Choral Works

Mary Lou Prince, composer, and Patty Christiena Willis, lyricist and playwright, have

been collaborating with words and music since their first theater production in Japan in 1987

that won national recognition and invitations to perform at international festivals in Japan,

Scotland and the United States. After 24 years of life in the foothills of the Japanese Alps, a

novel that became recommended reading in national libraries and commissions to compose

music for Geisha musicians, television, dance and storytelling around Japan, they moved back

to the United States and settled in southern Arizona. Working together to write music for

choirs became a focus for them and they have composed four concert length choral song

cycles. After the performance of their first song cycle in 2009, they decided to donate all of

the freewill offerings to charitable organizations. To date, their performances have raised tens

of thousands of dollars for the International Rescue Committee, women’s shelters in Prescott,

Sun City and Sedona, Women of the World (an organization that helps forcibly displaced women

achieve self-reliance) the International Red Cross, the Colorado River Project, Save Our

Canyons and micro loans through KIVA to create economic opportunities for people in

underserved communities to alleviate poverty.

“They Went to War” was composed during 2025, the year that marked the end of World

War II, and was inspired by stories of love, longing and loss that are the legacy of that war.

“The plight of mothers sending their boys off to war despite the nationality; the women code

decipherers who kept those secrets to their deaths and even the story of a carrier pigeon stir

the very soul of listeners.” Nanci Hutson, journalist, The Daily Courier in Prescott AZ.