The Esoterics will present a concert of new choral music at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle on October 7, 2017 @ 8:00 pm.

General admission ticket prices are $25 at the door ($22 in advance). Discounted admission ticket prices are $18 at the door ($15 in advance) for students, seniors, the un(der)employed, and the differently-abled. Active singers in other choral groups may also attend for $15. Advance tickets are available online at www.TheEsoterics.org (through BrownPaperTickets).

As we weather the extreme winds of uncertainty in the world around us, the ability to stay grounded – both literally and figuratively – is more essential to our survival with each passing day. When we are buffeted by unwelcome outbursts and fractious flippancy, gravity is the force that reminds us of imminent consequence, and our ability to de-escalate conflict.

This October, The Esoterics will present a concert of new choral music that will investigate the many facets of this theme, GRAVITAS, and will inspire us toward greater depth, sincerity, sobriety, solemnity, and thoughtfulness.

This autumn concert program will feature two choral cycles by the New York composer Robert Paterson: The essence of gravity and Eternal reflections. Paterson’s The essence of gravity is a four-movement onomatopoeic exploration of love and war, orbits and tides, from the violence of gravity bombs to the serenity of outer space. His other cycle, Eternal reflections is a triptych of heartfelt poems by Czeslaw Milosz, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Mary Elizabeth Frye. In addition to these two cycles, the ensemble will reprise Steven Stucky’s madrigal Gravity’s dream, a whimsical setting of a poem by the composer’s longtime friend, Kate Light.

The centerpiece of GRAVITAS will be the world premieres by the three winners of this year’s POLYPHONOS competition: Conrad Asman (from Cape Town, South Africa), Daniel Sabzghabaei (from Ithaca via Baltimore), and Vahram Sarkissian (from Montreal via Yerevan, Armenia). In My eyes are always hungry, Asman set verses of Afterimages by Audre Lorde
written in memory of Emmett Till, a black youth whose 1955 murder was deemed “the hate crime that changed America.” In The blue booby, Sabzghabaei has set lines by James Tate that describes a day in the life of the Galapagos birds, and his vivid score prolongs Tate’s own poetic version of gravitas. In Mheri dur [The door of Mher], Sarkissian renders a portion of the ancient Armenian epic poem, The daredevils of Sassoun, in which a warrior’s own guilt keeps him from crossing the threshold of self-imposed imprisonment.

“Getting to work collaboratively with a great ensemble on realizing a new work is one of the things I am most passionate about,” says composer Daniel Sabzghabaei. “Eric Banks and The Esoterics have a long record of passionately commissioning, championing, and performing the music of living artists across the world at the highest level. I’m stoked to collaborate with this fantastic group!”

“I found something very special for my commissioned piece – an epic poem in which the earth couldn’t bear the weight of a hero, because of the corruption of the world,” describes the composer Vahram Sarkissian. “As a result, David imprisons himself in a cave until the world is ruined and then rebuilt. I am so grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with The Esoterics and Eric Banks.”

All three winning composers will be joining us for the entire concert weekend, and we are excited to share their music with you!