Affiliated Event: Chamber Singers of Iowa City Concert – Into Full Flame

Chamber Singers of Iowa City closes its season with Into Full Flame, a program built around a single prayer: dona nobis pacem — grant us peace. Mozart opens with Veni Sancte Spiritus, a bright, festive setting asking the Holy Spirit to kindle love and gather people together. Pēteris Vasks title and text employ only these three words — Dona Nobis Pacem. They are repeated patiently, letting the music shift and deepen until the asking itself becomes the point. Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, performed with full orchestra, makes the same plea inside something far more concrete: soldiers, grieving families, Walt Whitman’s Civil War poems, and a parliamentarian’s speech against war, all written in 1936 as Europe was moving toward another one. The ending is hopeful, but not easy. Peace here is not sentimental or guaranteed — it’s something we have to keep asking for.
Location: Voxman Music Building Concert Hall – 2nd Floor
Tickets and concert information: Chamber Singers of Iowa City – Into Full Flame