Review past concert series performed by Seattle Pro Musica.
2010-2011 Season
May, 2011 Appear & Inspire
Benjamin Britten's evocative paean to the patron saint of music-the Hymn to St. Cecilia-provided the inspiration for this concert. Joseph Rheinberger's romantic Mass in Eb for Double Choir, Ralph Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs, and John Rutter's dazzling Hymn to the Creator of Light were featured.
March, 2011 Handel's Dixit Dominus Seattle Pro Musica performed by invitation at the prestigious American Handel Festival. This 30-year-old festival was held for the first time in Seattle, and attracted performers and participants from around the world. Our concerts featured Handel’s Dixit Dominus for choir, soloists, and orchestra, as well as other selected works by Handel.
December, 2010 Nowell: an English Christmas
Attendees experienced the warmth and sparkle of Christmas music from the British Isles. This evocation of a traditional English Christmas featured seasonal favorites by Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, William Walton, and Herbert Howells.
December , 2010 Christmas with Seattle Pro Musica:
A Family Holiday Concert A new Seattle Pro Musica tradition, begun in 2010! Families enjoyed traditional carols, holiday favorites, and an audience sing-along for children in this one-hour performance.
2010-2011 Season
May, 2010 Song of Songs This collaboration between Seattle Pro Musica, the musicians of St. James Cathedral, and the Medieval Women's Choir included concerts, worshops, art exhibits, and lectures. Seattle Pro Musica's concerts featured choral settings of the rapturous poetry of Song of Songs from around the world, including world premieres by Ivan Moody, Harold Owen, Sheila Bristow, and Karen P. Thomas.
March, 2010 French Masters This performance featured Martin’s Mass for Double Choir and Choral Music by French Composers.
December, 2009 Eastern Lights Traditional winter songs and new choral music from Japan, Korea, China, India, Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and Australia.
2008-2009 Season
May, 2009Mendelssohn's Elijah
Chorus, full orchestra, and soloists brought the story of the fiery Hebrew prophet Elijah vividly to life. An homage to Bach and Handel, Elijah is one of the most dramatic oratorios ever written, and contains some of the most beloved choruses and arias of all time.
March, 2009 Magnify: English Music for the Cathedral Magnify transported us to 19th and 20th Century England, where soaring choral music filled the cathedrals. Experience the soaring harmonies of exhilarating double choir works performed in the stunning acoustic of St. James Cathedral.
December, 2008 Navidad: Christmas in the New World Lively rhythms of Latin America, a majestic candlelight processional, and captivating Baroque villancicos for voices, guitars, and percussion blending indigenous music from Spain, Africa, and Latin America.
2007-2008 Season
May, 2008 Rachmaninov's Vespers Rachmaninov’s moving and timeless choral masterpiece, considered the greatest musical achievement of the Russian Orthodox church. With its enormous range of color and virtuoso choral writing woven with ancient Russian chant, the Vespers exemplifies Rachmaninov's authoritative use of "choral orchestration" and truly expresses the voice of the human heart.
March, 2008 Bach's Motets Juxtaposed Bach’s beloved motets with contemporary and Romantic works inspired by the master. Included were Bach's masterpiece, Jesu, meine Freude and Norwegian composer Knut Nystedt's haunting Immortal Bach.
December 2007 Northern Lights II This program of lush, spirited choral music from Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania evoked the northern lights of the winter season, from traditional holiday carols to works by Tchaikovsky and Veljo Tormis, as well as Arvo Pärt’s celebrated Magnificat.
2006-2007 Season
June, 2007 American Masterpieces Choral Festival
GRAND FINALE CONCERT. The June 17, 2007 concert at Benaroya Hall was the grand finale concert of our American Masterpieces Choral Festival. This concert features Seattle Pro Musica in performance, joined by the American Masterpieces Festival Choir comprised of all the Pacific Northwest choirs participating in the festival. Guest conductor Dale Warland and Karen P. Thomas shared the podium for this Grand Finale concert, which featured a spectacular selection of American music, including the works of festival composer Morten Lauridsen.
March, 2007 Chichester Psalms Featuring Leonard Bernstein's beloved Chichester Psalms, evocative settings of Hebrew psalms for choir, harp, organ, and percussion. This evening of American music for the cathedral also included Randall Thompson's ground-breaking The Peaceable Kingdom and Samuel Barber's hauntingly beautiful Agnus Dei.
December, 2006 An American Christmas Traditional music for the winter season, including Spirituals and early American music. Our first concert of the American Masterpieces season featured the works of American composers, with favorites by Samuel Barber, Morten Lauridsen, and Eric Whitacre.
2005-2006 Season
May, 2006 Bach's Mass in B minor The Mass represents a comprehensive summation of Bach’s musical skills and a profound statement of his deep personal faith, yet the transcendent universality of the Mass in B minor communicates across the centuries.
March, 2006 Ab Oriente: From the East Ab Oriente featured music from Eastern and Central Europe and the Middle East. Audiences enjoyed traditional and contemporary music from Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece, the Balkans, Russia, Georgia and the Middle East.
Also on this concert was the world premiere of Three New Motets in memoriam Thomas Tallis, a new commissioned choral work by the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky. Three New Motets was commissioned as part of the national series of new works from Meet The Composer Commissioning Music/USA, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
December, 2005 Lux: Winter Lights This concert showcased music from around the world, evoking the winter lights of the holiday season. The program covered over a thousand years of choral music, from medieval chant to contemporary works by Poulenc, Morten Lauridsen, and Eric Whitacre.
2004-2005 Season
May, 2005 Mozart's Great Mass in C minor The Great Mass in C minor, written to commemorate his marriage to Constanze Weber, ranks with the Requiem as one of Mozart’s highest achievements. This concert also featured the world premiere of a new commissioned choral work, Veni, Sancte Spiritus, by John Muehleisen, written to celebrate the centennial of St. James Cathedral.
March, 2005Libera:Music of Liberation and Peace Libera featured sacred music for choir and organ on the theme of liberation – expressing the desire of humankind to seek social justice and peace. Featured was Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei, James MacMillan's Cantos Sagrados (on Latin American liberation theology poetry), Michael Tippett's Spirituals from a Child of our Time, Libby Larsen's May Sky (on Haiku from the WWII internment camps), David MacIntyre's Ave Marie (inspired by Bosnian Children), and works by Palestrina, Asola and Vedel.
December, 2004 Northern Lights Choral music from Baltic and Nordic Countries evoked the northern lights of the winter season. The program covered a millennium of Baltic and Nordic choral music, from medieval chant and traditional carols to contemporary works.
2003-2004 Season
May, 2004 Music of the Spheres: A Concert of Celestial Music "Music of the Spheres" explored the relationship between spirituality, music and creation. Featured works included Handel's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day for soloists, choir and orchestra, Meredith Monk's Astronaut Anthem, C.H.H. Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens and chant by Hildegard von Bingen.
March, 2004 Music of the Spirit:Sacred Masterworks for the Cathedral "Music of the Spirit"featured sacred masterworks for the cathedral, including Frank Martin's sublime Mass for Double Choir, Hugo Wolf's Geistliche Lieder, and works by Arvo Pärt, Brahms, Lotti and Rachmaninov.
December, 2003 Navidad! A Spanish Christmas Spanish and Latin American music for the holiday season, Medieval chant and our traditional candlelight processional.
2002-2003 Season
May, 2003 Venice and the East A concert of cross-cultural music from Venice, the Middle East & Asia. Featured works by Monteverdi, Gabrieli and other Venetian composers for multiple choirs, organ and brass. Also, works by contemporary composers from the Mediterranean, Middle East & Asia.
March, 2003 Best of the Northwest: New Music by Northwest Composers Featured works by Bern Herbolsheimer, Robert Kechley, and John Muehleisen, as well as world premieres by Reginald Unterseher (on a Shakespeare text) and Karen P. Thomas (on texts by Hildegard von Bingen).
December, 2002 A Celtic Christmas Celtic music for the holiday season from Wales, Ireland & Scotland. Included Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, Medieval chant and our traditional candelight processional, finished with an audience sing-along of traditional carols.
2001-2002 Season
May, 2002 Peace in Our Time English music for the cathedral, performed in the glorious acoustic of St. James Cathedral. Featured Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams, for soloists, choir and orchestra. Written between WWI and WWII, Dona Nobis Pacem is one of Vaughan Williams' most significant works - an impassioned plea for peace, incorporating Biblical texts with the emotionally-charged anti-war poetry of Walt Whitman. Also featured was Herbert Howells' Requiem.
March, 2002 Duruflé's Requiem An all-French program celebrating the centennial of Duruflé's birth. Works include: Maurice Duruflé's Requiem, as well as works by French composers Boulanger, Messiaen, Debussy, Poulenc and Fauré.
December, 2001 Weihnachten! A German Christmas Magnificent a cappella music for the Advent and Christmas seasons, including: Franz Biebl's Ave Maria, Heinrich Schütz's Deutsches Magnificat, Works by Brahms, Bruckner, Praetorius and Distler, medieval chant and our traditional candlelight processional, German Christmas carols, including In dulci jubilo, audience sing-along of traditional carols.
2001-2001 Season
May, 2001 Brahms’ Requiem Brahms’ greatest masterpiece, Ein Deutsches Requiem or the German Requiem, for choir, soloists and orchestra. Also featured the premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett's The Glory and the Dream, with Joseph Adam, organ.
February, 2001 Alnight by the Rose A Valentine’s Day Concert of divine love and earthly passion for Valentine’s Day, a concert extolling the virtues of love, and coinciding with the release of the CD.
December, 2000 Natale! Christmas in Italy Included Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (selections) as well as works by Verdi, Palestrina, Gabrieli, and rarely-heard music by Italian nuns of the 16th and 17th centuries.
November, 2000 Bach Around the Clock Seattle Pro Musica’s chamber ensemble, Madrigalia, was a featured ensemble for this all-day marathon commemorating the 250th anniversary of the death of J.S. Bach, including Jesu, meine Freude.
1999-2000 Season
May, 2000 Women at the Millennium A celebration of 1,000 years of great music by women composers! Music performed for chorus, organ and orchestra by the most significant women composers of the past 1,000 years in the magnificent acoustic of St. James Cathedral. Featured works by Hildegard von Bingen, Isabella Leonarda, Lili Boulanger, Ethel Smyth, Amy Beach, and others.
March, 2000 Reconciliation for the Balkans A concert for peace in the new millennium. Music from the Balkan countries, including Bulgarian music for women's chorus, as well as new music composed in response the the ethnic conflicts in the Balkans. Music from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Albania and Macedonia, as well as Kim Sherman's Service for the Dead in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Karen P. Thomas's When night came.
December, 1999 Noël! A French Christmas Ten centuries of French music for the Christmas season! Featured works by Charpentier and Poulenc.
