Music has immense power to express the human experience, from elevating our brightest moments to soothing our souls in difficult times, and every emotion in between. Music tells our stories, reminds us of the wondrous cycles of nature, and brings us together in community and collaboration.
Luminous Resonance represent this potential, with a selection of moving pieces for choir and string orchestra, in collaboration with the Bay Area's Circadian String Quartet and ten additional local string players. This ambitious program will include Beethoven’s Elegiac Hymn (in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth); local composer David Conte’s reverent September Sun, composed in memory of those who died in the September 11th attacks; and the popular American composer Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs for choir and string quartet. We are also delighted to present the US premiere of Karin Rehnqvist’s exuberant Day is here! for choir, soloists, and strings. Recently premiered in Stockholm, Day is here! is the companion piece to Songs from the North, the four-movement setting of poetry from the Arctic that we commissioned for our fortieth-anniversary concert in May 2018.
Join us on a journey through it all—from reverence to exuberance, devotion to heartache, dark nights and glimmering days—with an inspiring performance of chorus and string orchestra!
Tickets: $25 General Admission ONLINE / $28 General Admission AT THE DOOR / $10 Students
PERFORMANCES:
FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH | 8PM
St. John’s Presbyterian Church
2727 College Avenue, Berkeley
SATURDAY, MARCH 14TH, 8PM
St Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco
www.sacredprofane.org/luminous-resonance
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Circadian String Quartet
Monika Gruber, violin
David Ryther, violin
Omid Assadi, viola
David Wishnia, cello
Bay Area based Circadian String Quartet was founded in 2013 to promote classical and contemporary string quartet repertoire, in particular music of cultural and folkloric significance. Since then, the group has been featured through SunsetArts Chamber Music Series in San Francisco. In 2014, the CSQ were invited to collaborate with the St. Petersburg-based Rimsky Korsakov String Quartet during their North American tour. They have also given U.S. premieres of pieces by world-renowned British composer Ian Venables in collaboration with mezzo-soprano Sally Munro of the San Francisco Opera and Natalie Parker, Principal Clarinetist of the San Francisco Ballet.
Members of CSQ serve as resident teaching artists for Villa Sinfonia Foundation's Zephyr Point Chamber Music Workshop in South Lake Tahoe, NV. Dedicated to music education, the quartet works intensely with musician of all ages in developing their musical abilities in chamber music and ensemble playing.
Sacred and Profane is an a cappella chamber choir committed to enriching and inspiring its members and the broader community by exploring the breadth of traditional and emerging choral repertoire through authentic and exemplary performances.
Founded in 1977, Sacred & Profane is a chamber chorus that performs a wide variety of a cappella choral music. Concert repertoire includes sacred and secular works from the middle ages to the contemporary period, drawing from classical, ethnic & folk traditions. Our talented singers represent many facets of our diverse Bay Area communities; from a wide range of backgrounds, ages, and demographics. S&P embraces our vibrant membership and strives to explore and celebrate this through our repertoire. Concerts combine seriousness and humor, the early and the modern, the sacred and the profane. They feature challenging works from the choral tradition, works by local and living composers, music from around the world, and increasingly more premieres. Though primarily an a cappella ensemble, S&P enjoys the participation of guest instrumentalists and chamber orchestras, as well as collaborations with other ensembles.