Andrew Minear & Sandra Shafer, Conductors
Ledean Williams, piano

Jake Runestad – The Lighthouse Keeper
I. Carve An Endless Moment (Middle Palisade)
II. Shifting Sand (Joshua Tree)
III. Beauty Is Life (Mediterranean, Medianoche)
IV. The Lighthouse Keeper (Point Reyes)
V. Mariposa (Yosemite)

Songs of life’s journey sung by Harmonia:
Jocelyn Hagen – Heart of Gold
Hye-Young Cho – Evocation
Gwyneth Walker – Crossing the Bar
Dan Forrest – Let me Listen

Will Todd – Mass in Blue
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
3. Credo
4. Sanctus
5. Benedictus
6. Agnus Dei

Anna Crumley, soprano
Ledean Williams, piano
Vernay Reindollar, bass
Christian Snedeker, drums
Jeremy Fratti, saxophone

PROGRAM NOTES

Jake Runestad – The Lighthouse Keeper
Performed by the Orlando Sings Symphonic Chorus

The Lighthouse Keeper is a deeply moving choral work that journeys through moments of friendship, grief, memory, and healing. Composer Jake Runestad weaves together five musical vignettes, each inspired by personal experiences and landscapes across California and beyond—from a tragic loss on Middle Palisade Peak to a joyful road trip through Joshua Tree, a midnight swim off the Mediterranean coast, and a painful season of despair at Point Reyes, ending in a quiet moment of rebirth in Yosemite.

The work opens with a timeless plea for presence and connection in the face of mortality, then shifts to the vast, dreamlike expanses of the desert. A moment of radiant beauty follows, evoking the sacredness of life itself. The title movement—“The Lighthouse Keeper”—becomes the emotional core, depicting the anguish of watching a loved one fade into the depths of depression, even as the narrator’s light continues to call them home. The final movement, “Mariposa,” offers a tender reflection on impermanence and the urgency to cherish one another while we can. The Lighthouse Keeper is both intimate and universal—a meditation on love, loss, and the human need to be seen, known, and remembered.

TEXT for The Lighthouse Keeper
 
I. Carve an Endless Moment (Middle Palisade)

If I watch the time, some of my friends will die,
If I watch the time, I shall surely die myself.

Let me then gather all my friends around me
And carve an endless moment out of stone.

– Witter Bynner (adapt. Runestad)
 

II. Shifting Sand (Joshua Tree)

As I gaze, these narrow walls expand,
The desert stretches with its shifting sand;
Before my dreamy eye,
Its unimpeded sky.

And onward and onward, across the setting sun,
The column and its broader shadow run
Across the boundless plain,
Till thought pursues in vain.

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (adapt. Runestad)


III. Beauty Is Life (Mediterranean, Medianoche)

Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.

– Kahlil Gibran
 

IV. The Lighthouse Keeper (Point Reyes)

The thickening fog, clouding your sight.
The wicked sea, tossing your boat.
My reaching light, calling you home.

The darkening sea, pulling you under.
Your broken boat.
Your battered heart.
My yearning light, calling, calling, calling…

– Jake Runestad


V. Mariposa (Yosemite)

Butterflies are white and blue
In this field we wander through.
Suffer me to take your hand.
Death comes in a day or two.

All the things we ever knew
Will be ashes in that hour,
Mark the transient butterfly,
How he hangs upon the flower.

Suffer me to take your hand.
Suffer me to cherish you
Till the dawn is in the sky.
Whether I be false or true,
Death comes in a day or two.

– Edna St. Vincent Milla

Songs of Life’s Journey
Performed by Harmonia

This next set by Harmonia explores the complexities of memory, loss, identity, and empathy through four evocative works by women and contemporary composers.

Jocelyn Hagen’s Heart of Gold, inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, celebrates resilience and beauty found in brokenness. Hye-Young Cho’s Evocation gently navigates the struggle between holding on and letting go, offering space for memory and healing. Gwyneth Walker’s vibrant setting of Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar transforms a farewell into a hopeful passage beyond life’s horizon, and Dan Forrest’s Let Me Listen, with text by Charles Anthony Silvestri, is a heartfelt invitation to truly hear one another’s stories. Taken together, these pieces illuminate the profound emotional terrain we navigate as we walk—briefly but meaningfully—alongside one another.

Heart of Gold

Like the lines of your hands 
and the scars on my back
We wear our history 
and when I look at you
All I can see 
is your heart
the jagged lines;
Each break, each bend 
of gold.
~ “Kintsukuroi” by Julia Klatt Singer

Evocation

Unable to forget, you recall your love;
Yet let life pass away, though in pain.
One day you may be able to forget.
Unable to forget, you recall your love;
Yet just bid the years to slip away.
Unable to forget, you may stil forget a little.

Crossing the Bar

Sunset and evening bar, and one clear call for me.
And may there be no moaning of the bar, when I put out to sea.
But such a tide as moving seems asleep, too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep turns again home. 
Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar, when I put out to sea.
Twilight and evening ball and after that the dark, 
And may there be no sadness of farewell, when I embark
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place the flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar.
Face to face, for I can see my Pilot face to face across the bar

Let Me Listen

We come from different places, 
You and I, 
on different paths we journey; 
let me walk beside you for a while – 
let me listen. 
So briefly do our lonely paths converge, 
Yours and mine, 
along this human journey; 
what hollow loss to never hear your song – 
let me listen. 
Let me listen, 
let me listen as you tell your story: 
Your triumphs and your tears, 
Your trials and your fears. 
Your story never has been mine to tell – 
so let me listen. 
And if a silence is your choice to keep, 
then I will keep it with you; 
as long as we walk together, 
You and I, 
I will listen. 
Too long you’ve waited, too long, 
to share your journey, your song – 
so let me listen.
 – Charles Anthony Silvestri, 2022

Will Todd – Mass in Blue
Performed by the Symphonic Chorus with jazz band and Anna Crumley, soprano

Will Todd’s Mass in Blue is a dynamic fusion of sacred tradition and jazz expression. Written in 2003 for his wife, soprano Bethany Halliday, the work reimagines the movements of the Latin Mass through blues harmonies, gospel rhythms, and soulful improvisation. From the opening cries of the Kyrie, filled with longing and spiritual fervor, to the jubilant fanfares of the Gloria, each movement pulses with energy and reverence.

The Credo becomes a personal affirmation of belief, swinging through blues-infused declarations and a stirring depiction of the resurrection. The Sanctus and Benedictus provide contrast—first with lush, meditative beauty, then with joyful grooves that lift the spirit. The Agnus Dei is the emotional heart of the work: plaintive, raw, and ultimately redemptive. As the piece concludes, Todd defies liturgical convention by circling back to the Credo, ending not in silence but in an exuberant, faith-filled proclamation of hope and resurrection.

Mass in Blue is as much a concert work as it is an act of praise—a joyful, genre-defying celebration of music, faith, and the human voice.