QUINDECIMA

Fifteen years of The Esoterics

To celebrate its crystal anniversary, The Esoterics will be joined by its brother ensemble æDONIS to reprise fifteen of its favorite choral works by living composers - one piece for each year since the ensemble's first.

This concert program will include works by the Washington state composers David Asplin (In nature's charm), Bern Herbolsheimer (Love letters), John Muehleisen (Perplexed music), Donald Skirvin (O lady), and Linda Waterfall (Guang); pieces by national composers Mark Adamo (Supreme virtue), Dominick Argento (Sonnet LXIV), Abbie Betinis (Bar xizam), Stephen Paulus (Meditations on Li Po), and Martha Sullivan (Laus Domini); and music from abroad by Vanraj Bhatia (The hymn of creation), and Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (Psalm 150).

In addition, the group will perform the world-premieres commissions by this year's three POLYPHONOS winners: I saw eternity by Leonard Enns (our international winner from Waterloo, Ontario), L'invitation au voyage by Scott Perkins (our young composer winner from Rochester, New York), and O me! O life! by Nathan Stumpff (our national winner from Liberty, Maine).

Singing strophes inspired by such poets as Charles Baudelaire, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Diane di Prima, Shams ud-Dîn Hâfez, Li Po, William Shakespeare, Lao Tzu, Henry Vaughn, Walt Whitman, and Richard Wilbur, this concert might contain too many pieces for only one intermission! However, even if it turns out to be a choral marathon, The Esoterics' QUINDECIMA (with its title from the Latin number fifteen) will be an unforgettable documentation of choral innovation and collaboration in the great Pacific Northwest!

NEW!! Also check out our new EsoCast, including interviews with composers and POLYPHONOS winners.

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