As part of North Central College's Office of International Programs and Cultural Affairs' 2017-2018 Focus on Globalization and Sustainability, the DSO culminates the year with a spotlight on the essential components of life: Body, Earth, and Spirit. The concert opens with a brand new work by internationally acclaimed composer Augusta Read Thomas, whose music is widely praised as "nuanced, majestic, elegant, capricious, lyrical, and colorful." Claude Debussy's evocative tone poem La mer ("The Sea") – a richly atmospheric, impressionistic symphonic sketch inspired in part by the magical seascape paintings of J.M.W. Turner – follows. This inspirational program concludes with Leonard Bernstein's powerful, affirmative setting of familiar Biblical verses, his 1965 Chichester Psalms, presented in honor of the composer's 100th anniversary year. The North Central College Concert Choir and Women's Chorale, both directed by Dr. Ramona Wis, join the DuPage Symphony for this final concert in its 2017-2018 season of Notable Pairings.