Commissions

A choir is singing in front of a large screen with a picture of a man on it.

Dedicated to the ongoing vitality of the choral music, Mendelssohn Chorus has made a significant commitment to the commissioning of new choral music, and have commissioned and premiered over 70 new works since 1990, including Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthracite Fields (2013), David Lang’s battle hymns (2009), Jennifer Higdon’s On the Death of the Righteous, and the 2015 world premiere of Byron Au Yong’s dance-choral work TURBINE. This commitment has earned Mendelssohn Chorus the 2013 ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming. Mendelssohn Chorus has also been honored with an award from the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations for “bringing the community together in song” through Conductor Laureate Alan Harler’s multicultural concert programming.

2025    Melissa Dunphy On the Horizon

 major new work commissioned for Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia's 150th   Anniversary Season for Chorus, Children's Chorus, Brass, and Percussion.

2024    Marques L.A. Garrett Magnificat

2023    Dominick DiOrio A Bright Morning Dawns

commissioned by KI Concerts for Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadephia's 150th    Anniversary Italy tour, with a new commissioned poem by Jaqueline Goldfinger.

2023   Carlos Cordero   We are Waves

Poem by Julie Flanders

2022   Dominick DiOrio   Four Postcard Carols

2022   Dominick DiOrio   Three Piano Preludes

2022   Andrea Clearfield   Beyond the Binary

text by Ellen Frankel, custom instruments by David Kontak

2021   Dominick DiOrio   Yuletide Carol

2021   Dominick DiOrio   Three Postcard Carols

2021   Dominick DiOrio   FETTER & AIR

 a sound installation at The Rail Park in May 2021 and later released on Navona Records

2020   Melissa Dunphy   A Slice of Pie

             Poem by Feminista Jones

2020   Texu Kim   The New Year’s Magpie Song

2019   Ola Gjeilo   Roots

commissioned by a consortium of choruses to support Chorus America

2018   Caroline Shaw   Seven Joys

co-commissioned with Back Bay Chorale, written to be paired with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9

2017   Rollo Dilworth   Credo

set to the text of W.E.B. DuBois

2016   Andrea Clearfield   Alleluia*

2016   Robert Maggio   Alleluia*

2016   Jennifer Higdon   Alleluia*

2016   James Primosch   Alleluia*

           *Alleluias for Alan: commissioned by members of the Mendelssohn Chorus                                      community in honor of Artistic Director Alan Harler.

2015   Kile Smith   Agnus Dei

2015   Byron Au Yong TURBINE

2013   Julia Wolfe   Anthracite Fields

winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Music

2013   Donald St. Pierre  Watchman, Tell Us of the Night 

2012   Jeremy Gill   Before the Wresting Tides

2012   Donald St. Pierre In the Company of Angels

2012   Robert Moran   A SATB rewriting of Trinity Requiem

2012   Andrea Clearfield   Tse Go La

2012   Donald St. Pierre   Morning Has Broken
2011   Rollo Dilworth   RAIN SEQUENCE

2010  Donald St. Pierre   Three Carols

2009  Donald St. Pierre   A Visit from St. Nicholas

2009  David Lang   battle hymns
           text inspired by writings by Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Foster and Sullivan Ballou, a                 Civil War soldier

2009  Robert Maggio Into the Light*
2009  Cynthia Folio I, Too, Can Sing a Dream*
2009  Peter Hilliard Consider Krakatau*
             *co-commissioned with Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus and Ana Crusis Choir

2009   Jennifer Higdon On the Death of the Righteous
             text by John Donne, written to be paired with Verdi Requiem
2008   Anthony Mosakowski   Resonet in laudibus

2008   Pauline Oliveros   Urban ECHO: Circle Told
             movement and sound improvisation created with Leah Stein – co-commissioned                     with the Leah Stein Dance Company

2008   Maurice Wright   Vox Humana
             for chorus and electroacoustic sound

2007   Donald St. Pierre   Caído se la ha un Clavel / A Carnation Has Fallen
             text from a Christmas poem by Luis de Góngora

2006   Donald St. Pierre   little tree
             text from a Christmas poem by e. e. cummings

2006  Jan Krzywicki   Fortuna
            written to be paired with Orff’s Carmina Burana

2006   Andrea Clearfield   The Golem Psalms
            text by Ellen Frankel based on the legend of the Golem of Prague

2005   Donald St. Pierre   A New Song
            based on a Norwegian folk hymn

2005   Kim D. Sherman   The Happiest and Unhappiest of Men
            text from the writings of Beethoven

2004   Donald St. Pierre   Agnus Dei
            written to complete the text of Mozart’s unfinished Mass in C minor

2004   Jay Krush   Fanfare Felix
            processional for Mendelssohn Club’s 130th Anniversary concert

2003   Donald St. Pierre   Billings with Brass
            arrangements of hymns by William Billings

2003   Charles Fussell   High Bridge
            based on the poetry of Hart Crane

2002   Donald St. Pierre   Love Came Down at Christmas
            text from the poetry of Christina Rossetti

2001   Donald St. Pierre   Memento mori
            written to be paired with Stravinsky’s Les Noces

1999   Donald St. Pierre   Ite missa est
            written to be paired with Beethoven’s Mass in C Major

1999   Alice Parker   Sing Now of Peace
            written for Mendelssohn Club’s 125th Anniversary

1999   Jay Krush   A Fanfare for the Chorus
            processional for Mendelssohn Club’s 125th Anniversary concert

1998   James Primosch   Fire-Memory/River-Memory
           based on the poetry of Denise Levertov

1996   Donald St. Pierre   Songs of Sweet Accord
            written to be paired with Britten’s Ceremony of Carols

1996   Roberto Sierra   Lux Aeterna
            written to complement Brahms’ German Requiem

1995   Donald St. Pierre   Shepherd
            based on an American folk-hymn

1995   Jan Krzywicki   Lute Music
            written for the multicultural holiday program Golden Voices of the East

1995   Shui-Lung Ma   America, Our Home
           Written for a concert celebrating the 125th Anniversary of Philadelphia’s Chinatown

1995   Jonathan B. Holland   Symphony (of Light)
           written for African-American multicultural program

1995   Robert MoranWinni    ille Pu
            a Latin version of the popular A. A. Milne stories

1994   Kim D. Sherman   A Winter Solstice Ritual
             processional for the December holiday concerts

1994   Cynthia Folio   Touch the Angel’s Hand
            text from Fra Giovanni’s famous letter of consolation

1994   Robert Stern   Returning the Song
             written for the Chinese multicultural program Voices from the Bamboo Grove

1993   Charles Fussell   Invocation
           Mendelssohn Club’s performance was featured on NPR’s First Art program

1993   Ricky Ian Gordon   Towards Independence
            music taken from the play Towards Independence, which premiered at the American              Music Theater Festival

1992   Jack Délano   La Rosa y el Colibrí
            written for the Hispanic multicultural program Songs of the New World

1992   Charles Fussell   Specimen Days
            written for the centenary of the death of Walt Whitman; recorded on the Koch                          International label

1991   Jan Krzywicki   Poem
           a choral vocalise inspired by the poetry of Robert Frost

1991   Byung Chul Choi   The Apostle Song
           commissioned for the Korean multicultural program An American Seoul

1991   Robert Moran   Agnus Dei and Ite missa est
           written to complete the text of Mozart’s unfinished Mass in C minor

1990   Osvaldo Golijov   Cantata de los Inocentes
           written for December holiday concerts

1990   Robert Moran   Requiem: Chant du Cygne
           written to complement the Mozart Requiem, commerically released on the Argo label