Amor Artis Performs at St. Michael's Church Tonight

St. Michael's Church, 225 W. 99th St. (Enter on Amsterdam Ave. between 99th and 100th Sts.) tonight, April 18, 8 PM. Tickets $35/$25 for students and seniors.

New York chorus Amor Artis, joined by pianist-composer Timo Andres, will perform Luigi Dallapiccola's 20th-century cri de coeur, Canti di Prigionia (Songs of Imprisonment), and other Renaissance and contemporary works that draw on the words of the martyred 15th-century Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola.

Conducted by Artistic Director Ryan James Brandau, the program includes Miserere Mei Deus by Dez Pres, Infelix Ego by Lasso, and Tristitia Obsedit Me by Clemens Non Papa. "These are motets on a grand scale," Maestro Brandau says. Complementing them will be works by two 21st-century composers-Carson Cooman's Premat Mundus, with text by Savonarola, and the world premiere of Elizabeth Lim's Songs for the People, commissioned by Amor Artis, a setting of a text by African-American poet and abolitionist Frances Harper.

"Chiaroscuro implies shades of light and dark," Brandau says. "The program consists of pieces that stem from places of great personal darkness, and also from lighter places of great hope. All make meaningful, impassioned pleas."

For more information and tickets, go to www.amorartis.org or call 646-771-0393