Program in brief

Nocturne
Eric Tuan (b. 1990)

Set to the love poem “Puedo escribir”  by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, written when Neruda was only 19 years old.
Sung in Spanish. With Prime Voci of the Seattle Girls Choir (7:30 concert only)

Rosemary
Emi Nakamura (b. 1991)

Commissioned by Seattle Pro Musica’s Chroma Ensemble, in loving, everlasting memory of Allison Freel.
Sung in English. 

Dawn,  Unhindered
Eric Tuan

Settings of haiku composed by Americans of Japanese descent who were interned in concentration camps and assembly centers during WWII. These haiku find glimpses of beauty amidst harsh isolation.
Sung in English.

Blue Phoenix
Kala Pierson (b. 1977)

This moving text is from an interview with Iraqi artist Esam Pasha, describing his experience of creating art during the bombing of Baghdad. 
Sung in English.

Gartenlieder, Op. 3

Im Herbste
Abenslich schon rauscht der Wald
Im Wald

Fanny Hensel (1805-1847)

Fanny Hensel, née Fanny Mendelsohn, was a prolific composer but was not allowed to publish much of her own music within her lifetime. These evocative nature-themed “garden songs” were written to be performed outdoors, as well as indoors. Sung in German.

At the round earth's imagined corners
Williametta Spencer (b. 1927)

A choral fanfare on John Donne’s Divine Sonnet VII, depicting the awe-inspiring spectacle of the last judgment.
Sung in English.

Unending Love
Eric Tuan 

A lush setting of the Bengali love poetry of Rabindranath Tagore: "The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours – and the songs of every poet past and forever."
Sung in English.

Let Them Not Say (World premiere)
Eric Tuan

A litany of witness to the realities of climate change—“we saw, we heard, we ate, we trembled”—spills forth, first from individual voices and then from the entire community.
Sung in English. 

Sa Nuit d'Été (from Nocturnes)
Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943)

A setting of Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s impassioned and atmospheric Its Summer Nights, evoking night, love, and transcendence.
Sung in French. 

Abendlied  (from Vier Quartette, Op. 92)
Der Gang zum Liebchen  (Op. 31, No. 3)
O schöne Nacht (from Vier Quartette, Op. 92)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Three choral songs, expressing the breadth of late 19th-century Romanticism, with themes of nature and love.
Sung in German.

Journey of Song
Eric Tuan

With text drawn from the opening verses of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, these beautiful words speak eloquently of the ways in which singing can bridge national and cultural barriers, bringing people together through shared music-making. Seattle Pro Musica will be joined by students from area schools and children’s choirs. Sung in English. 

For the final piece,  Journey of Song, we are joined by students from the following schools and choirs:

3:00 pm concert
Evergreen Middle School, Christa Phillipson, conductor
Jane Addams Middle School, Alex Gagiu, conductor
Seattle Girls Choir Cantamus, Alex Gagiu, conductor 

7:30 pm concert
The Overlake School, Erin Gabriel, conductor
Roosevelt High School, Aimee Mell, conductor
Seattle Girls Choir Prime Voci, Sarra Sharif Doyle, conductor