Miserere: A Lenten Prayer Service brought the great tradition of Catholic sacred music into conversation with a new generation of Catholic composers at San Francisco’s historic Mission Dolores Basilica on March 11, 2023.

Presided over by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, the service paired Renaissance masterpieces by Palestrina, Victoria, and Orlando di Lasso with contemporary settings of the same sacred texts by living Catholic composers.

The program featured three world premieres commissioned by the Benedict XVI Institute culminating in Frank La Rocca’s Miserere.

The works were performed by the Dallas-based 20-voice professional ensemble Band of Voices under the direction of Dr. Alfred Calabrese, making the choir’s West Coast debut.

By placing the music of living Catholic composers alongside the masters of the Renaissance, Miserere embodied one of the Benedict XVI Institute’s central convictions: the Church’s great tradition of sacred art is not merely something to preserve, but a living inheritance from which new works of beauty can continue to emerge.