OUR VIDEO ARCHIVE

THE SISTERS

Originally performed by The Esoterics in Seattle's St James Cathedral on 11 June 2022, this concert of Ukrainian Orthodox choral music by sisters and composers Bohdana Frolyak and Hanna Havrylets was filmed and produced by Garrett Lennington at Solark Productions, and premiered on 12 Jan 2023. This concert film was a fundraiser for humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

PALM OIL

Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia

Movement XXXIII from The palms [As palmeiras] a 37-movement choral sojourn by Eric Banks. This is The Esoterics first 'concert film,' produced by Garrett Lennington (Solark Productions), and premiered on 25 Apr 2022.

This movement sets text from "Indonesia is killing the planet for palm oil" (2014), adapted from an article in "Vice News" by Samuel Oakford.

Tāl gāch

Kolkata, India

Movement XXX from The palms [As palmeiras] a 37-movement choral sojourn by Eric Banks. This is The Esoterics first 'concert film,' produced by Garrett Lennington (Solark Productions), and premiered on 25 Apr 2022.

This movement sets তাল গাছ (Tāl gāch, The palm tree, 1921) by Bengali poet, author, and translator, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).

I think of THEE!

Florence, Italy

Movement XX from The palms [As palmeiras] a 37-movement choral sojourn by Eric Banks. This is The Esoterics first 'concert film,' produced by Garrett Lennington (Solark Productions), and premiered on 25 Apr 2022.

This movement sets Sonnet XXIX (of Sonnets from the Portuguese, 1846), by the English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861).

Der Fichtenbaum und die Palme

Düsseldorf, Germany

Movement XVI from The palms [As palmeiras] a 37-movement choral sojourn by Eric Banks. This is The Esoterics first 'concert film,' produced by Garrett Lennington (Solark Productions), and premiered on 25 Apr 2022.

This movement sets the poem Der Fichtenbaum und die Palme (The pine tree and the palm, 1827) by the German poet, Heinrich Heine (1797-1856).

A palmeira

Rio de Janerio, Brazil

Movement VIII from The palms [As palmeiras] a 37-movement choral sojourn by Eric Banks. This is The Esoterics first 'concert film,' produced by Garrett Lennington (Solark Productions), and premiered on 25 Apr 2022.

This movement sets the poem A palmeira [The palm tree] (1957) by the Brazilian poet, Cecília Meireles (1901-1964).

THE cocoa-palm

Amesbury, Massachusetts, United States

Movement V from The palms [As palmeiras] a 37-movement choral sojourn by Eric Banks. This is The Esoterics first 'concert film,' produced by Garrett Lennington (Solark Productions), and premiered on 25 Apr 2022.

This movement sets an excerpt of the text from the poem The palm-tree (1858), by the American poet, John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892).

DON'T START NOW

The Esoterics' second 'virtual choir' video features an a cappella version of the "nu disco" hit by Dua Lipa, Caroline Ailin, Emily Warren, and Ian Kirkpatrick. The choral arrangement of this song was created by Eric Banks, and the audio/video editing were also done by Eric Banks. This video, starring 36 of The Esoterics' "poppiest" singers, premiered on 27 Sep 2020.

TO BE A STRANGER

Commissioned by The Virtual Choir Consortium and a project of the Firebird Arts Alliance, this 32-part piece for 'virtual choir' was sung by Ensemble Diaspora, under the auspices of The Esoterics. Composed by Eric Banks, this piece employs texts by four African-American writers: Dorothy West, John Lewis, James Baldwin, and Frederick Douglass. This video was directed, edited, and produced by the composer. It premiered on on 25 Aug 2020.

AT ALL TIMES

The Esoterics' first 'virtual choir' video, featuring 64 singers from Seattle and around the world, performing verses on light and compassion by Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness, the XIV Dalai Lama. This piece was composed by The Esoterics' founding director, Eric Banks in 2016. This video was produced by Michael Saunders and Kylie Della, and premiered on 27 Apr 2020.