Join us on Saturday, November 23, 2019 for an encore concert presented by et al. in conjunction with our art exhibit Abraham Out of One, Many. Tickets can be purchased in advance through the et al. website, or at the door. The price is $20, students with ID enter for free. The doors open at 7 pm and the concert will start at 7:30 pm.
Repertoire:
Mass for Double Choir by Frank Martin
Avodath Hakodesh (parts 1 & 2) by Ernest Bloch
Adinu (Sufi Song) arr. Abu Khader & André de Quadros
Zikr A.R. Rahman/arr. Ethan Sperry
Featuring Kevin Neel, piano, and Ian Pomerantz, Bass-Baritone
Ian joins TBC to sing the Cantor solo in Ernest Bloch's Avodath Hakodesh.
American music director and bass-baritone IAN POMERANTZ’s "rich bass-baritone voice" is "especially remarkable, with gravity turning mellifluous at key moments, free of any hint of false inflation.” Learn more about Ian...
Read a review of June's performance of Sacred Service...
Learn more about the music...
Sacred Service explores music of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith traditions. These contrasting pieces were all written in the 20th and early 21st centuries. While each piece is unique, Ernest Bloch's Avodath Hakodesh particularly represents a "suis generis" of its style – sacred Jewish service music. It is at times pensive, and others extravagant. Originally scored for full orchestra and large choir (and famously recorded with Leonard Bernstein, the New York Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Synagogue Choir and New York Community Church Choir), it is performed in a more intimate setting with et al. and Ian Pomerantz, bass-baritone, with piano. While Ernest Bloch was Swiss-born and ultimately settled in America, Frank Martin was also Swiss-born and lived his life in Europe. A world apart musically, Frank Martin's masterpiece Mass for Double Choir is a deeply personal expression of his Catholic faith. John Bawden says, "Martin’s Mass is notable for its flowing rhythmic and melodic vitality – always at the service of the words – and the juxtaposition of austere, restrained music, often based around a pedal note, with rich harmonic writing of considerable passion and great beauty." The piece "ZIKR" arranged by Ethan Sperry is "based on the music of the whirling dervishes, Sufi Muslim musicians who perform this style of music from Egypt across the Silk Road to Iran, Iraq, Afghaniston, Pakistan, India, Thailand, and Malaysia." The music increases in speed to an almost trance-like effect in an effort to commune with the divine.