Our History
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Soli Deo Gloria was founded in 1993 and attracted international attention in 1994 with the North American premiere performance and recording of Miserere by the renowned Polish composer Henryk Górecki (1923-2010). John Nelson conducted the combined choruses of Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in their first-ever collaboration. Within weeks of its 1995 release on the Electra/Nonesuch label, the resultant CD titled Miserere found its way onto Billboard’s top 10 classical chart and has since sold over 100,000 copies.
Soli Deo Gloria’s sacred-music recordings have continued with the first-ever complete recording of Berlioz’ Te Deum, released in the spring of 2001 on the EMI/Virgin Classics label and nominated for the prestigious Grand Diapason d’Or Prize. In 2006, Soli Deo Gloria branched out into the realm of DVD, filming in partnership with Idéale Audience medici.tv John Nelson’s conducting of Bach’s Mass in B Minor at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris (2006 EMI/Virgin Classics), Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in Lisbon (2011/Idéale Audience) and Haydn’s The Creation in the Netherlands (2011/Idéale Audience), and Bach's St. Matthew Passion (forthcoming).
The Soli Deo Gloria Collection: Beethoven Missa Solemnis and HaydnThe Creation DVDs
Soli Deo Gloria’s worldwide sponsorship of sacred music concerts began in 1996 when the organization cooperated with the General Motors Corporation and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Chorus in two performances of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem. Translated into the Chinese language by composer Bright Sheng and presented in the Shanghai Center Theater, Brahms’ Requiem was performed in China for the first time in the nation’s history.
Project Uplift 2009: Costa Rica
In 1997, Soli Deo Gloria collaborated with Music Mission Kiev in a presentation of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 ("Hymn of Praise") and Symphony No. 5 ("Reformation") to the people of Kiev, Ukraine. In subsequent years, the international involvement of SDG developed into Project Uplift, an international concert sponsorship program focused on world regions where major sacred works are rarely heard or where productions of these works present a significant financial challenge to the presenting organizations. Project Uplift ventures have included SDG-sponsored performances of Berlioz’ Requiem in the Ukraine (2003); Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor in Armenia (2005); Verdi's Requiem in Ekaterinburg, Russia (2006); Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces in Costa Rica (2006); a return to Ekaterinburg, Russia (2007) for performances of Gabriel Faure’s Requiem and Bruckner’s Te Deum; performances of Haydn’s The Creation in three cities in Romania (2009); a return to Costa Rica (2009) to sponsor the country’s first ever performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, with John Nelson conducting.
In 2010, we had the privilege of taking Project Uplift to Hungary, where board members Delta David Gier and Peter Bannister worked with students and premiered the SDG-commissioned work Hermosura de Dios by Peter Bannister. During the same year, we also filmed Haydn’s The Creation, conducted by John Nelson, in the Netherlands; and co-sponsored the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in Wales, with an Arvo Pärt premiere of In Spe (“In Hope”). Stateside, we saw the premiere of Neal Harnly's commissioned work, The Lost Son, sung by the Indianapolis Children's Choir, as well as Daniel Kellogg's O Greening Branch, commissioned for the 150th anniversary of Wheaton College.
In 2011, SDG launched the Chicago Bach Project, an annual concert conducted by SDG’s Artistic Director, Grammy Award-winner John Nelson. The Project features a different work from the great Bach trilogy each year: the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion and the Mass in B Minor. The Project opened April 20, 2011, with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Chicago, which was heralded by critics as one of the highlights of the musical season. Other 2011 highlights included the premiere two works in our ongoing Psalms Project: Peter Bannister's Psalm 96 at Calvin College and Sven-David Sandström's God Be Merficul at the Westminster Choir College. Other premieres for the year included James MacMillan's a cappella choral work Alpha and Omega at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago, and Vache Sharafyan's Have Mercy on Me, O God by the Dilijan Chamber Music Society in Los Angeles.
Composer James MacMillan
(Photo: Philip Gatward)
Over the course of its nearly 18-year history, Soli Deo Gloria has commissioned sacred works by such composers as Pulitzer Prize winner Christopher Rouse; former Chicago Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence Augusta Read Thomas; preeminent Scottish composer James MacMillan; and SDG’s composer-in-association Peter Bannister, among others. These new compositions and traditional sacred works under the aegis of SDG have been performed by such ensembles as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, L’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the San Diego Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, The American Boychoir, and Westminster Choir College.
With our expanding momentum and a fast growing fan base, SDG is poised to become the meeting ground for people who love the great masterworks of sacred music and who want to extend their passion for these extraordinary musical experiences into the future.
SDG-commissioned music scores
grace the office walls
