A commissioned work for chorus and orchestra based on gospel choral traditions of hymn lining.

See the feature story by Amy Lilly on the premiere.

When his grandmother died in 2017, at the age of 90, Taylor began composing a series of works in her memory, which he calls the African American Requiem Series. He's completed four, the third of which honors Earnestine's singing: a work for chorus and orchestra called from despair...Light! Taylor said from despair...Light! is about "resilience in the face of loss — kind of a direct lesson I learned from my grandmother's passing but also just her life." A Vermont Symphony Orchestra commission, that piece was originally slated to be performed in March 2020. After a long wait, it will finally receive its premiere at two VSO concerts called "Paradise and Light."