The Esoterics to Present Six Revolutionary Choral Works in AUDACIOR, 8/7-9

In a program that celebrates brazenness, bravery, and bravado, The Esoterics will present six choral works inspired by revolutionaries, nonconformists, and those unafraid of speaking truth to power.

The cornerstone of this concert will be Francis Poulenc's a cappella tour-de-force Figure humaine
[The human face], setting verses by Paul Eluard, a member of the French Resistance who was detained during World War II. From his prison cell, Eluard wrote eight poems that depict the ravages of war and the hope for freedom. These poems were then smuggled to Poulenc, who set them to music in 1943, during the "darkest days of the war." Poulenc's scores were then published in Algeria, and brought secretly to London and Paris in warplanes in order to be rehearsed before the end of the war.

This concert will also feature Eric Banks' elegy for Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who documented the atrocities of the Russian military in Chechnya, in stark opposition to the policies of Putin's regime. For this she was murdered in her apartment on the Russian president's birthday in 2006. The text of Banks' work comes from Anna's final published article, in which she foresaw her own death, in alternation with three Russian poems about the truth by Marina Tsvetayeva. The last of these poems bears the Latin inscription that is the title of this piece: "to risk one's life for truth," or Vitam impendere vero.

Two Minnesota composers are also featured on this program. Abbie Betinis, the first winner of The Esoterics' POLYPHONOS competition, with Bar xizam [Upward I rise], has set verses of courage that are also found on the tombstone of the Sufi mystic, Hafez. Timothy Takach subverts conventional images of divine might with A worshipper and man, a poem by Stephen Crane. In addition, the choral fireworks of local composer John Muehleisen will be experienced in The soul's expression, his setting of a fervent poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning that was commissioned by The Esoterics in 2006.

Audiences at AUDACIOR will also be able to enjoy the exceedingly timely world premiere of The visible world by Dominick DiOrio, the first recipient of The Esoterics' composer residency, HARMONIA. In his new work, composed last summer here in Seattle, DiOrio sets a mélange of texts on the struggle for civil equality for same-sex couples: lines from Oscar Wilde's De profundis, verses from the poets Catullus and Gautier, a pronouncement from Justice Anthony Kennedy that decriminalizes same-sex marriage, and a quotation from Paul Barwick, one of the first gay men to apply for a marriage license in Seattle in 1971.

Please join The Esoterics for one of these three performances of AUDACIOR:

7 Aug 2015 | 800 pm | St Stephen's Episcopal Church | 4805 NE 45th Street | Seattle

8 Aug 2015 | 800 pm | Holy Rosary Catholic Church | 4210 SW Genesee St | West Seattle

9 Aug 2015 | 300 pm | Grace Episcopal Church | 8595 NE Day Road | Bainbridge Island

Ticket prices are $25 at the door ($22 in advance), $18 for students, seniors, the un(der)employed, and the differently-abled ($15 in advance). Active singers in other choral groups may attend for only $10. Advance tickets are available online at www.TheEsoterics.org (through PayPal).

Now at the start of its twenty-second season, Seattle's most innovative chorus has drawn local, national, and international praise for performing rarely-heard compositions of contemporary music for unaccompanied voices, for infusing elements of the literary, theatrical, and visual arts into the typical concert experience, and for performing settings of poetry, philosophy, and spiritual writings from around the world.

Since its founding in 1993, The Esoterics has performed over 400 concerts throughout the Pacific Northwest, has commissioned and premiered more than 150 new works for a cappella voices in dozens of languages, and has mastered many of the most virtuosic choral compositions of the last century. The Esoterics has released sixteen CD recordings - several which have been favorably reviewed in The Gramophone and American Record Guide. The group's recordings are distributed by Naxos of America. The ensemble has been honored as the only North American chorus invited to compete in the 2000 Cork International Choral Festival (Ireland), the 2001 Certamen Coral de Tolosa (Spain), and the 2006 Harald Andersén International Choral Competition in Helsinki (Finland). The ensemble has also been featured in the BBC Radio program "The Choir."

Always on the search for the next great choral masterpiece, The Esoterics inaugurated its annual choral composition competition, POLYPHONOS, in 2006. Through this competition, The Esoterics awards commissions to three composers each year. In recognition for its efforts in choral education and innovation, The Esoterics has been honored four times with the ASCAP / Chorus America Award for the Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music (in 2001, 2003, 2006, and 2008). The Esoterics has been honored to receive several grants from the arts commissions of Washington State, King County, and the City of Seattle, as well as from ArtsFund, The Ann Stookey Fund for New Music, The Horizons Foundation, The Seattle Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Copland Fund for New Music. The Esoterics is a proud member of the American Choral Director's Association, Chorus America, and the International Federation for Choral Music.