winter 2023
Considering This Moment: Music With Strings
We are excited to finally bring you the music we had planned to present three years before in March 2020, when Covid-19 forced us to cancel our concerts. This thought-provoking program will feature music for choir and string orchestra, in collaboration with the Circadian String Quartet and additional local string players. We will bring you Zanaida Robles’ No Fairytale Here, a setting of writings by the African American suffragist Ida B. Wells that includes spoken voice; San Francisco Conservatory composer David Conte’s reverent September Sun, composed in memory of those who died in the September 11th attacks; and Eric Whitacre’s Three Hebrew Love Songs for choir and string quartet. We are also delighted to present the U.S. premiere of Karin Rehnqvist’s exuberant Day is here! for choir, soloists, and strings. Like Songs from the North, which we commissioned for our fortieth-anniversary concert in May 2018, Day is here! sets texts by indigenous poets that suggest a response to a world that is struggling with a changing climate.
Friday, MArch 3 at 8 PM
St John’s Presbyterian Church
2727 College Ave, Berkeley
Saturday, March 4 at 8 PM
St Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O’Farrell Ave, San Francisco
Health & Safety Precautions
We are formulating our season with an abundance of caution to prioritize the health and safety of our singers, audiences, and communities. Events for the 2021–22 season are subject to change to comply with all public health guidelines.
To ensure the health and safety of our artists and patrons, all guests must wear masks at concerts and present proof of vaccination upon entry.
Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus prioritizes the health and safety of our artists, audiences, staff, and community. Sacred and Profane adheres to all CDC guidelines and local policies, and continues to closely monitor information from public health officials. Please be aware that these safety protocols may change, and that S&P will communicate additional details. Please contact us with any questions. Learn more about our safety protocol here.
About the Artists
Circadian Quartet
Monika Gruber, violin
David Rhyther, violin
Omid Assai, viola
David Wishnia, cello
Bay Area based Circadian String Quartet was founded in 2013 to perform classical and contemporary repertoire of folkloric or cultural significance.
Since then CSQ has become known for bold original programming ideas that break boundaries or reach across cultures, that is why CSQ loves working with composers. CSQ is proud to have given world and U.S. premieres of exciting new pieces of chamber music written by Sahba Aminikia, Ben Carson, Toronto-based Noam Lemish, and British composer Ian Venables. They first performed Sahba Aminikia’s One Day Tehranlive on air on KPFA’s radio show “Music of the World” with Joanna Manqueros in 2015. Then in 2016 they commissioned Aminikia to write a new piece for string quartet and Narrator. The result, a glowing kaleidoscopic mixture of text by Allen Ginsburg and Hafez called The Weight of the World was premiered in 2017 at the Piedmont Arts center.
CSQ has also become known for its original transcriptions and compositions. In 2017 and 2019 their original transcriptions of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and the Firebird premiered to enthusiastic crowds and critical acclaim. In 2016 CSQ collaborated with narrator and historian Nikolaus Hohmann to tell stories from World War Two. For this project CSQ created short original pieces of music and text called “Chiaroscuros” which helped give their programs a narrative arc. Now there is a growing body of these short works which are now a regular part of all CSQ concerts.
CSQ has been quartet in residence at the Music by the Mountain Festival in Mt. Shasta, featured in the April in Santa Cruz new music festival, and the members also serve as resident teaching artistists for the Villa Sinfonia’s Zephyr Point Chamber music workshop in South Lake Tahoe.
Some of CSQ’s recent projects include their collaboration with world-class santour player Hamid Taghavi, and the upcoming premiere of “Eurydice’s Defiance” David Ryther’s new Opera written especially for Kitka Soprano, Lily Storm and CSQ. These projects highlight the breadth of CSQ’s repertoire as they continue to expand the string quartet’s possibilities.