The Spring 2025 concert from Bloomington Chamber Singers, Music of Hope in Uncertain Times, is a captivating offering, juxtaposing Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (Mass in Troubled Times), also known as The Lord Nelson Mass, with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands. Though written over 200 years apart, both works vividly bring to life the uncertainty, fear, and loss of timeless challenges—the threat of war in Haydn’s case, and the plight of refugees in Shaw’s—revealing a commonality of the human condition through the centuries. Despite the harrowing opening and recurrent war-like trumpet fanfares Haydn composes throughout work, he always responds with optimism, ending with a confident “Dona nobis pacem.” Shaw sets a text she assembled, which ranges from Latin set by 18th century composer Dietrich Buxtehude to lines by Emma Lazarus, evoking the 18th century and the immigration of the mid-20th century. Her music ultimately responds to the plight of the refugee with compassion— “we will be your refuge” and “ever will I hold you.” This Spring’s performance is under the direction of guest conductor Dr. Betsy Burleigh.