Break Open to Beauty at First Congregational Church

Let your heart unfurl in empathy, vulnerability, and hope as PWC’s spring concert, Break Open to Beauty, beckons you to embrace music’s deep, transformative power to awaken emotions!

The program showcases Giovanni Pergolesi’s heart-wrenchingly beautiful Stabat Mater, an early 18th-century portrayal of a mother’s grief. This multi-movement work weaves together solos and duets with choral movements amplifying and giving voice to sorrow. 

The concert also features the world premieres of two works composed for the PWC by our Composers-in-Residence. One is an excerpt from Freida Abtan’s (2026) opera-in-progress for video and live chorus, reimagining the Orpheus myth. Amy X Neuburg’s (2025) “What Place is This?” delves into what home and place are for so many who are displaced. This same longing for refuge is echoed in Michael Bussewitz Quarm’s hauntingly lyrical “Nigra Sum,” symbolizing the promise of a new spring.

Our chamber ensemble, Radiance, will present two works from our collaboration with Stanford’s graduate composition students. The program is counterbalanced with the light-hearted charm of Thomas Morley’s madrigal “Fire, Fire My Heart” and Ron Jeffers’ luminous arrangement of “Amazing Grace,” a timeless work that has offered solace for generations. 

Come with an open heart and surrender to the profound beauty of music that gives voice to our deepest emotions!