New choral works by two prominent contemporary American composers, commissioned by nonprofit Soli Deo Gloria, Inc. (SDG), will receive their world premieres November in New York through a collaboration between the city’s Temple Emanu-El and the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

The classical sacred music foundation SDG has conceived and organized a pair of interfaith performances in which Paul Moravec’s I Will Fear No Evil (Psalm 23) for a cappella chorus and Victoria Bond’s How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place (Psalm 84) for chorus and organ will be sung by the combined choirs of the iconic Reform Jewish and Episcopal houses of worship during regular worship services at each.

The performances will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, November, 21, at Temple Emanu-El, 1 E. 65th Street, during the Sabbath service, and at 4 p.m. on Sunday, November 23, at St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, during the Evensong service.

The combined choirs will be conducted on November 21 by K. Scott Warren, Temple Emanu-El’s organist and choir director, and on November 23 by Kent Tritle, St. John the Divine’s director of cathedral music.

Both services are open to the public, and all are welcome.

Soli Deo Gloria, which is based in suburban Chicago, also underwrote a portion of the performance costs.

Bond says of Psalm 84, “It expresses the profound appreciation I feel for the natural world and the exaltation that sweeps over me during walks when I contemplate the beauty of our planet.”

Her compositions have been praised by the New York Times as “powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding.” She was recently honored with the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Walter Hinrichsen Award.

Moravec says Psalm 23 “has always been a personal favorite and has special resonance for me and my family.” He dedicated the composition to the memory of his father.

Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Moravec has composed more than one hundred works. His music has been described as “tuneful, ebullient and wonderfully energetic” (San Francisco Chronicle), “riveting and fascinating” (NPR), and “assured, virtuosic” (Wall Street Journal).

The new compositions by Moravec and Bond are part of Soli Deo Gloria’s Psalms Project, a collection of 15 contemporary choral works based on the biblical Book of Psalms. The project, made possible by a grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc., has encouraged some of the Western world’s foremost composers “to create smaller musical compositions that can enrich liturgy and can also function as independent concert works, expanding the musical reach of the Psalms as a source of inspiration and strength for our time,” according to Joseph A. LoSchiavo, president of Soli Deo Gloria, Inc.

More information about the venues and worship services is available at www.emanuelnyc.org, (212) 744-1400; and www.stjohndivine.org, (212) 316-7540.

Soli Deo Gloria, Inc.

Soli Deo Gloria, Inc. was formed in 1993 as a nonprofit foundation devoted to the preservation, performance, and promotion of classical sacred music inspired by the Bible in the Christian and Jewish traditions. The organization takes its name from the Latin phrase meaning “to God alone be the Glory,” which J. S. Bach inscribed on many of his compositions.

Among Soli Deo Gloria-commissioned works recently heard in New York are Christopher Rouse’s Requiem, which received its New York premier May 5 in a concert by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, and James MacMillan’s Since it was the day of Preparation, which received its U.S. premiere May 4 at St. Bartholomew’s Church.

To date, Soli Deo Gloria has commissioned 37 original works of sacred music from 25 composers of nine nationalities. It also sponsors concerts and recordings on CD and DVD, including four critically praised DVDs of classical sacred masterworks led by Grammy Award-winning conductor John Nelson, Soli Deo Gloria’s founding artistic director. The organization’s concert activities include the annual Chicago Bach Project, which since 2011 has presented Nelson conducting one-night-only performances of J. S. Bach’s monumental sacred masterworks with top-tier casts of international soloists, orchestral musicians, and choristers. The 2015 performance, the St. John Passion,  is scheduled for March 20 at Chicago’s Harris Theater for Music and Dance.

Soli Deo Gloria’s world headquarters is at 800 Roosevelt Road, Suite A100, Glen Ellyn, Ill. Phone (630) 984-4300. Website: www.sdgmusic.org.