from the DIRECTOR'S DESK

Dear Friends of Sacred and Profane,

I don’t know about you, but I was more surprised than usual this year by how quickly the days became short and the nights landed earlier than expected. There’s something about that darkness that makes me want to hibernate a bit, spend more time both with my dreams themselves and contemplating the idea of what dreams can represent – the possibility of the future. Dreams have long served as a poetic metaphor for building a more just world for all and of realizing our true selves. Sacred and Profane’s upcoming concert, Dreamscape: Visions for a Better World, mines the idea of the dreamworld as a space where all things are possible, including mystical imaginings, hopes for the future, and actualized personal experience.

Our concert will include the Finnish composer Sibelius’ Drömmarna (Dreams), an evocative work that imagines a world in which our deceased ancestors walk among us in the shadows. We will sing Vaughan-Williams’ “The Cloud-Capp’d Towers” from Three Shakespeare Songs, a harmonically rich setting of the soliloquy from The Tempest in which Prospero states “We are such things that dreams are made of.” This is among my favorite of Vaughan-Williams’ works. It reminds me of Peter Greenaway’s film Prospero’s Books, a brilliant surreal interpretation of Shakespare’s final play.

The singers and I are excited to return to Eric Whitacre’s Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, which we last sang in 2015. The text by Whitacre’s best friend and frequent collaborator Tony Silvestri tells the story of Leonardo fantasizing about his crazy idea of building an airplane. Whitacre paints Leonardo’s position in 16th-century Italy beautifully by referencing every trope of Italian Renaissance madrigals. I attended the premiere performance at the 2002 American Choral Directors’ Association Convention in San Antonio by the Kansas City Chorale under the direction of Charles Bruffy, and was riveted by the Italian madrigalism in the writing, the evocative word painting, and the brilliantly colorful performance of the ensemble.

A concert that explores dreams as metaphors for social justice would be incomplete without a work about DREAMers, the thousands of DACA recipients who dream of permanent residency and citizenship in the United States. Melisssa Dunphy is a composer I have long admired and I’m excited to present her “#United We Dream” from the multi-movement work American Dreamers. I love how she adopts an American musical language, a la Aaron Copland, musically stating that everyone who lives here is an American, regardless of origin or background.

People started telling me about the Jewish-Swedish wunderkind composer Jacob Mühlrad several years ago, maybe because as fellow Jewish-Swedes in choral music, we are a rather rare breed. I finally met him at an SF Cappella concert in San Francisco a few years ago and he generously loaded my arms up with a bunch of scores that I’ve been pouring over since. I love Jacob’s complex and yet mystical musical language and I’m excited to share his Dreams, a powerful setting of a poem by the inimitable Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, in this concert.

S&P co-commissioned Trevor Weston’s remote choral work Martyrs about the twin pandemics of Covid-19 and the murder of Black and Brown people at the hands of the police for our March 2021 virtual concert. As a result of that experience, I became a true-devotee of Trevor's music – I think he is one of the most profound voices in American music today, period, and now that I’ve found him and his music, I’m not letting go. I can’t wait to bring you his moving setting of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s final speech, Visions of Glory, in our upcoming concert and I guarantee more to come in the future.

I first heard a vision unfolding, Derrick Skye’s setting of his own text, sung by the remarkable choir EXIGENCE under the masterful director of Eugene Rogers, at the Chorus America Conference in Chicago in the summer of 2018. Hearing that performance was life-changing and I’ve been chomping at the bit to perform the work with S&P ever since. Skye’s piece is an affirmative statement of racial justice and social change – something that we need much more of in this world in which we spend so much time examining the torment of oppression and not enough time celebrating the joy in communities of color.

I first met the gifted composer Michael Bussewitz-Quarm at a Chorus America conference several years ago. Ever since, I have wanted to program her music, but the right moment didn’t present itself until earlier this year, when I contacted Michael to see if she might be interested in writing a piece for us. I told her about our plans for this concert’s theme, and she eagerly accepted the challenge of composing a work based on her experience of realizing her dream of becoming a woman and the journey that has led her there, with the full support of her loving family. A few months ago, Michael delivered to me a remarkable tour-de-force, Now is the Time, a piece that celebrates the joys of family life, while also honestly portraying the struggle of living in a body that does not match one’s gender identity. She is now living as a woman and happily married to her wife of many years. Sacred and Profane and I are deeply honored to be entrusted to present Michael’s story in what I am convinced will become a significant work in the choral canon.

I’m looking forward to seeing you at these remarkable concerts December 9, 10, and 11th! And also wishing you all a very happy holiday season.

Warmly,

Rebecca

December 8, 2022