1994 was the year of Soli Deo Gloria's first project, the North American premiere and recording of Henryk Górecki's massive choral work, Miserere. The Latin text of the piece, "Domine Deus noster, Miserere nobis," translates "Lord our God, have mercy on us."

The work was written in response to the violence that fell upon proponents of the Solidarity movement in March of 1981 in the composer's native country of Poland.

The performance and recording of Miserere took place in the beautiful St. Mary of the Angels Church in Chicago, Illinois. The success of the project was due in large part to the cooperative efforts of The Polish National Alliance who helped us highlight Górecki's music in a culturally relevant way, an effort which proved especially meaningful to the city's Polish community, the largest such community outside of Warsaw.

On Sunday, April 24, 1994, Soli Deo Gloria combined the forces of the Lyric Opera Chorus and the Chicago Symphony Chorus for the first time ever and presented an all-Górecki concert free of charge to the people of Chicago who packed out the 2,200 seat sanctuary with an additional 1,000 standing. The performance was further enriched by the presence of the composer who traveled from Poland to attend the concert and subsequent recording sessions of his work.

During the two days that followed the all-Górecki concert, the performers gathered again at St. Mary of the Angels Church, this time to record the composer's music. Following the unprecedented widespread appeal of earlier Górecki recordings, the resultant CD titled Miserere quickly became a best-seller. Within weeks of its 1995 release on the Electra/Nonesuch label, Miserere found its way onto Billboard's top 10 classical chart and has since sold over 100,000 copies worldwide.