Houston Chamber Choir Presents Regional Premiere Of Sarah Kirkland Snider's MASS FOR THE ENDANGERED With Loop38 At St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

The Grammy Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir, under the direction of founder and artistic director Robert Simpson, joins the exciting instrumental group Loop38 in the regional premiere of Mass for the Endangered by American composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, with libretto by poet Nathaniel Bellows. The concert will be held Saturday, Feb. 4 at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church.

A celebration, and an elegy, for the natural world, this extraordinary work is an appeal for greater awareness, urgency, and action. At once jubilant and reverent, Mass for the Endangered is a meditation on all that nature has to offer and what we can offer in return. The six-movement work is a rumination on the concept of the traditional Catholic Mass, its fidelity enhanced by Snider's interpolation of traditional Latin text for the Gloria, Sanctus/Benedictus, and parts of the Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei.

Snider has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral, song cycle, choral, and ballet works. Her musical compositions, particularly her song cycles, frequently borrow from indie rock and popular musical idioms as well as classical chamber music forms and instrumentation. These stylistic choices have led critics to label her music as part of the burgeoning indie-classical movement, where she has been called "perhaps the most sophisticated" of voices within this genre.

Of particular note are the album releases of her classical song cycles and her Mass: Penelope (2010), Unremembered (2015), and Mass for the Endangered (2020).

Loop38 is a boundary-pushing, artist-driven music ensemble based in Houston that aims to build community around innovative, stimulating, and culturally relevant musical experiences. Since their debut in 2016, Loop38 has performed a range of works by local composers, young and upcoming voices, and globally established artists.

The Houston Chamber Choir and Loop38 come together for an evening of music that is sure to be one of the most memorable concerts of 2023. Special community partners for this event include the "green groups" Houston Botanic Garden, Houston Arboretum & Nature Center and Galveston Bay Foundation, all of which are dedicated to preserving, conserving and protecting the natural environment in the greater Houston Area.

Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. CT

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, 2450 River Oaks Blvd., Houston, TX 77019

Single tickets for the performance range from $10 for students to $40. Seniors and military personnel receive a discount. Tickets can be purchased online here or at https://www.houstonchamberchoir.org/mass-for-the-endangered.

There is ample parking in the church lot. Seating is first come, first served.

Check out our website at HoustonChamberChoir.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Photo caption: The Grammy Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir, under the direction of Robert Simpson, presents the regional premiere of Sarah Kirkland Snider's Mass for the Endangered with Loop38 on Saturday, Feb. 4 at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

Led by Founder and Artistic Director Robert Simpson, the Houston Chamber Choir is a Grammy Award-winning ensemble of 24 professional musicians selected from the finest choral artists in our region. "One of the jewels of the city's cultural scene" (Houston Chronicle), the Houston Chamber Choir has brought Houston an array of choral works for 26 years ranging from early music and Baroque masterpieces, including the city's first period instrument performance of Bach's B Minor Mass, to the rarely heard Third Sacred Concert by Duke Ellington, and performances and premieres of works by today's leading composers, many with Houston ties - David Ashley White, Christopher Theofanidis, Dominick DiOrio, J. Todd Frazier, Mark Buller, Karim Al-Zand, Pierre Jalbert, Marcus Maroney, and Daniel Knaggs.

The Houston Chamber Choir's awards include Chorus America's Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and the American Prize. They were one of 24 international ensembles selected to appear at the 2020 World Symposium on Choral Music in New Zealand. The Houston Chamber Choir has appeared at national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the American Guild of Organists, and Chorus America. Tours have taken them to Mexico, Wales, and the Northeastern United States where they performed at Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York City, and Yale University at the invitation of the Institute of Sacred Music.

The Houston Chamber Choir's recording of the complete choral works of French composer Maurice Duruflé was awarded the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance. In January 2022, Signum Classics released its newest recording of compositions by acclaimed British composer Bob Chilcott. For this recording, the Houston Chamber Choir is joined by the Treble Choir of Houston directed by Marianna Parnas-Simpson. The title work, Circlesong, is a 13-movement composition for two choirs, two pianos, and percussion based on indigenous poetry of North America.

Loop38 is a boundary-pushing, artist-driven new music ensemble based in Houston, Texas, that aims to build community around innovative, stimulating, and culturally relevant musical experiences. Since their debut in 2016, Loop38 has performed a wide range of works by local composers, young and upcoming voices, and globally established artists. Frequenting a variety of neighborhoods throughout Houston, Loop38 has performed in venues such as the Rothko Chapel, the Turrell Skyspace at Rice University, the Galveston Artists Residency, the Silos at Sawyer Yards, the Live Oak Friends Meetinghouse, MATCH, and the Archway Gallery.

Essential to Loop38 is the desire to curate unique programs through collaborations with composers and artists of other disciplines. Past partnerships have involved the Performing Arts Houston, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, Rice University Theater Department, Apollo Chamber Players, Kinetic Ensemble, WindSync, the University of Houston's Blaffer Art Museum, Musiqa, and several artists-in-residence at the Sawyer Yards.

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