotion to the Blessed Mother, we invite you to further explore our website.