ALBUM World Premiere

Tuesday, june 16TH

maxfield gast - MISSA GAIA

Featuring the Parish choir of st. thomas’ whitemarsh

Presented by Militia Hill LLC

CLICK HERE to download/stream Missa Gaia

Missa Gaia Album Premiere Listening Party

June 21st, 2026

St Thomas’ Church Whitemarsh Parish House

7020 Camp Hill Rd, Fort Washington, PA 19034

11:00AM (Free Event)

Please join us as we celebrate the official album premiere of Missa Gaia, recorded live at St Thomas’ Whitemarsh on November 16th, 2025. Executive produced by Maxfield Gast on the Militia Hill label, Missa Gaia features The Parish Choir of St Thomas’, Whitemarsh under the direction of Michael Smith, Minister of Music at St. Thomas’. Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) is a spiritual movement in response to the separation between the modern and natural world. It combines liturgical text with sounds of nature, worldly rhythms and melodic themes. Missa Gaia was originally created by Paul Halley, Jim Scott and Paul Winter in 1981. Group discussion and an open Q&A will promptly follow the premiere.

About the Album

Militia Hill presents Maxfield Gast Missa Gaia- a mass for planet earth. Featuring The Parish Choir of St. Thomas’, Whitemarsh, under the direction of Michael Smith, Minister of Music at St Thomas’ Whitemarsh, Missa Gaia is a remembrance of our lost loved ones, and a reminder of our important work of environmental stewardship in preventing further loss to our planet.

This work originally premiered in 1981 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and was created by Paul Halley, Jim Scott and Paul Winter- performed by the Paul Winter Consort. The earth mass features choir, organ, saxophone, percussion, and acoustic instrumentation. The music is an eclectic combination of traditional choral music, gospel and Brazilian Samba, and features recordings of wolf howls, whale song, and the wind over the Grand Canyon intertwined with melodies, liturgical text and modern poetry. Missa Gaia was recorded live at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church Whitemarsh on Sunday, November 16th, 2025.

Album Liner Notes:

I was first introduced to Missa Gaia in graduate school when I apprenticed with organist Paul Halley, who, along with Jim Scott and Paul Winter devised the work. I was captivated and the more I learned about the genesis of the work and its tradition of being performed at the huge cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC every St. Francis’ day, I was enthralled. Set in the context of a Christian mass, or Eucharist, the texts are largely traditional, but the music is decidedly not. Afro-Cuban rhythms, Latin dance forms, and nature itself (represented by recordings of whales, wolves, loons, and harp seals). A wolf howl morphs into a tenor solo that spreads randomly throughout the choir; a whale song becomes the two-note motif of the Sanctus. It is a work that is greater than the sum of its parts, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Maxfield for what was a thrilling live performance that will now live on in this recording.

—Michael Smith, Minister of Music St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh

This concert was in loving memory of Andy Williams. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Williams family for their patronage of this performance; Michael Smith for his musical leadership as well as the Rev. David Killeen and the Rev. Amy Crawford for opening the doors to St. Thomas’ while offering their steadfast support in bringing this sacred music to life; and Bradley Gast for his photography and design.

—Maxfield Gast