Pioneer Valley Cappella, led by music director Geoffrey Hudson, performs its spring 2026 concerts “The Fruit of Silence: Choral Meditations on Peace” on **Friday May 8, 7:30 pm, All Saints Episcopal Church, 7 Woodbridge St, South Hadley** and on **Saturday, May 9, 7:30 pm at Edwards Church, Northampton** The program’s title comes from Peteris Vasks’s setting of a prayer by Mother Teresa: “The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.” Composed in 2013, Vasks’s musical meditation on Mother Teresa’s words is serene, almost motionless, and shimmers with complex harmonies. The program also features three songs from the mid-20th century American composer Undine Smith Moore. “Bound for Canaan’s Land” sets a traditional spiritual tune as a stirring call and response between chorus and soloists. “Striving After God” is a short musical reflection on Michelangelo’s words about art. The set concludes with another spiritual, “We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace”. Louis Lewandowski’s “Psalm 84” for chorus and organ offers rich Brahmsian harmonies. A protégé of Felix Mendelssohn, Lewandowski was the first Jewish student admitted to the Prussian Academy of Arts. After graduation, he was the choirmaster at two of Berlin’s most important synagogues for more than fifty years. The concert features the premiere of *Four Sacred Pieces* by Geoffrey Hudson. These new works are paired with settings of the same words by older composers: a “Haec dies” by Osbert Parsley, Rachmaninoff’s “Ave Maria” from his *All Night Vigil*, the “Dona nobis pacem” from William Byrd’s *Mass for Four Voices*, and a short “Alleluia” by Henry Purcell. Purcell’s radiant Te Deum and Jubilate in D concludes the concert. Composed in 1694, this masterpiece combines Pioneer Valley Cappella’s 32 voices with string quartet, organ, and two trumpets to create a joyous and thrilling sound-world. Pioneer Valley Cappella, an auditioned chamber chorus based in Northampton, has been performing locally for more than 40 years. Music Director Geoffrey Hudson leads the ensemble, who are joined for this concert by instrumentalists Colleen Jennings, Michelle Liechti, Stephanie Railsback, Courtney Castañeda, Larry Schipull, Fred Holmgren, and Brooks Holmes.