Volti, which is among the Bay Area's best small choruses, specializes in new and recent music and commissions new work on a regular basis. The last time I saw them, in fact, they performed commissioned works by Pamela Z and Carolyn Shaw. They have a long history of performing music composed by women and people of color, unlike various other musical institutions.
They've got an intriguing program later this month, including a world premiere by Jens Ibsen, whose Drowned in Light was premiered by the SF Symphony in November under their Emerging Black Composers program.
Details:
Friday, February 23, 8:00 PM at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose Street, Berkeley
Saturday, February 24, 8:00 PM at Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez Street, San Francisco
Titled From the Depths to the Ecstatic, the program explores historical concepts of spirituality, largely from the writings of female medieval mystics, as expressed by contemporary composers.
Robert Geary, Volti’s Founding Artistic Director, conducts.
In his new work De Profundis, Jens Ibsen sets Psalm 130, “Out of the depths I have cried unto thee, O Lord.” Volti will also sing an earlier Ibsen work, How god comes to the soul, with text by the medieval mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg.
Also on the program:
Ecstatic Meditations – Aaron Jay Kernis’s spectacular settings of four texts, also from Mechthildof Magdeburg, in Jane Hirshfield’s translation.
All Shall Be Well – Joanna Marsh sets text from “Revelations of Divine Love” by another medieval mystic, Julian of Norwich – believed to be the earliest surviving English-language writings by a woman.
Into Being – Ingrid Stölzel’s setting of the Sanskrit Mantra “So ham ham sa.”
Sohbet of the Rare Small Bird – Forrest Pierce sets Sufi reflections on spiritual teaching and learning, from ancient Persian texts.
Natural History – Emma O’Halloran meditates on the thousands of species discovered by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and described in his book “The Malay Peninsula.”
Tickets range in price from $15 to $50 and can be purchased online through www/VoltiSF.org or at the door.
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