SurRound: The Earth Remembers

This 2026 installment of Musica Sacra’s immersive SurRound events – described by New York Classical Review as “what it feels like to be inside a piece of music” – takes place in the gothic nave of the Cathedral, with singers in motion throughout the placement of the audience under Gaia, a massive orb 23 feet in diameter depicting the Earth using NASA imagery, revolving and illuminated from within. A touring artwork by U.K. artist Luke Jerram, Gaia is on display at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine from September 17 to October 9, 2026.
The program features music by Renaissance composers Jean Mouton and Juan Pérez Bocanegra and by modern composers including Meredith Monk, Robert Paterson, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Caroline Shaw, and Christine Whitten Thomas, to words ranging from poems by Rainer Maria Rilke to texts in traditional Quechuan and Navajo.
Kent Tritle, conductor
Splendor & Interconnection
Gregg Smith: Now I Walk in Beauty
Meredith Monk: Astronaut Anthem
Jean Mouton: Sancti Dei omnes (From the Medici Codex of 1518)
Lament & Fracture
Robert Paterson: “Infinite Oceans” (from The Essence of Gravity)
Christine Whitten Thomas: “Prière de la Baleine” (“Prayer of the Whale”) from Choral de Bêtes
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Die Erste Elegie (The First Elegy)
Reconciliation & Renewal
Frank Ticheli: Earth Song
Caroline Shaw: and the sparrow
Robert Paterson: “A Song on the End of the World” (from Eternal Reflections)
Christine Whitten Thomas: Take Peace
Juan Pérez Bocanegra: Hanacpachap Cussicuinin