Join The Esoterics for DAMÂN: The seven creations
For DAMÂN, Esoterics founding director Eric Banks has assembled an a cappella choral opera based on the ancient texts of singing practices of the Parsis. The seven creations will be based in part on the gathas, arguably the oldest songs in human history, as well as sections of the Bundahishn, the Persian creation story, in which the struggle between good and evil results in the creation of the seven elements we know as the sky, water, earth, plants, animals, humans, and fire. For this ambitious, seven-movement work, Banks was honored with a $10,000 Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the composition, performance, and recording of his opera. Read more.Please join The Esoterics for this concert of creation.
NOTE: Locations of the DAMÂN concerts have changed since the 2008 Season Announcements
The Esoterics announces 2008-2009 POLYPHONOS Competition winners
The Esoterics is pleased to announce the winners its 2008-2009 POLYPHONOS choral composition competition. Now in its third year, the competition inspired 128 entries from all over the world and the pool of applicants was particularly strong this year. Each awardee will receive a US$1,000 commission for a 5-minute new work that The Esoterics will premiere during their 2009 concert season. Read more.
NEW CD Release! MANDALA: Meditations on the wholeness of being
From the Sanskrit word for "circle," The Esoterics' eighth CD is a collection of choral works inspired by the universal symbol of meditation and psychic centeredness. The MANDALA is common to many world religions, and it is this spiritual unity within diversity that is the over-arching theme of this disc. Hinduism is represented by the mysterious verses of the Bhagavad gita in Roger Nelson's Attaining immortality, and the shimmering Sanskrit of the Mundaka Upanishad in Diane Thome's All this. Mark Adamo's vigorous Supreme virtue and Stephen Paulus' tranquil Meditations of Li Po bring the balance of the Tao. Donald Skirvin's luminous Songs of enlightenment awaken our Buddhist minds along with John Muehleisen's resplendent setting of verses by the 12th-century Myoe Shonin, Watching the moon go down. To complete this disc, the iridescent self-styled Chinese stophes of Linda Waterfall's Guang [Light] joins Jâvdâni [Eternity], Eric Banks' homage to the afterlife by the Persian poet Rumi. Read more.
The Esoterics' 2008 season
is sponsored by generous grants from
The Esoterics
4523A 40th Ave SW
Seattle WA 98116
206-935-7779
info@TheEsoterics.org