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National Medal of Arts recipient, he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles
Master Chorale from 1994-2001 and has been a professor of composition at USC’s
Thornton School of Music since 1967. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Lauridsen
evinced a lifelong affinity with nature by serving as a Forest Service firefighter and fire
lookout before pursuing his studies, first at Whitman College and then in music at USC.
He now splits his time between Los Angeles and his summer home in Washington’s more
remote and peaceful San Juan Islands.

The text of “Sure On This Shining Night” is the poem of the same name by James Agee.
The piece is the final of Lauridsen’s set of three Nocturnes.

Sure on this shining night High summer holds the earth.
Of starmade shadows round, Hearts all whole
kindness must watch for me Sure on this shining night,
This side the ground. I weep for wonder wandering far alone
The late year lies down the north. Of shadows on the stars.
All is healed, all is health.
- James Agee, from Permit Me Voyage

How Can I Keep from Singing? Gwyneth Walker (1947 – )
How Can I Keep from Singing is based on a hymn written by American Baptist minister
and hymnwriter Robert Wadsworth Lowry (1826 - 1899). The song is frequently, though
erroneously, cited as a traditional Quaker or Shaker hymn.

My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentation.
I hear the real though distant song that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing.
It sounds an echo in my soul, how can I keep from singing?

What though the tempest loudly roars, I hear the truth, it’s living!
What though the darkness round me close, songs in the night it’s giving!
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I’m clinging.
Since I believe that love abides, how can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble when they hear the bells of freedom ringing.
When friends rejoice both far and near, how can I keep from singing?
In prison cell, in dungeon dark, our thoughts to them are winging.
When friends hold courage in their heart, how can I keep from singing?

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