OKLAHOMA—Black-clad singers, including a number of young children, in the 107-member Herbert W. Armstrong College Choral Union joined professional musicians on the stage of Armstrong Auditorium in Edmond, Oklahoma, on April 26 as hundreds of local community members and dozens of visitors from out of state took their seats to the sound of tuning instruments, as hundreds more watched an online live stream. The occasion was the premiere of Lamentations of Jeremiah, a new oratorio by Philadelphia Church of God music director Ryan Malone.
The book of Lamentations is “considered the Hebrew Bible’s most sophisticated poetry,” he said, “setting the heartbreak and horror of Jerusalem’s destruction with unrivaled artistic elegance and intensity.” He said that he initially thought the violent subject matter might be “too much to set the entire work to music,” but this changed after the Islamist terrorist massacre committed on October 7, 2023. In Jerusalem at that time, he emphasized that he saw it go from a “very hustle-and-bustle busy city to being very silent” and began to think about setting the full text to music, which he noted is the first time in modern history that anyone has done so.
More than 16 months later, he finished a two-and-a-half-hour oratorio in English and Hebrew, scored for a full orchestra plus Middle Eastern instruments, a chorus and three soloists. Members of the choir began 35 weeks of rehearsals on Aug. 19, 2025. Also participating were 21 children, ages 7 to 14, who sang the portions of scripture where children are mentioned.
Prior to the performance, PCG Evangelist Joel Hilliker said it was “profound, moving, powerful, emotionally overwhelming. It helps you understand the harrowing prophecies about to unfold—and understand God.”
“The choirs sang their very best, as did our soloists,” Mr. Malone said. “My wife had been fighting some residual effects from mild congestion that had impacted her cords just before the weekend, and that all went away as she started singing on Sunday. But the day after, her voice went back to struggling with those negative effects—so it was clear God performed a miracle so she could perform at her peak.”
He added that members of the hired orchestra gave “copious amounts of praise” before and after the performance. Some posted on social media that it was an “incredible experience” with “beautiful orchestration,” one e-mailed that it was “one of my top memorable performances in my career,“ and the conductor of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic e-mailed compliments and congratulations as well.
PCG music department staff members are working to produce a video and an album, which they said they hope to publish on the ninth of Av (July 22), the anniversary of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, when Jews traditionally read the book of Lamentations.