MOCA’s South Stairwell Sound Series returns this season with music by the revered Canadian singer and composer Beverly Glenn-Copeland. Resonating throughout the stairwell is the artist’s latest release, Light of the Heavens (ca. 1986), a recently recovered song from his archives created during the same era as his landmark album Keyboard Fantasies, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this fall.
Recorded while Glenn-Copeland was living a quieter life on the Canadian Shield, the song is spare, shimmering, and weightless. Untethered to any album, it embodies the contemplative spirit and sonic language that has drawn generations of listeners to his decades-spanning body of work, including more recent admirers and collaborators Sam Smith, Bon Iver, Romy, and Wu Tsang, among others.
A mysterious blend of synthesizers supports Glenn-Copeland’s tender, measured voice as he sings, “by the guiding stars, the cosmic veil, we are ever coming home to the light of the heavens.” Evoking both the immeasurable expanse of the universe and the reassuring sense of our belonging within it, Light of the Heavens reflects Glenn-Copeland’s enduring belief in interconnectedness and spiritual openness.
Described by him as “a gift from my past,” the song sheds new light on Glenn-Copeland’s enduring practice while offering a meditation on the ties between humanity and the unknowable.
Audio courtesy of Third Side Music Inc., and LABEL.
About the Artist
Beverly Glenn-Copeland (b. 1944, Philadelphia, United States) is a visionary composer, singer, and trans elder whose career spans more than five decades of pioneering work across folk, electronic, and spiritual music. A classically trained musician, his practice has continually evolved, guided by a deep commitment to emotional truth, storytelling, and spiritual inquiry.
His 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies experienced an extraordinary global rediscovery decades after its release. It is now widely regarded as a foundational work in ambient and experimental music, earning the Polaris Prize Heritage Award and inspiring a new generation worldwide.
In 2026, he released Laughter in Summer, a luminous and deeply moving meditation on love, companionship, aging, and transcendence, created with his wife and creative collaborator Elizabeth Copeland. Widely praised as one of the most poignant works of his career, the album reflects a lifetime of artistic exploration and personal reflection.
