SEASON 25 | 2018

Friday | 9 February 2018 | 8pm

Holy Rosary Catholic Church

4139 42nd Avenue Southwest | West Seattle

Saturday | 10 February 2018 | 8pm

St Stephen’s Episcopal Church

4805 Northeast 45th Street | Seattle  

Sunday | 11 February 2018 | 7pm

Christ Episcopal Church

310 North K Street | Tacoma

The first concert series in The Esoterics’ 25th season reimagined the canticle – a conversation between lovers – a choral form originally inspired by the Biblical Song of songs. Rather than recounting the Biblical courtship between a young bride and her groom, the music of this concert will focus on seasoned love – or the love that is able to withstand the test of time.  

This program opened with Love, a miniature gem by the Vancouver composer Rodney Sharman. In Sharman’s setting of this verse by the 17th-century poet George Sandys, the power of love is able to unite the forces of the ancient elements – fire, air, earth, and water – to create harmony.  

The rest of this program included two large commissioned works, both enjoying world premieres. Thanks in part to funding from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Esoterics was able to commission the Minnesota-based composers Timothy Takach and Jocelyn Hagen (who are also husband and wife) to collaborate on a piece for the first time. The result of their creation, This is how you love, is a 13-movement dialogue about many aspects of marriage – from remembrances of first love, to overcoming obstacles and conflict. The texts that Jocelyn and Tim have thoughtfully curated include several contemporary poems, as well as excerpted transcripts from couples counseling sessions. 

The other world premiere in this program is The river of love, Eric Banks’ most recent composition. This piece was commissioned as a wedding gift from Robert Alexander to his wife Ali, a long-time enthusiastic friend of the ensemble. Over the course of Banks’ trilingual River, he sets 15 couplets (or doha) in ancient Hindi and Farsi (with English translations) by the 14th-century Sufi poet, musician, and mystic, Amir Khusro. Khusro’s poems explore different images of love as a river – as a vehicle for a journey, as a distance to be crossed, as a timeless source of renewal, as a depth into which we are immersed, and by which we are ultimately transformed.

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:  

Love (2002) 

by Rodney Sharman 

The river of love (2017)

world premiere commission 

by Eric Banks

This is how you love (2017) 

world premiere commission 

by Jocelyn Hagen & Timothy Takach

Friday | 13 April 2018 | 8pm 

St Stephen’s Episcopal Church  

4805 Northeast 45th Street | Seattle     

Saturday | 14 April 2018 | 8pm  

Holy Rosary Catholic Church 

4139 42nd Avenue Southwest | West Seattle  

Sunday | 15 April 2018 | 7pm 

Christ Episcopal Church 

310 North K Street | Tacoma 

In the second concert series of its 25th season, The Esoterics reimagined the mass – the ancient rite of the Christian liturgy, in which believers gather in sacred community and are then “dismissed” (the origin of the word missa) into the secular world. Rather than offer a concert of masses without comment, The Esoterics will present four settings of mass texts that express crises of faith, criticize organized religion, and prioritize the health of our planet over any individual belief.  

This program included Missa Charles Darwin by the Massachusetts composer Gregory Brown. Brown’s work is based on the architecture of the Latin rite, but replaces texts with excerpts from Darwin’s On the origin of species and The descent of man. The Esoterics' performance was the world premiere of the mixed chorus version of this work. 

In addition to Brown’s Missa, The Esoterics performed two masses by British composer Giles Swayne, Missa Tiburtina and Petite messe solitaire. Swayne’s Tiburtina is inspired by Chief Seattle’s 1854 speech: “the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.” Swayne tells us that he composed the Petite messe solitaire (“lonely little mass”) for two choirs, to represent the clash between traditional Christian certainties and current thinking – which is more complex, and full of doubt.  

To conclude the program, The Esoterics performed Island in space, Kirke Mechem’s brilliant setting of “dona nobis pacem,” the final phrase of the Latin mass. In Mechem’s piece, this phrase is sung in tandem with verses by Archibald MacLeish, as well as a 1969 description of the Earth by Russell Schweickart, the first astronaut to view our planet from space.  

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:  

Island in space (1990) 

by Kirke Mechem

Missa Charles Darwin (2013) 

choral world premiere 

  Kyrie

  Gloria

  Alleluia

  Credo

  Sanctus

  Agnus Dei

by Gregory Brown 

Missa Tiburtina (1985)

  Kyrie

  Gloria

  Sanctus

  Benedictus

  Agnus Dei

  Dona nobis pacem

by Giles Swayne 

Petite messe solitaire (1997) 

  Kyrie

  Sanctus

  Benedictus

  Agnus Dei

by Giles Swayne 

Friday | 8 June 2018 | 8pm  

St Stephen’s Episcopal Church   

4805 Northeast 45th Street | Seattle       

Saturday | 9 June 2018 | 8pm   

Holy Rosary Catholic Church  

4139 42nd Avenue Southwest | West Seattle    

Sunday | 10 June 2018 | 7pm  

Christ Episcopal Church  

310 North K Street | Tacoma  

The Esoterics celebrated its 25th anniversary with a program of reimagined motets, in keeping with the theme of this year: saecula sacrorum, or “secular versions of sacred forms.” This program explored the motet, not only as the most virtuosic and architectural form of ancient choral music, but also for the “play on words” so common in its construction.  

This program featured two “choral cathedrals” composed by Eric Banks: Etternalmente vive and Elucidation, setting poems in Italian and Swedish by Michelangelo Buonarroti and Karin Boye. It also included two new cycles by the Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi: Hommage à Edith (setting three verses by the Finland-Swedish poet Edith Södergran), and Seven last words, a hilarious rendering of the last seven entries in the Century dictionary (1910), sung as if in a spelling bee, with intermittent limericks.  

The ensemble also performed the world premiere of the choral version of Lisa Bielawa’s Machina mundi, a work for digitally processed voices and live chorus that sets a collection of philosophical texts that grapple with the origin of the universe. In addition, the group performed the world premiere of Joshua Fishbein’s Of the ages, a triptych on the various stages of life, setting texts of Elizabeth Pennell, Laurence Alma-Tadema, and William Butler Yeats. 

Finally, The Esoterics reprised one of its favorite works, Richard Strauss’ inimitable Deutsche Motette. One of the most virtuosic, cathartic, and joyful pieces in the choral repertory, Strauss’ pyrotechnic setting of Friedrich Rückert’s poem was written on a dare from the Vienna Opera Chorus in 1913. 

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:  

Deutsche Motette (1913) 

by Richard Strauss

Elucidation (2010)

by Eric Banks  

Etternalmente vive [Eternally alive] (2006) 

by Eric Banks 

Hommage à Edith (2016) 

  Den skönaste guden

  Gudarnas lyra

  Till Eros

by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi   

Machina mundi (2000) 

choral world premiere  

  Lucretius

  The physicists and the metaphysicists

by Lisa Bielawa 

Of the ages (2018) 

world premiere commission 

  Youth and age

  Playgrounds

  The old men admiring themselves in the water

by Joshua Fishbein 

Seven last words (2015) 

  Zymotic

  Zymotically

  Zymurgy

  Zyrichthys

  Zythepsary

  Zythum

  Zyxomma

by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi   

Saturday | 25 August 2018 | 8pm

St James Cathedral

804 9th Avenue | Seattle

On 25 August 1918, Jennie and Samuel Bernstein, immigrants to the US from Tsarist Russia, welcomed a son, Louis, who would grow up to be a celebrated American conductor, composer, pianist, and educator. Louis was always known as Leonard (or Lenny), and changed his name legally at the age of 15.

Bernstein's achievements are unique in music history. He was a brilliant conductor and concert pianist, a pioneering educator, a humanitarian, as well as a prolific composer for over half a century. His compositions varied from Broadway classics, to ballet, opera, orchestral and chamber music, and even a film score. And of course, he composed choral pieces, many of which are among his greatest works.  

To celebrate the life and work of this remarkable American composer on the evening of his 100th birthday, The Esoterics were joined by cathedral organist Joseph Adam, harpist John Carrington, and percussionist Matthew Kocmieroski, to present Bernstein’s entire sacred choral oeuvre in the sublime acoustic of St James Cathedral.

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:  (all composed by Leonard Bernstein)

Almighty Father, from Mass (1971)

Canon, from Kaddish Symphony (1963)

Chichester Psalms (1965)

  Psalm 108:2 & Psalm 100

  Psalm 23 & Psalm 2:1-4

  Psalm 131 & Psalm 133:1

French and Latin choruses from The lark (1955)

  Spring song 

  Court song 

  Soldier's song 

  Prelude

  Gloria

  Sanctus

  Benedictus

  Requiem

Gloria tibi, from Mass (1971)

Hashkiveinu (1945)

Missa brevis (1988)

  Kyrie

  Gloria

  Sanctus

  Benedictus

  Agnus Dei

  Dona nobis pacem

Simchu na (1947)

Simple song, from Mass (1971)

Warm-up, from Mass (1970)

Yigdal (1950)

Friday | 5 October 2018 | 8pm

St Stephen’s Episcopal Church

4805 Northeast 45th Street | Seattle

Saturday | 6 October 2018 | 8pm

Holy Rosary Catholic Church

4139 42nd Avenue Southwest | West Seattle 

Sunday | 7 October 2018 | 7pm

Christ Episcopal Church

310 North K Street | Tacoma

The Esoterics continued its 25th season with a program of reimagined requiems. Coming from the Latin requies, meaning ‘rest’, the word requiem is among the opening words of the Roman Catholic Mass for the dead. In a secular context, the word refers to an act of remembrance after loss. In this concert series, The Esoterics featured new choral works that explore the comfort and healing that are found in this musical act of remembrance.  

As the centerpiece of this autumn concert, The Esoterics recognized the winners of our 2017 POLYPHONOS competition, and performed their world premieres: Forever hurts (setting two poems of loss by Karin Boye and Paul Laurence Dunbar) by Anna-Karin Klockar from Falun, Sweden; Uprooted (setting texts from interviews with two local Japanese-American women who were sent to internment camps during WWII) by Sarah Rimkus of Aberdeen, Scotland (via Bainbridge Island); and Sa pampang [Along the shore] (recounting a mother’s loss of her entire family in the catastrophic typhoon Haiyan in 2013) by Ily Matthew Maniano from Manila. 

Oscar Wilde’s Requiescat was written in remembrance of his sister Isola, who died at the tender age of ten. The Esoterics performed two different settings of this poem, by Eric Barnum (2007) and Rodney Sharman (2015). The ensemble also reprised Kevin Puts’ devastatingly beautiful setting of Emily Brontë’s poem, At castle wood, a movement from his 2011 choral cycle, To touch the sky. 

Finally, The Esoterics presented the Pacific Northwest premiere of Dale Trumbore’s own secular requiem, How to go on, a 2017 work for chorus and solo voices that finds beauty, catharsis, and solace in the words of three living poets: Barbara Crooker, Amy Fleury, and Laura Foley.

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:  

At castle wood, from To touch the sky (2011)

by Kevin Puts 

Forever hurts (2018) 

world premiere commission 

by Anna-Karin Klockar  

How to go on (2017) 

  How

  However difficult

  To see it

  Relinquishment

  Requiescat

  Knowing the end

  Sometimes peace comes

  When at last I join

by Dale Trumbore 

Requiescat (2007) 

by Eric Barnum 

Requiescat (2015) 

by Rodney Sharman 

Sa pampang [Along the shore] (2018) 

world premiere commission 

by Ily Matthew Maniano 

Uprooted (2018) 

world premiere commission 

by Sarah Rimkus

Friday | 7 December 2018 | 8pm 

St Stephen’s Episcopal Church 

4805 Northeast 45th Street | Seattle  

Saturday | 8 December 2018 | 8pm 

Holy Rosary Catholic Church 

4139 42nd Avenue Southwest | West Seattle   

Sunday | 9 December 2018 | 3pm 

St John’s Episcopal Church 

114 20th Avenue Southeast | Olympia 

The Esoterics concluded its 25th season with a program of reimagined prayers, in keeping with the theme of this year: saecula sacrorum, or “secular versions of sacred forms.” From the first moment humans appealed to a higher power, prayers always included three aspects: an earnest wish, a willing benefactor, and a quiet utterance. In their secular form, prayers are often made to the divine that we find in nature, in ourselves, and in our communities.  In this concert series, The Esoterics performed a program of new choral works that explore the solace, focus, and strength inspired by the natural world. 

The program included two settings of Sara Teasdale’s poetry by The Esoterics’ composer emeritus, Donald Skirvin – There will come soft rains and Places, like music – as well as two pieces by former POLYPHONOS winner Christina Whitten Thomas – My cathedral (setting Longfellow) and Discovery (setting verses by poet-oceanographer Deirdre Lockwood). In addition, the ensemble performed When I close my eyes I dream of peace by Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist, a piece that sets this single phrase (uttered by an anonymous Croatian boy during the Yugoslav Wars) in twelve languages. 

The group also sang Mason Bates’ “far-out” Observer in the Magellanic cloud, which sets an ancient Maori entreaty to the night sky for a fruitful harvest. Director Eric Banks also contributed a short piece to this program, At all times, setting verses on light by the XIV Dalai Lama.  

The centerpiece of concert was the eleven-movement cycle of Prayers by John Gould Fletcher, composed by Joseph Gregorio. Joe set three of Fletcher’s “secular humanist” prayers when he won our POLYPHONOS competition back in 2013, and they were so compelling that we commissioned him to write a cycle that included all eleven of them! We are especially grateful to the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music for helping to fund this commission.

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:  

At all times (2015) 

by Eric Banks

Discovery (2011) 

by Christina Whitten Thomas

My cathedral (2009)

by Christina Whitten Thomas

Observer in the Magellanic cloud (2011)

by Mason Bates

Places, like music (2016)

by Donald Skirvin

Prayers (2018)

world premiere commission 

  Let the wind come...

  Let the rain beat in our faces...

  Let our bodies run...

  Let us bear rich heavy harvests...

  Let the dark king...

  Let us know the love...

  God of the gods of earth...

  Let us be hard...

  Though we must perish...

  Let there be eternal good...

by Joseph Gregorio

There will come soft rains (2016) 

by Donald Skirvin

When I close my eyes I dream of peace (2016) 

by Karin Rehnqvist