La Salle University Choir Lifts Their Voices at the Basilica Shrine
Basilica Shrine Hosts La Salle University Choir's Spring Concert
The concert’s theme was “Soon I Shall Fly.” While the words come from one of the pieces of the show’s program, Choir Director John Lewis says they have special meaning. He commented, “I especially chose it because this concert is given as a testament to the success of our choir over the past three years since the lifting of the COVID restrictions.”
Lewis says the current incarnation of the La Salle Choir is a special one noting that after COVID the group was small with roughly seven members. The choir now has 15 members.
The concert’s theme also reflects the end of the college career for some of the choir members. Lewis said, “Many of our inaugural members are now seniors who are anticipating graduation and going out into the world to begin working in the fields for which they have been so zealously studying. Thus, ‘Soon I Shall Fly’, in a way, is a swansong for these seniors, as well as words of mission for those students who will move up and continue to carry on the legacy.”
Lewis thought holding the concert at the Basilica Shrine made sense. He said, “It is most fitting that this be the location for this event given the liturgical involvement our choir has had at the Basilica Shrine. In the Fall of 2022, the choir provided music for the Mass that installed Dr. Allan as president of La Salle University. In April 2023, the choir was invited back to the shrine to provide music for the Mass wherein the shrine was elevated to Basilica status. We returned again in December to provide music on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. One of our members is now on the cantor rotation for Masses at the Basilica Shrine. In the midst of all of these collaborations, it was suggested that maybe, one day, the choir might give a concert at the Basilica Shrine. It was then that the idea was born for this particular concert.”
The concert featured the following selection of songs:
1. Trinity Psalms (Z. Randall Stroope)
2. This Is The Day That The Lord Has Made (Mark Hayes)
3. The Lord Is My Shepherd (Allen Pote)
4. Seek The Lord (Tom Grassi)
5. Kyrie from Memorial (Rene Clausen)
6. Ubi Caritas (Ola Gjeilo)
7. Panis Angelicus (Zack Stachowski)
8. Magnificat (Keith Getty)
9. Ave Maria (Philip Stopford)
10. In The Beginning from Children Of Eden (Steven Schwartz)
You can view the concert below.