May 2017 • La Koro Sutro with Other Minds

Members of Sacred and Profane will be singing in a concert celebratingLou Harrison's centenary. In addition to several other signature works by Harrison, the concert will feature a performance of "La Koro Sutro," the Esperanto rendition of the fourth century Buddhist text "The Heart Sutra."  The ensemble will feature singers from several Bay Area choirs, The William Winant Percussion Group, and will be conducted by Nicole Paiement, who has recorded a generous selection of Harrison's music.

Saturday, May 20th, 8 PM

Mission Dolores Basilica

3321 16th St.

San Francisco, CA

Spring, 2017 • In Love With Language

“A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. “~W.H. Auden

Sacred and Profane sings the words of great English poets William Blake, Christina Rossetti, and others. We will also present Jan Sandström’s setting of Landskap med solar by the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2012 and died in 2015. This exciting concert will also include works by Belgian composer Rudi Tas and our own Will Raymer. In this concert we will also celebrate the life of Lou Harrison, the renowned Bay Area composer who died in 2003. In collaboration with the East Bay ensemble Thingamajigs, we will present a new work in the style of Lou’s compositions for choir by Edward Schocker, as well Lou’s work Mass for St. Cecilia’s Day. This concert will coincide with Lou’s 100th birthday on May 14, 2017.

Saturday, May 13th 2017 at 8 PM | St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Berkeley

Sunday, May 14th at 4 PM | St. Francis Lutheran Church, San Francisco

Winter, 2017 • Shakespeare

If Music be the Food of Love, Play On: Settings of Shakespeare

“Give me some music; music, moody food Of us that trade in love.” (Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, scene 5)

The works of the “Bard of Avon” have inspired generations of composers to create some of our most charming choral works. In the second concert of our season dedicated to poets, Sacred and Profane explores the verse of the master. We will sing Shakespearean texts set to music by Thomas Morley, Amy Beach, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Frank Martin, and others.

Saturday, March 4th, 2017 at 8 PM  | St. Francis Lutheran Church in SF

Sunday, March 5th, 2017 at 4 PM | St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley

Fall, 2016 • A Poet's Christmas

“Always on Christmas night there was music.” ~Dylan Thomas: A Child’s Christmas in Wales

Sacred and Profane recreates the BBC Radio 1944 Christmas Eve Broadcast, including poetry read by Esther Mulligan. Featuring poems by Cecil Day-Lewis, Edith Sitwell, and W.H. Auden, and music by Benjamin Britten, Michael Tippett, Herbert Howells, and others. This exciting concert will also include the US premiere of Karin Rehnqvist’s When I close my eyes, I dream of peace and the world premiere of a work commissioned from our own James Tecuatl-Lee, with support from our donors and the East Bay Fund for Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation.

Sunday, December 4th, 2016 at 4 PM | First Presbyterian Church of Alameda

Saturday, December 10th, 2016 at 8 PM | St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley

Sunday, December 11th, 2016 at 4 PM | St. Francis Lutheran Church in SF