Some 150 artists will come together for a musical spectacular honoring the Civil, April 26-28, in Kezar Pavilion. The work is battle hymns by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang.
With San Francisco Choral Society and Volti in the lead, the production also includes the Leah Stein Dance Company and the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir. Robert Geary is music director and conductor, Leah Stein is the choreographer.
The chorus will be costumed and choreographed as they join modern dancers for the performance. In addition to 20 Volti singers and 100 from the Choral Society, some 50 young singers will participate from Piedmont's Ensemble and Ancora choirs.
Stein and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia are co-commissioners of the work, which deals with the turbulent, conflicting emotions that war arouses. Lang was said to have combined "simple elements into a complex structure that reflects the complexity of his vision. The heart of the piece — his teeming setting of phrases from an 'If I die' letter by a Civil War soldier — is a powerful musical version of William Faulkner’s dictum that art should portray 'the human heart at war with itself'."