About the event
Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 3:00 pm | East Liberty Presbyterian Church, East Liberty
In our first performance of the 2026-27 season, we open with a program of three composers from three different centuries each asking the same question: How do we hold on to our humanity in time of war?
Our response to this question begins with a meditation for peace; Da pacem Domine by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt was written in 2004 in commemoration of those lost to acts of terrorism. Next, Florence Price’s 1939 setting of Vachel Lindsay’s poem Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight imagines Lincoln’s restless ghost observing the start of World War I and questioning why we continue to rage against one another.
Finally, Franz Joseph Haydn closes the program with the Mass in Time of War. Written in 1796 as Austria struggled against the advance of French armies, Haydn uses trumpets and timpani to color the text of the Catholic Mass with the imminent threat of approaching warfare. The program ends as it began, with a prayer for peace, leaving listeners with the hope that through shared experience and mutual understanding, we can put an end to violence and conflict.
Program
ARVO PÄRT Da pacem Domine
FLORENCE PRICE Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN Mass in Time of War
Getting Here
East Liberty Presbyterian Church
116 S Highland Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
East Liberty Presbyterian Church is on the corner of S. Highland and Penn Avenues. Street parking is available on the streets surrounding the church, and there is a lot behind the Carnegie Library. The accessible entrance is located directly on S. Highland Avenue.
For questions about accessibility of specific venues, please contact Emily Leal Santiesteban at estewart@themendelssohn.org.