The Elgin Master Chorale launches its 79th season, Voices of America, with a concert that resonates deeply with today’s world. With Malice Toward None takes the stage on Sunday, November 2, 2025, at 3:30 p.m. in the Blizzard Theatre at the Elgin Community College Arts Center, featuring the Elgin Symphony Orchestra as special guests.

Inspired by Abraham Lincoln’s timeless call for unity and empathy, the program weaves together music that reflects the enduring strength of American ideals—justice, compassion, and hope in the face of division. The repertoire includes Morten Lauridsen’s luminous Lux Aeterna, Florence Price’s poignant Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, and Randall Thompson’s rousing The Testament of Freedom.

“This concert asks what it truly means to live out the ideals that define us,” said Andrew Lewis, Music Director of the Elgin Master Chorale. “Each composer, in their own way, reaches for light in dark times, reminding us that empathy and understanding are the truest measures of a nation’s strength.”

The afternoon begins with a Beyond the Barlines pre-concert talk at 2:45 p.m. in the Safety-Kleen Art Gallery, where author Bill Farina, writer of Florence Price: The Life, Compositions and Influence of a Black American Composer, joins Maestro Lewis to explore Price’s legacy and the program’s historical resonance.