advena: liturgies for a broken world

advena: liturgies for a broken world, featuring world premieres of choral music from composer Mark Buller performed by GRAMMY® Award-winning choir Conspirare and Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson.

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Born of personal reckonings with inherited faith and culture, Mass in Exile and Requiem for the Light are liturgies shaped by the world of today. Composed by Mark Buller with librettist Leah Lax, these works reimagine these ancient forms with the immediacy our present moment demands. Buller’s vibrant musical language combines with mystical choral textures to create an emotional intensity that feels both intimate and urgent. These works are presented between two companion works — Introit: Fruit of Your Heart and Communion: A Questioning — with texts by British poet and librettist Euan Tait, offering chantlike settings that extend the project’s core themes and anchoring the whole in a wider human arc.

Soprano
  • Lillian Boessen – San Marcos, TX
  • Gitanjali Mathur – Austin, TX
  • Savannah Porter – Brooklyn, NY
  • Kathlene Ritch – Santa Fe, NM
  • Tiana Sorenson – Chicago, IL
  • Emily Yocum Black – Paducah, KY
Alto
  • Zerrin Agabigum Martin – Gainesville, FL
  • Ana Baida – Atlanta, GA
  • Sarah Brauer – Eugene, OR
  • Lauren McAllister – Cincinnati, OH
  • Laura Mercado-Wright – Austin, TX
Tenor
  • Michael Jones – Los Angeles, CA
  • Haitham Haidar – Montreal, CA
  • David Kurtenbach Rivera – San Francisco, CA
  • Wilson Nichols – New York, NY
Bass
  • Simon Barrad – San Francisco, CA
  • Michael Hawes – Pflugerville, TX
  • Robert Harlan – Austin, TX
  • Enrico Lagasca – New York, NY
  • John Proft – Austin, TX
Instrumentalists
  • Patrice Calixte, Violin – Montreal, Quebec
  • Mariama Alcântara, Violin – Austin, TX
  • Bruce Williams, Viola – Austin, TX
  • Douglas Harvey, Cello – Austin, TX
  • Jessica Valls, Bass – Austin, TX
  • Marc Garvin, Guitar – Houston, TX
  • Thomas Burritt, Percussion – Leander, TX
  • Austin Haller, Rehearsal Pianist – Austin, TX
Track Listing

Introit: Fruit of Your Heart (2025)
Mark Buller, composer
Euan Tait, librettist
Mass in Exile (2024) Mark Buller, composer
Leah Lax, librettist
Beth Greenberg, Dramaturg

  1. I. For Want of Refuge (Miserere)
  2. II. Credo in ExileIII. Peaceable Kingdom Gloria
  3. III. Peaceable Kingdom Gloria
  4. IV. As Water Flows Away (prayer for the government) [2:19]
  5. V. Mercy (Kyrie)
  6. VI. Earth Sanctus: Body and Blood
  7. VII. When All Else Falls Away (Benedictus)

Requiem in the Light (2024)
Mark Buller, composer
Leah Lax, librettist
Beth Greenberg, Dramaturg

  1. I. Lacrimosa for the Murdered
  2. Confutatis: Morning Light
  3. Prayer to the Body (Domine Jesu)
  4. No Trumpets: Prayer to the Earth (Dies Irae)
  5. V. Requiem (Agnus Dei)
  6. Communion: A Questioning (2025)
    Mark Buller, Composer
    Euan Tait, librettist

Recorded at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, Austin, TX

February 25 – March 1, 2025

Executive Producers: Ann McNair and Craig Hella Johnson

Producer, Recording Engineer and Editor, Mastering: Randall Squires

Assistant Producer and Technical Director: Robert Harlan

Recording Assistant: Allyson Moreno

Cover Design: Karin Elsener

Cover Image: Kenneth Oflas / Unsplash

Booklet Design: James Cardell-Oliver

Photos: Kennedy Box (p. X and X TBA), Sean Mathis (p. X) and James Chadder (p. X)

Stage Manager: Viera Buzgova

Director of Development: Travis Fitzgold

Artist Relations: Meri Krueger

Assistant Director of Development: Ali Lewis

Director of Accounting: Jane Ramirez

Grants Manager: Catherine Spainhour

Executive Assistant to the Artistic Director: André Trahan

Acknowledgements

Conspirare gratefully acknowledges Lynne Dobson and Greg Wooldridge for their support of this recording.

This project is also supported in part by the Joel Brauer Fund for New Music and the National Endowment for the Arts.

We thank the following individuals and organizations for their additional generous support of Conspirare: H-E-B, Hella Circle, Still Water Foundation, Texas Commission on the Arts, St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, Robert Simpson and the Houston Chamber Choir, Conspirare Board and Staff, Marvin J. Brittman, Dixie Camp, Fran and Larry Collmann, William G. Fivecoat, Robert and Lara Harlan, Sheri Clark Henriksen, Jeff and Gail Kodosky, DeeAnne and Stephen Paulson, Rachel and Dean Revering, Gayle Glass Roche, Nancy Scanlan and every co-creator who believes in the power of music to heal and connect us.