This powerful and wide-ranging choral program explores identity, resilience, and the interplay between personal conviction and collective voice, through works spanning centuries and continents.

Felix Mendelssohn’s Sechs Sprüche, Op. 79 (1846) is a masterwork of sacred a cappella writing. Each brief motet is devoted to a liturgical season, offering vivid harmonic color and choral texture. Though Mendelssohn was of Jewish heritage, his deep Christian faith and love of early polyphony shine through these refined miniature gems, written for the Berlin Cathedral Choir.

In The New Colossus (2018), Filipino-American composer Saunder Choi reimagines Emma Lazarus’s iconic sonnet—famously inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty—as a call for empathy in the face of growing anti-immigrant sentiment. Choi draws on his own experience as an immigrant, setting Lazarus’s text with rich harmonic shifts and layered rhythms, creating a contemporary anthem of welcome and justice.

Robert Schumann’s Vier Doppelchörige Gesänge, Op. 141 (1849) offers a rare and exhilarating experience: double-choir music from the Romantic period. These pieces demonstrate Schumann’s lyrical gift, but also his innovative use of antiphonal writing. Themes of nature, love, and spiritual longing echo across the two choirs in a dialogue both grand and intimate.

The program concludes with Après Moi, le Déluge (2006) by Luna Pearl Woolf. This dramatic work—its title a quote attributed to Louis XV—sets texts by Christopher Smart and a speech by U.S. Congressman Jim McDermott following Hurricane Katrina. Woolf confronts government failure and environmental reckoning with urgent, expressive writing for solo cello and choir. It is a haunting and prophetic conclusion to a program that confronts the past while calling for action in the present.

Together, these works form a deeply human and profoundly moving concert experience.

In Praise & Protest

Saturday, March 21, 2026, 7:30 pm | St. Mark’s Church, San Francisco

Hail, Gladdening Light - Charles Wood | Sechs Sprüche, Op. 79 - Felix Mendelssohn

The New Colossus - Saunder Choi

Vier Doppelchörige Gesänge, Op. 141 - Robert Schumann | Après Moi, le Déluge - Luna Pearl Woolf

‘Cellist Michael Kaufman joins the musicians of Vox Humana SF for Luna Pearl Woolf’s concerto for violoncello and a cappella chorus, Après Moi, le Déluge.

Michael Kaufman is a dynamic and expressive cellist praised for his “intensity, versatility, and deep musical insight.” He has performed widely as a soloist and chamber musician in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill Halls, Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, and internationally across North America and Europe. Deeply engaged in contemporary music, Kaufman has premiered numerous works written for him, including pieces by Sean Friar, Justin Hoke, and Daniel Silliman. He has collaborated with prominent composers such as Thomas Adès, John Adams, and Jörg Widmann.

A founding member of the acclaimed cello quintet SAKURA—praised by the LA Times as “brilliant” and “superb”—Kaufman also serves as artistic director of Sunset ChamberFest in Los Angeles. He is a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and teaches cello and chamber music at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts. He has given masterclasses at institutions including UC Irvine, Bowling Green, and Texas Christian University. He was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the University of Utah.