Members of Via Nova Chorale gather in performance, bringing voices together for Jazz Mass for a New Humanity, a work that blends sacred tradition with contemporary expression.

Next month, Sarasota’s Via Nova Chorale will close out its season with Jazz Mass for a New Humanity, an original 11-movement work by artistic director Steven Phillips. Jazz Mass, which premiered in 2025, will be performed by Via Nova alongside an ensemble of jazz musicians and guest vocalist, Maicy Powell.

“I have always wanted to write something like this," says Phillips. “I have jazz training and experience along with classical training and experience, and I love the jazz language, how it all comes together.”

An original composition from Phillips, Jazz Mass for a New Humanity uses the language of the Roman Mass in a jazz style and incorporates sacred writing and poetry from other traditions to create a musical dialog. “The deeper question is what are all of these traditions pointing towards? What are they pointing towards for humanity?” says Phillips. “Whether you are religious or not, you can look at the deeper messages that call us together as one human race.”

Phillips constructed the work, which consists of 11 movements, to use segments of poetry that would speak to what he believes are the themes of mass: wonder, transcendence and growth. One such poem is Wendell Berry’s Peace of the Wild Things. “One of my favorite movements is a slower ballad based on that poem, it talks about allowing nature to speak to us and give us hope. It truly is forward looking—our potential as human beings is so vast and yet I find our race still quibbling and quarreling and going to war over bits of land and how much territory the other has and who gets the better deal in the trade,” says Phillips. “The Jazz Mass is my way of speaking to these issues and calling humans to come together around the beautiful and wonderful things that we have to celebrate.”

May 1, 7p.m. First Presbyterian Church, 2050 Oak St., Sarasota.

Members of Via Nova Chorale gather in performance, bringing voices together for Jazz Mass for a New Humanity, a work that blends sacred tradition with contemporary expression.

To learn more click here