SEATTLE PRO MUSICA
KAREN P. THOMAS, CONDUCTOR
SEATTLE PRO MUSICA
KAREN P. THOMAS, CONDUCTOR
When Thunder Comes
New American Composers Series
Mari Esabel Valverde, Guest Composer
March 8 & 9, 2025
Welcome to When Thunder Comes, the annual continuation of our “New American Composers Series,” which was inaugurated two years ago in our 50th anniversary season. We are thrilled that, due to the generosity of our donors and members, Seattle Pro Musica is able to continue re-imagining the future of choral music by commissioning an exciting young American composer each season. For this concert, we feature Mari Esabel Valverde with a performance of five of her choral works, complemented by pieces from Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dale Trumbore, Eric Whitacre, Casey Rule, Rosephanye Powell, James Mulholland, Karen P. Thomas, and Vaclovas Augustinas.
We’re excited to host Mari in Seattle the week of the concert to work with the singers of Seattle Pro Musica, and to share her knowledge and talent with students in the Greater Seattle area via our Education and Engagement Program. We are also especially excited to be joined on stage at our March 8th concert by students from some of these schools.
We are certain you will enjoy hearing Mari’s music, as well as hearing and reading her insights about her compositional process and the place of new choral music in the world today.
Award-winning transgender Mexican American composer Mari Esabel Valverde, whose music has been reviewed as “heart-stopping” (BBC Music Magazine) and “of shimmering beauty” (The WholeNote), has composed art songs, chamber music, and works for chorus, orchestra, and wind ensemble. Her music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad in Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan.
She has been commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association, Boston Choral Ensemble, Cantus, the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses, Los Angeles Master Chorale, One Voice Mixed Chorus, Portland’s Resonance Ensemble, Seattle Men’s and Women’s Choruses, the Texas Music Educators Association, and the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club.
She has also built a reputation as a singer, educator, adjudicator, and translator. She has recently performed with Border CrosSing, Dallas Chamber Choir, and EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble. Following six years as a high school classical voice instructor, she spent two years specializing in transgender voice training. Proficient in Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese, she has translated numerous vocal works and documents including phonetic guides of Ravel’s opera L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and Villa-Lobos’s Rasga o Coração.
A native of North Texas, she holds degrees from St. Olaf College, the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, France, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is a member of ASCAP and the American Choral Directors Association.
Visit seattlepromusica.org for information about our education and engagement programs, donor acknowledgements, ways to support us, and more.