Season 29 | 2022

Friday | 8 April 2022 | 7pm 

Queen Anne Christian Church 

1316 3rd Avenue W | Seattle   

Friday | 8 April 2022 | 8:30pm 

Queen Anne Christian Church 

1316 3rd Avenue W | Seattle  

Saturday | 9 April 2022 | 3pm 

St John’s Episcopal Church 

114 20th Avenue Southeast | Olympia 

The first concert of The Esoterics’ 2022 Season featured the North American premiere of Eric Banks’ As palmeiras: The palms. Commissioned for the RAMOS XII Festival in Lisbon, The Esoterics premiered this piece on Palm Sunday in 2018 in Portugal. The palms was then premiered by the choirs Cantus Firmus and Madrigal de Brasilia, Brazil in April of 2019. The Esoterics was in the midst of preparing for the Seattle premiere of this piece when the pandemic struck in March of 2020. 

The inspiration for As palmeiras came from the inital wondering: “Why the palms?” When Christians mark the entry of Christ into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week, why did they lay palm fronds at his feet? What is it about the palm that signifies royalty? In his research about the symbolism of the palm tree, composer Eric Banks found, collected, and arranged 37 different poems, adages, proverbs, and texts from cultures around the world and through various eras of human history.  

In addition to its connotation of royalty, the palm in the desert can symbolize salvation (as one sees an oasis in the desert), or bounty (with the rich sweetness of its fruits). The tree also has grown to stand for luxury, and the rest that accompanies a tropical vacation.  Since a single palm seed can traverse an entire ocean to plant itself on a distant shore, the palm represents fertility; and since this seed (often as a coconut) travels such long distances alone, the palm has also come to represent exile. Also, let’s not forget the worldwide demand for palm oil, and resulting environmental crisis that the greed for this commodity has caused.  

For his concert-length composition, Banks chose to present these texts about the palm in various textures – for solo voice, for small ensemble, for only treble and bass voices, and for full mixed choir. The texts of As palmeiras traverse the entire globe longitudinally; the 37 vignettes start in California, head east, and end on the island of Tahiti. Banks’ composition is a fascinating study of an unlikely subject; setting texts from 33 countries in 24 different languages, The palms creates a ear-opening concert experience. 

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:  

As palmeiras [The palms] (North American premiere, 2018) 

by Eric Banks

Saturday | 11 June 2022 | 8pm 

St James Cathedral 

804 9th Avenue | Seattle  

Sunday | 12 June 2022 | 3pm 

Holy Rosary Catholic Church 

4139 42nd Avenue Southwest | West Seattle 

With THE SISTERS, The Esoterics will present a program of Orthodox choral music by the Ukrainian composers Bohdana Frolyak and her late sister Hanna Havrylets. Hanna died tragically this year on the third day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when she suffered an aneurysm and was unable to get medical attention in time.  

Hanna's younger sister, Bohdana, has recovered her scores and shared them with director Eric Banks along with her own works. Eric has transliterated and translated these Ukrainian scores, so that The Esoterics can perform these sisters' music together.  

No tickets or reservations are required for this concert, and a free-will donation will be taken at the door. All of the proceeds from this concert will benefit humanitarian organizations in the Ukraine that have been selected by Bohdana.

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:

Богородице Діво 

[Bogorodytse dyivo]

[Blessed Virgin] (2018)

by Богдана Фроляк [Bohdana Frolyak]

Боже мій, нащо мене ти покинув?  

[Bozhe myiy, nashcho mene ty pokynuv?]

[My God, why did you forsake me?] (2000) 

by Ганна Гаврилець [Hanna Havrylets]   

Херувимська пісня  

[Kheruvymska pyisnya]

[Song of the cherubim] (2002) 

by Ганна Гаврилець [Hanna Havrylets]   

Молитва

[Molytva]

[Prayer] (2004) 

by Ганна Гаврилець [Hanna Havrylets]   

Нехай воскресне Бог

[Nekhay voskresne Boh]

[May God rise] (2004) 

by Ганна Гаврилець [Hanna Havrylets]   

Отче наш

[Otche nash]

[Our Father] (2018)

by Богдана Фроляк [Bohdana Frolyak]

Світло тихе

[Svyitlo tykhe]

[Gentle light] (2021, world premiere)

by Богдана Фроляк [Bohdana Frolyak]

Тебе поєм

[Tebe poyem]

[We sing to you] (2002) 

by Ганна Гаврилець [Hanna Havrylets]   

Вірую

[Vyiruyu]

[I believe] (2021, world premiere)

by Богдана Фроляк [Bohdana Frolyak]

Все упованіє моє

[Vse upovanyiye moye]

[All my hope] (2006)

by Ганна Гаврилець [Hanna Havrylets] 

Saturday | 15 October 2022 | 8pm 

Christ Episcopal Church

310 North K Street | Tacoma

Sunday | 16 October 2022 | 4pm 

Plymouth United Church of Christ

1217 6th Avenue | Seattle 

In THE VALLEYS, The Esoterics was excited to present a world-premiere commission by Forrest Farhad Pierce: The atlas of the way. Originally from the Columbia Plateau of Washington state, Pierce is now Professor of Composition at the University of Kansas, a member of the faculty of the Cortona Sessions for New Music, a wayfarer of both mountains and valleys, and a teacher of Sufism in the Inayati tradition. Pierce writes music of meditative stillness and ecstatic virtuosity that is rooted in a deep connection to the natural world.

In his Atlas, Pierce has created a concert-length a cappella choral work based on the epic Sufi poem, The conference of the birds [Mantiq ut-Tair], by Farid ud-Din Attar (1145-1221). As both poet and composer, Pierce has distilled nearly five thousand couplets of this ancient poem into a nine-movement work, with eight interludes (called sohbets). Pierce's piece describes the journey of a gathering of curious birds who are led by their teacher - the hoopoe -  to learn of their own origin. Through this vast landscape, the birds traverse seven evocatively-named valleys - of farawayfaring, lovestruckness, kenning, enoughing, onement, wonderstruckness, and noughtness - each representing a Sufi maqam, or spiritual station of progress.  Between each musical valley, Pierce's interstitial sohbets capture quiet, intimate conversations between student and teacher in which they reflect on this spiritual journey.

Forrest began composing The atlas of the way before the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020, and The Esoterics was finally able to welcome him to Seattle and Tacoma for the weekend of his world premiere!  Thank you for joining us (and him) for this fantastic concert!

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:

The atlas of the way (world premiere, 2022)

by Forrest Farhad Pierce

Saturday | 3 December 2022 | 8pm

Sunday | 4 December 2022 | 4pm 

Queen Anne Christian Church

1316 3rd Avenue West (at Lee Street) | Seattle

In the final concert of our 29th season, The Esoterics commemorated THE WANDERERS of our Solar System – known in ancient Greek as πλάνητες (plānetes) – with the West Coast premiere of Timothy Takach’s choral sojourn, Helios. This fifteen-movement, concert-length work begins in the outermost reaches of the Solar System, with Pluto, and travels inward, to our Sun. The libretto of Helios is a combination of published and commissioned poems from contemporary writers as well as translations of ancient texts, and the theme of each planetary movement is inspired by the mythology or science of its namesake.
 

Positioned at the nexus of science, faith, and humanity, Helios includes a narrative of control and chaos, exploring that which is within our control, that which is not, and showing that we have the power to change our trajectory. The music provides a constantly changing landscape of textures, soundscapes, vocal techniques and harmonic language.
 

To accompany his astronomical work, Tim commissioned a series of visual projections that ran simultaneously with the concert. He collaborated with Deborah Johnson (aka CandyStations), an interdisciplinary artist and designer who has created projections for Sufjan Stevens, Sofi Tukker, St Vincent, Kronos Quartet, and Wilco.

The Esoterics treated our audience to the Pacific Northwest premiere of Helios to these new projections, and Tim spoke beatifully about his piece before each concert.

CONCERT REPERTOIRE:

Helios (west coast premiere, 2019)

by Timothy Takach