2022-2023 Season

Visions for a Changing World

Sacred & Profane’s 45th Season

In our rapidly changing world, music can bring solace as well as inspire us to create positive change. Sacred and Profane invites you to discover the power of music in our 45th season, from ancient musical wisdom and traditions to world premieres examining our modern lives. Our 2022–2023 season explores dreams and visions of a more just world in December, contemplates our turbulent world in March, and revel in the music of the Jewish tradition in May. 

We are formulating our season with an abundance of caution to prioritize the health and safety of our singers, audiences, and communities. Events for the 2022–23 season are subject to change to comply with all public health guidelines. Keep-up-to-date with COVID safety precautions here.

SEASON TICKETS: SAVE 20% ON 3 CONCERTS

Season tickets allow for flexible attendance with big savings on General Admission tickets! Purchase once and enjoy either date and venue of one of each concert set in December, March, and May. Simply purchase a season pass and we'll hold your tickets for you at will-call for whichever date you prefer.

AUTUMN 2022

Dreamscape: Realizing a Better World

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” —Harriet Tubman 

To dream has always been a metaphor for realizing our hopes and visions for a world of peace and belonging. In addition to works about actual dreams by Jean Sibelius and Ralph Vaughan Williams, we will sing Eric Whitacre’s beloved neo-Renaissance madrigal Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Melissa Dunphy’s #UnitedWeDream, a setting of a text by the Guatemalan-American DREAMer, and Derrick Skye’s brilliant social justice anthem, a vision unfolding. Our program will also feature Trevor Weston’s setting of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous last speech, Visions of Glory, and the young Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad’s Dreams, a setting of a powerful poem by Langston Hughes. We are thrilled to present the premiere of a new work by composer Michael Bussewitz-Quarm that sets her own text about her transition and realizing her dream of becoming a woman. 

December 9–11, 2022 | Berkeley, San Francisco, & Healdsburg

Dreamscape Open Rehearsal

Come hear an informal sneak preview of our Dreamscape concert! This free open rehearsal is a great opportunity for those looking for an inside peek into the world of choral music and those looking to experience choral music in a new way. Families with young children are welcome!

We'll be singing select repertoire from our upcoming concert, and talking about our inspiration and process—you'll be able to see it all come together and ask questions.

November 12 | Oakland

WINTER 2023

Considering This Moment: Music with Strings

We are excited to finally bring you the music we had planned to present three years before in March 2020, when Covid-19 forced us to cancel our concerts. This thought-provoking program will feature music for choir and string orchestra, in collaboration with the Circadian String Quartet and additional local string players. We will bring you Zanaida Robles’ No Fairytale Here, a setting of writings by the African American suffragist Ida B. Wells that includes spoken voice; San Francisco Conservatory composer David Conte’s reverent September Sun, composed in memory of those who died in the September 11th attacks; and Eric Whitacre’s Three Hebrew Love Songs for choir and string quartet. We are also delighted to present the U.S. premiere of Karin Rehnqvist’s exuberant Day is here! for choir, soloists, and strings. Like  Songs from the North, which we commissioned for our fortieth-anniversary concert in May 2018, Day is here! sets texts by indigenous poets that suggest a response to a world that is struggling with a changing climate. 

March 3–4, 2023 | Berkeley & San Francisco

SPRING 2023

Shalom: Music of the Jewish Tradition

Many know the Jewish world shalom as a greeting of hello or goodbye, but it also encompasses peace, harmony, and completeness—a fitting end to our choral season. Our spring concert features music of the Jewish tradition and experience. In addition to music by seventeenth century Northern Italian Jewish composer Salamone Rossi, our concert features music by several living composers, including the New Jersey-based composer and conductor Karen Siegel’s Ana El Na, arranged for the Justice Choir Songbook, and Lo Yisa Goy by the Chicago-based composer Stacy Garrop, whose career has catapulted her to major success in recent years. We will return to the music of the young Jewish-Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad in his setting of the liturgical text Anim zemirot. We will also present Juilliard School of Music composer David Ludwig’s lovely Four Ladino Folk Songs. 

May 13–14, 2023 | San Francisco & Berkeley