Paul Mealor’s Stabat Mater is a 28-minute musical movement dedicated to the composer’s deceased grandmother. The piece tackles themes of love, religion, pain, and death in four divisions. Renowned choirs generally perform this deeply moving musical accomplishment across the world, so when our choir chose this song we were prepared for an arduous undertaking. As my choir was scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall, an inherently moving and prestigious event, our chosen piece made the experience considerably more intense. Under our director we embarked on a translation from the text’s original Latin to English in order for us to grasp and display the intensity of the lyrics. What came next was both inspiring and unsettling: the lyrics translated