The Esoterics

For Immediate Release: January 3, 2008

SEATTLE - In 1992, when Eric Banks recruited a group of talented choral singers to sing his Master's and Doctoral recitals in Choral Studies at the University of Washington, he did not realize he was taking the first steps in establishing a Seattle choral institution. The group chose to continue singing together and in spring of 1993, under the name The Esoterics, they performed officially for the first time.

"I feel as if the group has reached a significant threshold in many ways: musically, professionally, and financially," says Banks, "and we are on the verge of a new phase -- reaching a broader audience in the Puget Sound with new venues and, with our growing collection of CD's, potentially becoming a significant fixture in the national and international community of choral music enthusiasts."

The 2007 season was a hallmark of this tremendous growth for the group, with three CD's recorded (one of these, MANDALA, was released in December), an inaugural choral concert in the Olympic Sculpture Park Pavilion, and the introduction of super-titles to all their concerts (recently hailed in The Seattle Weekly as the "best idea" in Seattle classical music in 2007). In 2008, The Esoterics will seek out a new audience north of Seattle by joining the regular Sunday concert series of Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood.

KANON: Arvo Pärt's Canon of repentance ~ February 2, 3, 9 & 10, 2008
The Esoterics opens its 2008 season in February with the American premiere of Arvo Pärt's Kanon pokajanen, a concert-length setting of the Orthodox liturgical canon of repentance. In KANON, The Esoterics will perform this work as part of a tribute to Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building in 2006. An outspoken reporter and human rights activist, Politkovskaya was known for her coverage of the conflict in Chechnya as well as her opposition to Russian president Vladimir Putin. In response to her tragic death, Pärt made a significant global pronouncement: that every concert performance of his work in the upcoming year would be dedicated to Anna's memory. The Esoterics will honor Anna's life and bravery with a world premiere composition by director Eric Banks in which poems about truth by Russian poet Marina Tsvetayeva are placed in contrast to the English text of Politkovskaya's last published article in which she foresaw her own assassination.

QUINDECIMA: Fifteen years of The Esoterics ~ April 12, 13, 19 & 20
To celebrate the ensemble's remarkable growth and its crystal anniversary, The Esoterics will offer a special concert series in April. QUINDECIMA, Latin for the number 15, will feature some of the group's favorite past repertoire, with one composition from each year since 1993. ÆDONIS, the group's brother ensemble, will join The Esoterics to perform works by Washington state composers David Asplin, Bern Herbolsheimer, John Muehleisen, Donald Skirvin, and Linda Waterfall; pieces by national composers Mark Adamo, Dominick Argento, Abbie Betinis, Stephen Paulus, and Martha Sullivan; and music from abroad by Vanraj Bhatia, Bo Holten, and Jaakko Mäntyjärvi. In addition, the group will perform three world premiere commissions by the 2008 winners of POLYPHONOS, The Esoterics' annual composition competition. This ambitious program serves as a testament to The Esoterics history and its significant role in contemporary choral music in the Northwest.

EXPECTO: Songs of optimism, and hope ~ May 10, 11, 17 & 18
The Esoterics welcomes its all-male counterpart, ÆDONIS, into the 2008 season with EXPECTO, a concert inspired by expectation: the anticipation of word from afar, the optimism of a reunion between loved ones, or the hope for justice, solace, or healing at day's end. In line with ÆDONIS' mission, EXPECTO will feature works by lesbian and gay composers, including several of the group's favorite works from past seasons: Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ethereal Solovushko, Camille Saint-Saëns' ecstatic Calme des nuits, Bern Herbolsheimer's captivating Love Letters, and Donald Skirvin's shimmering choral cycle of poems by Hart Crane with the title, Yet, love endures. In addition, ÆDONIS will perform settings of Shakespeare and Donne sonnets by Naomi Stephan and a choral illustration of Robert Herrick by Conrad Susa. EXPECTO will also include the world premieres of Scott Perkins' setting of Walt Whitman's A word out of the sea, and Eric Banks' new cycle of poems by the Greek-Egyptian poet Constantine Cavafy.

DISTLER: Hugo Distler's centennial ~ June 21, 22, 28 & 29
As it has done almost every year of its existence, The Esoterics will celebrate centennial birthdays of great composers in its coming season. Three remarkable figures in music history were born in 1908 and The Esoterics is proud to feature all three composers in two separate concerts during its 2008 season. Hugo Distler was well-known not only as a prolific and pioneering choral composer, but for the tragic story of his short life. Born in Nuremburg in June of 1908, Distler was thrust into the world of Nazi Germany just as he began composing music driven by a religious devotion far too progressive for German traditionalism. Replete with spiritual fervor that was not tolerated by the Nazis, Distler's music was eventually labeled "degenerate art." As a conscientious objector who was under the constant threat of conscription into the German army, Distler grew increasingly depressed and eventually took his own life at age 34. To celebrate Distler's life and virtuosic choral brilliance, The Esoterics will perform Geistliche Chormusik (Op 12), his collection of nine sacred motets composed between 1935 and 1941.

DAMÂN: The seven creations ~ October 4, 5, 11 & 12
Fitting with The Esoterics' expansive future, the group will prepare its October concert series, DAMÂN, in anticipation of a 2009 tour to India. During the second of his own sojourns to Southern Asia, The Esoterics' director Eric Banks researched the Avesta, the early Persian scriptures of Zoroastrianism, and the Gathas, ancient hymns to the prophet Zarathustra, which are most likely the oldest chants in recorded history. Selecting texts from both of these sources, Banks assembled a libretto for a concert-length opera for a cappella voices that recounts the origin of the universe in dramatic detail. The resulting work, The seven creations, has been funded by a composer's grant from 4Culture, an award from Seattle CityArtists, and a composer's fellowship from the Washington State Arts Commission and Artist Trust.

CARTER & MESSIÆN: A double centennial ~ December 6, 7, 13 & 13
Born only a day apart in December of 1908, Elliott Carter and Olivier Messiæn composed very little for a cappella chorus, and both ceased writing choral works around the year 1945. The Esoterics will perform all of Carter's unaccompanied pieces for chorus, including settings of Emily Dickinson and Robert Herrick; and the group will split to sing two piano-accompanied pieces: one for women's chorus and one for men's. From Messiæn's choral ouvre, The Esoterics will perform his only sacred a cappella choral composition, motet O sacrum convivium, as well as one of the most virtuosic cycles in the choral repertory, Cinq rechants. Performed by twelve solo voices, Cinq rechants sets Messiæn's own poetry (in French, pseudo-Sanskrit syllables, and indigenous Peruvian Quechua) illuminating the simultaneous fulfillment of love and death through images from amorous myths: Merlin and Viviane, Orpheus and Euridyce, Bluebeard and Ariadne, and Perseus and the Medusa.

Please join The Esoterics for their monumental and memorable 2008 season. Dates are as follows:

How to Purchase Season Subscriptions: Season subscriptions are available now for $75 along with single tickets priced from $10-$20. Venues and times vary. For further information, please visit www.theesoterics.org.

About The Esoterics

The Esoterics has presented dozens of local and international premieres, and has tackled the most challenging works of 20th and 21st century choral repertoire. Now in its fourteenth season with founding director Eric Banks, the ensemble has drawn national and international praise for presenting the many styles that comprise contemporary choral music. In 2001, 2003, and 2006, The Esoterics' commitment to innovative concert repertoire was nationally recognized when ASCAP and Chorus America granted the ensemble its coveted Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. The ensemble was also honored to be selected as the only North American chorus to compete at the 2000 International Choral Festival in Cork, Ireland, the 2001 International Choral Festival in Tolosa, Spain, and the 2006 Harald Andersén International Choir Competition in Helsinki (Finland).

The Esoterics' Season 2008 has been made possible by grants from 4 Culture, ArtsFund, The Horizons Foundation, Meet the Composer, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Seattle Foundation, City of Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Washington State Arts Commission, Classical King FM 98.1, and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

If you have additional questions about the 2008 season or The Esoterics (media contact only), please contact Bayta Maring ().