Cambridge Composer To Premiere Intricate New Sacred Work In Boston This Month

Longtime Cambridge-based sacred musician and composer Rachel Burckardt, together with Wood Harbor Orchestra, conducted by Elijah Langille, and Mount Auburn Choir, premiere the new sacred work "Mount Auburn, a Requiem in d minor," on Saturday, October 22, 8 pm, at Saint Cecelia Parish, 18 Belvidere Street, Boston.

The concert program also features several of Burckardt's other orchestral and vocal works, with solo performing artists, including Ciarán Nagle, tenor vocalist, Diana Fischer, piano, Lily Marie Antonini, mezzo soprano, Alex Meisner, alto saxophone, and Rachel Burckardt, piano and guitar.

"Mount Auburn, Requiem in d minor," the concert's title work, reflects Burckardt's vision of a requiem, traditionally composed and performed as a mass for the repose of souls who have passed. Her inspiration for this composition to take this form stems partly from the scene in the movie "Amadeus," when Mozart is dictating his mass for the dead, and partly from her experience that requiems feel a bit unsatisfactory, as though they miss the point.

"In my mind, the setting should deeply reflect the life experience of loss and separation, with all its wild range of deep, unrelenting emotions - deep sadness, unexpected uncertainty about the future, anger, unexplained tears, resolving to the sense of acceptance, resignation, and quiet peace," shares Burckardt. "Overlaying these emotions is the mysticism of mortality and eternity, relevant to this work."

Each fall, around All Souls Day (el Día de los Muertos), Burckardt strolls the beautiful landscape of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, which inspired the title of the featured work. Experiencing autumn's beauty while contemplating mortality and eternity, she recollects her favorite verses from Psalm 90, "teach us to number our days that we may learn your wisdom" and "for a thousand years to you ... is like the passing of a single day." In essence, contemplating this final moment intersects the diverse emotions that accompany death. "Mount Auburn" begins and ends with stark instrumentation, straining at tonality to encompass loss, sorrow, and the spirituality of mortality. "Between both ends, the listener is drawn into an emotional journey expressed in the dynamics, rhythm, lyrics, and texture woven into the work's eight movements," says Burckardt.

Other works on the "Mount Auburn" program include "Heal Me," "Ascendance," and "Ave Maria," all compositions by Burckardt, performed by the orchestra, ornamented by featured soloists, including Diana Fischer, piano, Lily Marie Antonini, mezzo soprano, Alex Meisner, alto saxophone, and Burckardt herself, guitar and piano.

Rachel Burckardt is a prolific composer whose works explore sacred and liturgical music, jazz, electronic music, and orchestral works. She has served as a church musician for more than 45 years and currently serves on the Saint Cecilia Parish music ministry and the American Guild of Organists. A longtime instrumentalist, chorister, composer, and director, she also previously served as co-director of the parish's contemporary ensemble. As a performing artist, she sings with the Boston Archdiocesan Festival Choir. Burckardt has released six albums featuring her original compositions and improvisations. The studio recording of "Mount Auburn" will be her next album release.

The newly formed Wood Harbor Orchestra makes their first public performance at this concert, under the direction of Elijah Langille, conductor. The ensemble includes professional musicians along with students from local music schools. Wood Harbor Orchestra is dedicated to the performance of works by local composers, focused on underrepresented groups in classical music, including women, people of color, and those in the LGBTQIA+ community.

Tickets to "Mount Auburn, Requiem in d minor" are general admission $25, students and seniors $8.50, preferred seating $50, available on EventBrite, or at the door. Sponsor donation options range from $100 - $1000. Reduced-rate parking for $14 is available at The Hynes Auditorium Garage (located at 50 Dalton Street between Bukowski Tavern and Summer Shack). To obtain the discount, ask a concert greeter for a chaser ticket which can be used at the garage's exit gate machine. Alternate paid parking is available at the Prudential garage. The church building is fully accessible by elevator at both the street level entrance on Belvidere Street, and at the entrance on the corner of St. Cecilia and Scotia Streets.

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