Chicago, Illinois (April 14, 2016) – Chicago Composers Orchestra (CCO) & Wicker Park Choral Singers presents Hymn to Humanity on Friday, May 13, 2016, 8:00 p.m. at St. James Cathedral, 65 E. Huron St. This concert marks the first full-length collaboration between CCO and the Wicker Park Choral Singers. The program features Blemish’d Muse, a world premiere by Chicago-based composer Eric Malmquist, as well as David Lang’s statement to the court, and Julia Wolfe’s Thirst.
“This performance is comprised of works combining voices and instruments with texts dedicated to various forms of social justice,” comments CCO co-Artistic Director, Brian Baxter, “and we are delighted to be collaborating with the Wicker Park Choral Singers to cap off our sixth season.” Founded in 2008, the Wicker Park Choral Singers is an all-volunteer ensemble dedicated to building community through choral music. The choir performs repertoire spanning eight centuries in venues across Chicago and the surrounding area.
Eric Malmquist is a Chicago-based composer whose music draws from modern styles, blended with the influence of historical themes and early music. Featured on this program is the world premiere of his work Blemish’d Muse, which was commissioned by the Wicker Park Choral Singers. The texts of Blemish’d Muse draw from the works of Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan and the first female writer to be published in colonial New England, Philis Wheatley, a Boston slave and the first African-American female poet to be published, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg.
David Lang won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music for The Little Match Girl Passion. statement to the court was written for Philadelphia-based chamber choir The Crossing under the direction of Donald Nally in 2010. In the work, Lang uses the text from a speech given by 19th century American Socialist Eugene Debs to a court after he was found guilty for speaking against the American involvement in World War I.
Julia Wolfe was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for her oratorio Anthracite Fields, and is a co-founder, along with David Lang, of the New York based contemporary classical music ensemble, Bang on a Can. Thirst takes its text from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, and explores the metaphorical expressions of water and thirst. It was written as Part IV of a larger eight-part compositional collaboration with Lang and Michael Gordon entitled Water.
More info and tickets can be found at www.wickerparksings.org
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