IMPORTANT UPDATE: March Concerts CANCELLED

Dear Friend of Sacred & Profane,

As you are aware, the situation regarding COVID-19 is evolving rapidly and raising precautionary action throughout our local communities. We have been closely monitoring the situation with Federal, State, and Local agencies to ensure the health and safety of S&P’s patrons, performers, employees, and volunteers. 

It is with a heavy heart that we have made the decision to cancel our upcoming performances of Luminous Resonance: Music for Chorus and Strings this March 13 and 14. While we are eager to share this incredible music with you, we realize that the health and safety of our musical and greater community should take precedence as we all navigate this uncertain time together in light of city mandates. We are working with our venues and orchestra musicians to reschedule the concerts for next season.

The following options are available to those who have already purchased tickets:

Exchange: 
You may transfer your ticket purchase to attend one of our future May concerts.

Donate:
If you would like to show your support and help us divert the great financial impact this has on our organization, we will gladly convert the value of your ticket to a tax-deductible donation and send you an acknowledgement letter.

Refund:
We will refund the value of your ticket upon request through the scheduled performances.

Please contact us if you would like to utilize any of these options. 

We are incredibly grateful for your support of Sacred and Profane. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we make these difficult decisions alongside other local organizations. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to our Choral Administrator, Michelle Lee at sacredprofane@gmail.com.

On behalf of our Board, Artistic Director, staff, and singers, we're wishing you all good health. We hope to see you at a concert again soon.

Best Regards,

Sacred and Profane, A Chamber Chorus

If you hadn’t purchased tickets previously, and would like to show your support to help us recoup some of the costs of cencellation, you can make a tax-deductible donation below. Thank you for your continued patronage of Sacred and Profane.

International Women's Day: Champions of Music

March 8 is International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. International Women's Day (IWD) has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organization specific.

Sacred and Profane is always proud to champion women’s important contributions to music in our programming, and strive to feature the exceptional composing, performing, conducting, and educating done by women in all our concerts. This International Women’s Day, we’re turning the spotlight on Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist, as we prepare for the US premiere of her new work Day is here! at our upcoming concerts, Luminous Resonance: Music for Chorus and Strings. If you’ve been to an S&P performance in the past, chances are you’re familiar with Rehnqvist’s incredible music.

Sacred & Profane’s Artistic Director, Rebecca P.N. Seeman writes about programming Day is here! for our upcoming concerts:

I first began dreaming of a concert for choir and strings when Karin Rehnqvist, the fantastic Swedish composer whose music we frequently perform in our concerts, told me that she was working on a work for string orchestra and eight solo voices, for which she was choosing texts from the same collections of poetry by indigenous poets from various regions that had been the source of Songs From the North, the remarkable four-movement work she composed for us for our fortieth-anniversary concert in May 2018 (watch the video of our performance here). I was struck by the opportunity to perform a work that was something of a partner to Songs of the North, and asked her if she thought it could be re-conceived for soloists and choir. She liked the idea, and we agreed to discuss it more when the work was complete.
 
We needed an excellent string orchestra to work with to make this concert a reality. The first group that came to mind was the wonderful local Circadian String Quartet, whose violinist David Ryther is an old friend of mine from our undergraduate days at UC Santa Cruz. David’s remarkable skill, expressive musicality, and commitment to new music is something that is shared by the entire quartet, so I was thrilled when they agreed to partner with us, and recruit a top-rate ensemble of colleagues to complete the fourteen-piece orchestra.

When Karin completed Day is here! and it had received its premiere in Stockholm, she sent me the score. We worked together to determine which parts could work well for the full ensemble, and which would be best in solo voices. Making this a reality with Sacred and Profane, our eight remarkable soloists, and the string orchestra in our rehearsals over the past couple of months has been thrilling and hugely rewarding for me. It is a demanding and moving work about the birth of the planet and our current situation confronting climate change, using Native American and other indigenous texts, as well as a beautiful Swedish hymn, to celebrate our abiding relationship with the natural world. Knowing Karin as I do, a person who spends weeks at a time on backpacking trips with her husband Hasse, and whose home outside of Stockholm sits perched on a wooded hill above a large and beautiful lake, I know that the environmental health of our planet concerns her greatly, as it does all of us.

Day is here! is about the natural world—its beauty, its solace, and our need for its sustenance. It holds all our emotions about the earth: our joy, our connection, and our deep fears about its demise. The work begins exuberantly, as we are surrounded by birds, insects, and other sounds of nature presented by both instruments and voices, while the text announces the waking of the earth with the rising of the sun in movements one and two.

"Day is here!" features extended techniques for strings to create a texture evocative of nature, such as harmonics, glissandi, jeté/ricochet bouncing bow strokes, and bow placement effects like flautando (near fingerboard) sul ponticello (on the bridge), and behind the bridge. Can you hear those woodland scenes?

More about Karin Rehnqvist:

The first woman to enroll in the composition program at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Karin Rehnqvist (b. 1957), is currently among the most frequently commissioned composers in Sweden. She has composed for such ensembles as the BBC Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio, Swedish Opera, Kronos Quartet, and many others. In 2009, Rehnqvist was appointed Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, the first woman to hold a chair in composition in Sweden. Her style is notable for blending Swedish folk music and art music. She has been a prolific composer of choral music throughout her career, and continues to champion music for choral ensembles of all levels and all types.

Rehnqvist’s music for mixed choral ensemble is characterized by contrast. She often writes in a warm manner for men’s voices and in a strong manner for women’s. She also frequently juxtaposes light and dark, both in her choice of text and in her use of timbre. Nearly all of her music is rooted in Swedish folk music. Her vocal music is notable for the use of kulning — a form of herding call, or lockrop, that was traditionally sung by female cowherds in Sweden. In Rehnqvist’s early music, kulning lines were given solely to women’s voices and primarily to solo singers, but as her style has matured, she has expanded the use of the form to be sung by all members of the ensemble, men and women alike.

Rehearsing with Circadian String Quartet

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating this fantastic composer’s work, and the work of all women in music, not just on International Women’s Day, but every day! Hear this exuberant piece alongside local composer David Conte, contemporary choral favorite Eric Whitacre, and classical icon Ludwig van Beethoven for a concert of chorus and strings that will take you through a musical journey through the human experience, with poignancy and joy, depth and levity!

LUMINOUS RESONANCE: music for chorus and strings

Friday, March 13 at 8 PM
St. John's Presbyterian Church
2727 College Ave, Berkeley

Saturday, March 14 at 8 PM
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco

Love Notes: Eric Whitacre's "Five Hebrew Love Songs"

“He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason,
He took her into himself,
And set her down
In the softest, softest place.”

View fullsize

Plitmann’s poems in her handwriting

In the sentimental, lovey-dovey spirit of Valentine’s Day, our hearts are melting from the inspiration behind American composer Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs. The text from the song cycle is written by Whitacre’s now-wife, Hila Plitmann as a series of poems in her native Hebrew, each capturing a moment the couple spent together. What a sweet reminder of music’s ability to express the intangible: articulating our emotions, narrating the stories of our lives, and connecting us through our shared humanity. Sacred and Profane is excited to bring these charming songs for chorus and string quartet to life this March 13 and 14 with Luminous Resonance: Music for Chorus & Strings featuring the exquisite playing of Circadian String Quartet.

Whitacre writes:

In the spring of 1996, my great friend and brilliant violinist Friedemann Eichhorn invited me and my girlfriend-at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home city of Speyer, Germany. We had all met that year as students at the Juilliard School, and were inseparable.

Because we were appearing as a band of traveling musicians, ‘Friedy’ asked me to write a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila (who was born and raised in Jerusalem) to write me a few ‘postcards’ in her native tongue, and a few days later she presented me with these exquisite and delicate Hebrew poems. I set them while we vacationed in a small skiing village in the Swiss Alps, and we performed them for the first time a week later in Speyer.

In 2001, the University of Miami commissioned me to adapt the songs for SATB chorus and string quartet…

Each of the songs captures a moment that Hila and I shared together. Kalá Kallá (which means ‘light bride’) was a pun I came up with while she was first teaching me Hebrew. The bells at the beginning of Éyze Shéleg! are the exact pitches that awakened us each morning in Germany as they rang from a nearby cathedral.

Keep reading for the full text, and be sure to share this heartwarming story with your sweetie. Concert tickets make a thoughtful Valentine’s gift for a music lover (wink wink)! We hope you’ll join us this March’s Luminous Resonance for this music and so much more.

SATURDAY, MARCH 14TH, 8PM

St Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisc

FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH, 8PM

St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley

Eric Whitacre and Hila Plitmann

Text: Five Hebrew Love Songs

Hila Plitmann (b.1973)

I. TEMUNÁ (A PICTURE)

Temuná belibí charuntá;
Nodédet beyn ór uveyn ófel:
Min dmamá shekazó et guféch kach otá,
Usaréch al pańa’ich kach nófel.

A picture is engraved in my heart;
Moving between light and darkness:
A sort of silence envelopes your body,
And your hair falls upon your face just so.

II. KALÁ KALLÁ (LIGHT BRIDE)

Kalá kallá
Kulá shelí,
U’ve kalút
Tishákhílí!

Light bride
She is all mine,
And lightly
She will kiss me!

III. LARÓV (MOSTLY)

“Laróv,” amár gag la’shama’im,
“Hamerchák shebeynéynu hu ad;
Ach lifnéy zman alu lechán shna’im,
Uveynéynu nishár sentiméter echad”

“Mostly,” said the roof to the sky,
“the distance between you and I is endlessness;
But a while ago two came up here,
And only one centimeter was left between us.”

IV. ÉYZE SHÉLEG! (WHAT SNOW!)

Ézye shéleg!
Kmo chalomót ktaníim
Noflím mehashamá im.

What snow!
Like little dreams
Falling from the sky.

V. RAKÚT (TENDERNESS)

Hu hayá malé rakút;
Hi haytá kasha
Vechól káma shenistá lehishaér kach,
Pashút, uvlí sibá tová,
Lakách otá el toch atzmó,
Veheníach Bamakóm hachí rach.

He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason,
He took her into himself,
And set her down
In the softest, softest place.

Settling to Rest in the Dark Winter Nights

From the Director’s Desk:

Winterlude: Songs of Sleep and Repose

Dear Friend of Sacred and Profane,
 

Now that the days are getting shorter and the nights longer, it’s easy to feel like we want more time to rest, slow down, light candles, and curl up on the couch with a book—you know, hibernate. It was with that seasonal mood shift in mind that I developed our upcoming concert—Winterlude: Songs of Rest and Repose. While it's easy to fill a concert like this with only sweet lullabies and Christmas cradle songs—those pieces are definitely included in the program (and they are beautiful!)—I wanted to make sure there was something to keep our interest piqued as well. We don’t want you all actually falling asleep in the concert!
 

Composer Abbie Betinis

Our concert begins with the beautiful medieval English carol On Yoolis Night, edited and arranged by the women’s early music quartet, Anonymous 4, whose fabulous work exploring women’s medieval-era vocal repertoire has been an inspiration to me for years. I attended a vocal workshop with them a few years ago, and was happy to learn that these phenomenal singers and scholars are equally gifted as educators and promoters of this relatively obscure area of early women’s music. It’s delightful to bring this meaty carol to S&P’s singers and our audiences. In keeping with Christmas lullabies, we will sing Dormi, Jesu by Minnesota-based composer, Abbie Betinis. After hearing Abbie’s music become increasingly present in choral programming for several years, I finally met this fabulous young composer at the Chorus America Conference in the summer of 2018. In addition to her active composing career, Abbie has been the main creative and organizational force behind Justice Choir, a chapter-based movement, complete with songbooks, that arms singers to hit the streets during protests with easy protest-appropriate songs about social justice, environmental issues, and more. I’m hoping to collaborate with other local conductors to create a Bay-Area chapter of Justice Choir in the not-too-distant future. 

Composer Tina Andersson. We performed her work in May 2019, and are thrilled to be singing her music again—this time for a world premiere!

I discovered Tina Andersson’s Sleep, Baby, Sleep last year when we were preparing the Swedish composer’s The Angel for our concert in May. When I contacted Tina to let her know we’d be singing Sleep, Baby, Sleep, I was excited to learn that our performance will be its world premiere! 

Sacred and Profane audiences have come to anticipate hearing the wonderful music coming out of Scandinavia at many of our concerts, and this concert won’t disappoint. In addition to Tina’s piece, we will be singing the Swedish composer Gunnar Eriksson’s arrangement, Norwegian Lullaby. Like S&P tenorTomas Hallin, Eriksson comes from Göteborg, a city on the Western coast. After a recent rehearsal, Tomas commented that Norwegian Lullaby is classic Eriksson, complete with a sense of humor in the addition of a bit of Cuban rhythm to this traditional Norwegian folk song. Lest you think that all Scandinavian music is light-hearted, we will also sing the young American composer Jocelyn Hagen’s arrangement of Sofðu unga ástin mín, a dark Icelandic lullaby that was originally composed for a play about 18th century outlaws who do unspeakable things when on the lamb from the law. The piece is simultaneously sweet and creepy, as one would expect. 
 

Composer Lera Auerbach conducting in Vienna, Austria recently (via Wien Modern)

The Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach’s setting of the Blake poem A Cradle Song also has a rather unsettling quality to it. I was first introduced to the work of this exciting young composer by our bass and board president, Niek Veldhuis, who heard a demanding multi-movement work of hers performed by the phenomenal Netherlands Chamber Choir. I immediately set out to find a work by Auerbach for S&P, and I love how this piece, possibly better-suited to a Halloween concert than a December holiday concert, gave our concert some chilling contrast.
 

American composer Eric Whitacre

Our concert will also feature two works by different American composers, both from multi-movement pieces called Paradise, and both written for San Francisco's Chanticleer. Shawn Crouch’s setting of Brian Turner’s poem about a father in Iraq who tries to soothe his four-year-old son to bed during a military offensive, telling the child that the bombs are “just the drums, a new music,” brings tears to my eyes every time I read the poem, let alone hear S&P sing the beautiful music that Shawn has composed. When I met him at the Chorus America conference last June, Shawn told me that this piece has become the most-performed of his choral works, and for very good reason. Followers of American choral music are now very familiar with the layered chords of Grammy Award-winner Eric Whitacre, probably the most celebrity-like composer of our choral universe. I sometimes resist Whitacre’s popularity, but he never fails to win me over with his moving and rich music, especially in more demanding works like his Sleep My Child, an ethereal work originally composed for three women portraying angels in his theater work, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings. 

Scattered throughout the program are works by the great composers of history, the 17th century English madrigalist John Wilbye (probably my favorite English madrigal, the contemplative Draw on sweet night), the great Edwardian English composer Herbert Howells, whose Sing Lullaby deserves its place as one of the classics of the English Christmas repertoire, and a folk music-inspired lullaby by the Polish spiritual minimalist composer Henryk Górecki. This is sure to be a wonderful holiday concert, with lots of variety to both lift you up and to settle you into rest. I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

Rebecca Petra Naomi Seeman, Artistic Director

Warmly,

Rebecca

---

Join us!

Saturday, December 7 at 8pm

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley

Sunday, December 8 at 4pm

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco

House Music Returns this October!

We’re excited for our first concert of the season—our annual House Music salon concert and fundraiser! This year, it’s getting spooky…

Masquerade: Haunted House Music

Oct 20, 2019 at 2pm

2747 Forest Ave, Berkeley

Our Annual House Music Concert and Fundraiser returns this October! Join us for a relaxed salon-style concert and gourmet reception to kick off our 42nd season. We'll be performing in solos and small groups of all different styles and instrumentations, from classical to jazz, popular to experimental, and bringing our friends and family along for the fun. Enjoy a lighthearted afternoon with us in a beautiful private residence in Berkeley. In celebration of our near-Halloween concert date, we’ll be exploring the dramatic and spooky, and previewing the exciting season of concerts to come.  Stay tuned for more details about the event, and sneak peeks at our fun program!

RSVP on Facebook

Pay what you can

Generosity is appreciated, no one turned away for lack of funds. All proceeds benefit Sacred and Profane’s 2019–20 season, enabling our 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to enrich and inspire the Bay Area community through diverse repertoire and authentic, high-quality performances.

Can’t Make the concert in person? Consider sending a donation in your place. Donate online easily!

Tipping the Balance and Quilt Songs

Dear Friend of Sacred and Profane,
 
I’ve have wanted to present a concert of music by women composers for years, and during last year’s #MeToo movement, it became clear that now is the time. Some music organizations, including the Women’s Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, have begun to track the percentage of works by women that are programmed by major symphonies. In the 2016-2017 season, of the top twenty-one orchestras in the United States, fourteen did not program a single piece by a woman, including our own San Francisco Symphony. Of the remaining seven, several programmed only one work by a woman. The choral world is only slightly better. Recent American Choral Directors’ Association (ACDA) conferences have showcased a sorry selection of works by women in their concerts, and even then often pieces for girls choruses. I remember a particular conference session on music by American and Canadian women with a colleague who said to me, “I don’t consider the gender of the composers I program, I just program music that is high quality.” This inability to consider the biases that we hold unawares simply isn’t good enough, and it’s time that we act to equalize the field.

We’ll be performing composer Caroline Mallonee’s O Lux

Some organizations are taking note of the disparity. The New York Philharmonic is launching its multi-season Project 19, which celebrates the centennial of the 19th amendment (which gave women the right to vote) with world premieres by nineteen women composers, including Caroline Mallonée, one of the composers featured in our upcoming concerts. My friend Eric Banks, conductor of the Seattle-based choral ensemble The Esoterics, has programmed this season to tip the ratio – of 33 composers the ensemble will feature this year, 20 are women and non-binary gender, and 12 are people of color. (Check out this interesting article by Women's Philharmonic Advocacy about women programmed for 19-20 season)

With S&P, I’ve also worked to program more works by women and people of color this season. While history has given us a plethora of phenomenal choral works by women, I felt it was important to showcase the talents of women working now for our upcoming concert. As an homage to the original woman in music, we will begin our concert with a work by the first composer to whom we can attribute a musical work, Hildegard von Bingen. Following her O virtus Sapientiae, every work is written by a composer living and actively working today.

A few years ago, while roaming the aisles of exhibits at yet another ACDA conference, I spotted a free CD by the Minneapolis-based choral ensemble VocalEssence, conducted by the great Philip Brunelle. Each of the five works on the recording was by a woman who composed a piece inspired by a different quilt. The resulting Quilt Songs cycle features works by the splendid Alice Parker (who’s Wondrous Love we sang in March), Libby Larsen (one of the great American symphonists of our time), Berkeley’s own phenomenal Gabriela Lena Frank, whose music is informed by her Chinese-Peruvian-Lithuanian-Jewish ancestry, Ysäye Barnwell of the internationally acclaimed African American women’s choral ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Carol Barnett, who is well-known for her genre-bending works like Bluegrass Mass. When programming this concert I jumped at the opportunity to program these great pieces. I can’t wait to share them with you at the concerts—definitely a selection of works you’ll want to hear!

The amazing quilts that inspired the composers for the Quilt Songs cycle. You won’t want to miss their musical interpretations!

See program notes and texts for Quilt Songs here

In my next letter, I’ll write about the other composers featured in our concert and the exciting works they’ve composed.



Warmly,

Rebecca

Announcing: A Star of the First Magnitude

UNSUNG HEROES: celebrating women in music

“What do I fear? I am a part of infinity,
I am a part of the great power of the universe,
A single world within a million worlds,
A star of the first magnitude
Which is the last to be extinguished.
Triumph to live, Triumph to breathe, Triumph to exist!”
—Edith Södergran

We're preparing to conclude our 41st season, Elemental Forces with the upcoming concert series A Star of the first Magnitude: Contemporary Women Composers this May. Under the direction of Rebecca Seeman, celebrating her 15th Anniversary as Artistic Director, Sacred and Profane is excited to explore the powerful and exciting repertoire composed by contemporary women that remains underrepresented in traditional concert programming.

With music that highlights expressive sensibilities, feminist themes, and diverse influences, the program includes works all by living and working female composers, with exception for the original feminist composer: 11th century abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Also on the program is Quilt Songs, a collection of pieces inspired by quilts and composed by Alice Parker, Libby Larsen, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ysäye Barnwell, and Carol Barnett; and works by Tina Andersson, Alissa Firsova, andCaroline Mallonée. The triumphant conclusion is a setting of Edith Södergran’s feminist poem Triumf att finnas till by our much-championed Swedish composer, Karin Rehnqvist. These works showcase the resilient spirit of femininity and celebrate the impressive talent of women in music through the choral arts from the local to international level. 
 

Stay tuned for more insights into this inspiring program. We hope to see you there!

A Star of the first Magnitude: Contemporary Women Composers

May 19, 2019 at 4PM  
St. Mark's Episcopal Church 
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

May 18, 2019 at 8PM  
St. Mark's Lutheran Church 
1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco

The American Landscape: Multimedia 'Melting Pot'

experience the rich traditions of
THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE:

Traditional Music and Art of the United States

“I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear”  – Walt Whitman

Sacred and Profane is excited to present our upcoming concert series The American Landscape: Traditional Music and Art of the United States, which explores the rich diversity of influences and traditions of American music. In addition to presenting diverse American choral music, Sacred and Profane has invited several local visual artists to add their perspectives to the ‘melting pot,’ with a performance and interdisciplinary experience free to the public, featuring an exhibit on the theme with works by local artists of many disciplines at our Alameda performance on March 10.

These local artists represent a wide range of mediums, and will explore the American geographical, cultural, and social landscape through a variety of lenses. It will be a celebration of the many places and traditions that make American art and music We’re proud to feature works by glass artist Kim Webster, textile artists George-Ann Bowers and Alice Beasley, painter Mi’Chelle Fredrick, mixed-media artists Åke and Leslie Grunditz, and ceramicist Maria Paz; supported by a generous grant from the City of Alameda.

We can’t wait for you to join us! Learn more about the concerts

RSVP for the exhibit is strongly encouraged.

Here’s a sneak peek about our visual artists:

We’re excited to feature our very own George-Ann Bowers, an original member of Sacred and Profane! Did you know she is also a talented textile artist as well as a fantastic member of the alto section?!

My work celebrates the infinite intricacies of the natural world. I am intrigued by the structure of trees, seed pods or rock formations, see weaving patterns in canyon walls, and thrill to the fine lacework of lichens on rock or bark. Color, contrast and texture are important elements in my work, as is dimensionality, whether implied through visual illusion or in actual form. My work captures fleeting moments in nature’s continuing cycle of creation, destruction and change. Growth, decay, eruption, erosion, and the interplay of light and shadow all provide inspiration for my creations.

For woven pieces, I weave in multiple layers using a variety of yarn fibers, and frequently paint on the yarn itself during the weaving process. I also work with woven sculpture and eccentric shaping, and often use clothing shapes as a framework for nature imagery, illustrating a connection and juxtaposition between the natural world and the human body. In non-woven sculpture, I use materials such as wool, flax fiber or sewing thread along with various construction techniques to build forms echoing those I find in the outdoors

---

Another of our multi-talented members, Kim Webster, makes blown glass that inspires wonder and awe. You can also see her work annually at the Autumn Lights Festival in the gardens of Lake Merritt!

The history of glass as a preserving medium, combined with my love of the garden provides a foundation for my work which celebrates themes of nurture, memory, tradition and fecundity – all with an inevitable touch of whimsy. Working primarily with glass, I use a variety of processes and techniques, each carefully chosen to enhance the communication of the piece: blown glass with screen printed hand-writing and photographs enameled and fired onto the surface of the glass; kiln-formed glass with sand-blasted imagery; and blown glass sculpture lit from within by low voltage lights.

I enjoy writing as well as glass-making and enjoy it best when I can combine story-telling with my art. I like to use hand-writing because it is so personally expressive, and on certain projects have invited people to write down their thoughts and stories so I can preserve them in glass. Through this type of work, I have been delighted to find where the personal meets the universal and how a conversation can be sparked by the recognition of another’s experience.

Coming from a cold climate (Ontario, Canada), I appreciate the preciousness of the natural world, and feel an inclination to preserve those things that are fragile and delicate and full of wonder. Glass is a perfect medium for me, because the material itself speaks to those qualities. Beauty, laughter, stories shared, a moment in the garden: these are some of life’s treasures worthy of being preserved and pondered.

I love language and I love metaphor. I enjoy the capacity of objects to connect me with memories of people, times and places. I have come to glass with a heart full of experience and an excitement at the possibility of expression, revelation and communion.

I feel at home in the garden.  And so, my work in glass seems to combine these things.

---

Textile artist Alice Beasly’s colorful and textural work will explore social and musical facets of American culture through fabric portraiture.

Fabric is my chosen medium of expression through which I create realistic portraits of people and objects. I find color, light, shadow, line and value in the pattern of ordinary household fabrics. From these I snip small pieces which I arrange and fuse into a figurative composition. As such the work grows from within rather than being applied to the surface of a canvas by paint, pencil or similar drawing tools. When the image is complete, I sew it together with the stitch line constituting the final “drawn” line.

My work has been exhibited in many venues throughout the United States including the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum as well as abroad in Madrid, France, Japan and Namibia.   My work has been purchased or commissioned by a number of individuals and public entities including the County of Alameda, Kaiser Hospital, Highland Hospital and the Sunnyvale Medical Facility.

---

Alameda-based multimedia artist duo Åke and Leslie Grunditz have created a wonderful sculpture with collage and found object techniques to explore the immigrant stories in our American identities.

Åke has a deep interest in the trials and hardships incurred by Swedish immigrants, especially in the early 1900s. Reading the The Emigrants, a series of novels by Wilhelm Moberg, has provided us with a rich source of imagery and understanding of the plight of these people. In the sculpture, A New Life, we have included a matchbox filled with appleseeds, just as Kristina, a character in the novels, brought seeds with her to plant in the new world. 

Also included in this piece are excerpts from a Swedish brochure from 1890 which was used by passengers on the ships bound for the new land in order to familiarize themselves with America and the English language. The map of New York refers to the landing port of many immigrants, and the Native Americans looking on is a reminder that immigration is a complex issue which impacts people in many ways.

Leslie’s great uncle Archie, born in 1878, escaped to America from Russia after suffering persecution and being exiled to Siberia. He landed in New York in 1904. Once in the USA he thrived and became a successful pharmacist and after retirement, a well respected poet. His daughter saved many of his writings and some personal belongings, and we have used these to illustrate the plight of escape. Success is shown in the partial image of his USA Naturalization papers. Archie’s portrait is front and center, along with quotes from his biography and poetry, and pieces from letters he wrote. Both Åke’s Swedish and Archie’s family photos are collaged together to enhance the intimacy of the experience. We are proud of the strength of our immigrant heritage, and hope we have been able to share a sense of what they went through to reach this new land and A New Life.

---

Another artist with an interesting view of the immigrant experiences that shape American cultural identities is local ceramicist Maria Paz. Investigating these stories in the ceramic tradition allows her to connect to the past in new ways.

Maria Paz (b. 1989, Quilpue, Chile), is an artist based in Oakland, California working primarily in ceramics and painting. Her practice draws from the analysis of material culture practiced in Archeology. By creating illustrative sculptures, Paz aims to archive global events, her path to familial healing, and her personal encounters with migration to the United States. She uses the symbolic imagery of her past and present life to reveal the fabric of her intersectional identity; an homage to the ceramic artifacts left before us. 

---

Painter Mi’Chelle Fredrick explores the American Landscape through natural landscapes and elements, celebrating the vast beauty of our country’s geography and wildlife.

Mi’Chelle’s creative interests include painting, drawing, photography and writing. She has exhibited extensively throughout the Bay Area and Midwest. Mi’Chelle received Rhythmix Cultural Works’ 2014 Golden Gear Award for outstanding visual artist. She teaches painting and drawing and is co-Director of popUp Gallery in Alameda, California.

‘Painting and drawing have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. All things wild and natural inspire me. Nothing makes me happier than sitting on a boulder in a quiet place drawing a little piece of what I see. I work primarily in graphite and watercolor, sometimes combining the two mediums as in “Where the Buffalo Roamed” and “Tomorrow Totem”.

In my landscapes and wildlife paintings, I strive to convey not just the physical attributes, but the fragile relationships we share with these places and subjects as well. Through my work, I hope to increase awareness of the delicate balance that holds our world together.’

Announcing House Music 2018

S&P Presents NOSE NONSENSE - Annual House Music Concert 2018

"Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense." - Joseph Addison

Sacred and Profane knows (nose) nonsense! Our Annual House Music Concert and Fundraiser returns this August. Join us for a relaxed salon-style concert and reception to kick off our 2018-2019 season. We'll be performing in solos and small groups of all different styles and instrumentations, from classical to popular to contemporary, and bringing our friends and family along for the fun. During the regular season S&P sings sacred and secular choral repertoire, but rarely do we get to share our silly sides! Enjoy a lighthearted afternoon with us in a beautiful private residence in Berkeley.  Admission by donation: $25-$40 suggested. Generosity is welcomed, though no one turned away for lack of funds.

 
Nose Nonsense - House Music 2018
Sunday, August 26 2018, 2:00 PM
2747 Forest Ave, Berkeley (see map)

We'll also be revealing our 2018-19 season, as well as special offers for pre-sale tickets such as discounts and reserved seating to House Music attendees only! You won't want to miss them! 
 

"Mingle a little folly with your wisdom; a little nonsense now and then is pleasant." - Horace, Carmina

CAN'T MAKE THE CONCERT?

Show your support online and be entered to win free tickets!

If you aren't able to join us in person, you can still support Sacred & Profane in our 41st season fundraising goals. Any donation of $40 or more made now through August 31st will enter you in a drawing to win a pair of tickets to a concert of your choice in our 2018-2019 season! Each increment of $40 earns you another entry. Last year your generous support helped us produce one of our most challenging and successful seasons to date. Help us exceed our goals for our ambitious 2018-2019! Thank you, as always, for being a part of our community, and for your support of Sacred and Profane.

Deutschland Drama

Dear Friend of Sacred & Profane,
 
In my last letter, I wrote about the works in the first half of Sacred and Profane’s upcoming program of sacred music by German and Austrian master composers – Bach’s motet Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren, BWV 231 and Brahms’ motet Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Müseligen, Op. 74, No. 1. In this installment, I’ll let you into how I came to choose the other works that we’ll perform.
 

Hugo Distler

I keep a running list of pieces that Sacred and Profane’s singers suggest for us to perform down the line. Several years ago, our baritone (and at one point, alto!) Gabe Fuson asked if we could sing  Hugo Distler’spassion play Totentanz for choir and speakers. This dramatic work alternates aphorisms, sung by mixed choir, with dialogues between Death (spoken in our concert by ACT actor Paul Finocchiaro), and his many victims, who beg for mercy as they go to their fates. This beautiful piece (with wonderfully interesting music for the choir!) is entertaining, but also deeply dark.

 
When I was a teenager, I worked at art house movie theaters in Palo Alto – maybe some of you remember the New Varsity Theater, the famed theater/restaurant/café and launching place of many of Windham Hill’s jazz and new age recording artists? I worked there! In 1988, we showed the Belgian film The Music Teacher. Although I’d grown up in a house with instrumental chamber music and some vocal music, I’d never really heard anything like this, and I bought and devoured the CD of the music in the film. The piece that moved me the most, and that I credit for igniting my passion for music, was Mahler’s orchestral lied Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, masterfully sung by the Belgian baritone José van Dam. I listened to that CD, mostly that piece, until it was a skipping mess. I’ve never been the same. A few years ago, I heard a German chamber choir perform Clytus Gottwald’s arrangement of Ich bin der Welt for 16-part a cappella choir, and was awe-struck. I couldn’t believe that this rich, complex, and deeply moving piece could be reworked so perfectly for singers. As S&P has become more eager to tackle challenging works of the professional choral repertoire, I knew this piece had to be part of this concert, and part of this exciting season. I hope you are as moved by it as I am, and I hope to be able toconduct it through my sure-to-be tearing-up eyes!

Rebecca Petra Naomi Seeman; Artistic Director, Conductor

I hope you’ll have the opportunity to enjoy this remarkable music with us! I’m looking forward to seeing you at one of our concerts!
 

Warmly,
Rebecca

Hear Director Seeman's recent interview with Jeffrey Freeman about these fabulous pieces on KDFC's State of the Arts!