Voiceless Mass – Raven Chacon

Voiceless Mass – Raven Chacon

Presented by Vancouver New Music
Saturday, November 18, 2023; 8pm
Pacific Spirit United Church, Vancouver, Canada

Vancouver New Music presents the Vancouver premiere of Diné composer Raven Chacon’s 2022 Pulitzer Prize winning piece Voiceless Mass, for 12 musicians. Notably, Chacon is the first Indigenous composer to win a Pulitzer Prize for music. With Voiceless Mass Chacon has created a story without words and “mass without sung voices in the guise of an organ concerto” (LA Times).

The piece creates space for historically “unsung” voices to remake the weighted space of the church. Chacon says of his piece, “[t]his work considers the spaces in which we gather, the history of access of these spaces, and the land upon which these buildings sit. Though ‘mass’ is referenced in the title, the piece contains no audible singing voices, instead using the openness of the large space to intone the constricted intervals of the wind and string instruments. In exploiting the architecture of the cathedral, Voiceless Mass considers the futility of giving voice to the voiceless, when ceding space is never an option for those in power.”

The ensemble will be spread throughout Pacific Spirit United Church, creating a spatialized, immersive sound experience for the audience, and the piece will make use of the church’s impressive pipe organ.

Performed by Mark McGregor, Flute; Liam Hockley, Clarinet; AK Coope, Bass Clarinet; Katie Rife and Jade Hails, Percussion; Angelique Po, Pipe Organ; Llowyn Ball and Molly MacKinnon, Violin; Parmela Attariwala, Viola; Marina Hasselberg, Cello; Meaghan Williams, Contrabass; Stefan Maier, Electronics; Giorgio Magnanensi, Conductor

Videography by Mingtao Kong
Audio recording by Dan Kibke

Voiceless Mass – Raven Chacon (Diné) – Nov. 18, 2023 – SOLD OUT