Saturday • February 21st, 2026 • 7:30pm

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Bridge Voices presents the Pulitzer Prize winning work The Little Match Girl Passion, by David Lang. Lang writes: My piece is called "The Little Match Girl Passion" and it sets Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Little Match Girl" in the format of Bach's "Saint Matthew Passion," interspersing Andersen's narrative with my versions of the crowd and character responses from Bach's Passion. The text is by me, after texts by Han Christian Andersen, H. P. Paulli (the first translator of the story into English, in 1872), Picander (the nom de plume of Christian Friedrich Henrici, the librettist of Bach's Saint Matthew Passion), and the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. The word passion comes from the Latin word for suffering. There is no Bach in my piece and there is no Jesus—rather the suffering of the Little Match Girl has been substituted for Jesus's, elevating (I hope) her sorrow to a higher plane.

Our nonprofit partner for this event will be Homestretch. The mission of Homestretch is to help families who are experiencing homelessness become self-sufficient by giving them the skills, knowledge, and hope they need to become productive participants in the community. Homestretch provides secure, transitional housing along with holistic support services that tackle the underlying causes of homelessness. By addressing these challenges at their core, Homestretch empowers individuals and families to build stable, self-sufficient futures, breaking the cycle of poverty for good.