"My friends and colleagues in Zimbabwe live a much different life than I do. Today, everyone in Zimbabwe is suffering. Life expectancy is 37. Inflation is horrendous. One out of every four people is infected with HIV/AIDS. There is no gas. There is no food. Make-shift orphanages house thousands of children. Every year I receive news from friends that not one or two, but several, members of the family have passed away. Yet somehow the living press onward. Our Shona friends exemplify the joy of life as they continue to live and love, give thanks, make music, dance and persevere. That is why I have named this work Misa Tariro: Mass of Hope." - R. S. McIntosh Work began on this massive undertaking in 2001, shortly after composer Randy McIntosh returned from Zimbabwe. While there, Randy attended ceremonies and witnessed how villages use music to create and sustain community. The music Randy now writes is inspired by what he experienced in Zimbabwe. In composing his Misa Tariro, he used Shona poetry and proverbs combined with Latin and Greek texts from the ancient form of the mass. The marimba ensemble provides the energetic pulse in this amazing composition. Randy has truly captured the responsive flow of spirit in the music and worship he witnessed in Zimbabwe. Beyond this beautiful musical form and the dynamic power inherent in a large chorus and the marimbas themselves, Randy stresses that the ultimate inspiration for this work lies in the resiliency of the Zimbabwean people in the face of their unbelievable hardships.