Seattle Pro Musica has been making beautiful music since 1972.
Browse our archive of concerts going back to the turn of the century. For a deeper dive into Seattle Pro Musica's 50-plus-year legacy of singing, visit our History page.
2023-2024 Season
May 2024 • A Sea Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams
“All souls…all nations…all identities…”
Walt Whitman’s lyrics are a stirring embrace of all of humanity. Combined with the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, A Sea Symphony uses the vastness and power of the sea as a backdrop for our search for meaning. Written for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, A Sea Symphony will fill you with a sense of awe and wonder in the face of a boundless universe. Seattle Pro Musica presented this work in collaboration with Auburn Symphony Orchestra and their conductor, Wesley Schulz.
SPM opened the concert with Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae by Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi. This haunting work draws on folk song, news reporting, and the Requiem Mass to recount the ill-fated 1994 journey of the MS Estonia. A Sea Symphony featured soloists Susan Payne O’Brien, soprano, and John Seesholtz, baritone.
March 2024 • Journey of Song with Composer Eric Tuan
We were thrilled to have special guest Eric Tuan join us for our New American Composers Series. Eric is both an exciting composer and conductor of the renowned Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir. His music is deeply emotional, as heard in the world premiere of Let them not say, his plea for action against climate change. Student singers from local schools joined us for Eric’s Journey of Song, a celebration of how singing unites people across nations and cultures. Our audiences got to hear Eric’s music, meet Eric himself, and were moved by music that honors the beauty of our fragile world.
This concert featured works by Eric Tuan, Morten Lauridsen, Fanny Hensel, Johannes Brahms, and more.
December 2023 • A Celtic Winter: Music from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales
Our audiences were invited to ring in the winter holidays with the joyous sounds of Celtic choral music! Our spirits rose as we filled our gorgeous concert halls with lush harmonies from Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. Rousing carols, soothing lullabies, soaring spaces, and a candlelight procession. What better way to celebrate the season? We performed at Seattle First Baptist Church and Bastyr University Chapel. As a special treat, audience members at the Seattle First Baptist performance werewelcomed with a short program from the Northwest Boychoir, Apprentices.
This concert featured works by Judith Weir, James MacMillan, Tarik O’Regan, Paul Mealor, and more, with texts in Welsh, Gaelic, and English.
2022-2023 50th anniversary season
May 2023 • Smyth/Mozart
British composer Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D for choir, orchestra, and soloists is a monumental achievement. Written in the mid-19th century, it was dismissed by critics who deemed women composers unequal to their male counterparts. Seattle Pro Musica hails this stunning and seldom-heard piece as more than equal. We paired this groundbreaking work with Mozart’s beloved “Great” Mass in C minor for one performance only in the magnificent acoustic of St. James Cathedral, and featured soloists Tess Altiveros, soprano; Miriam Gnagy, soprano; Dawn Padula, mezzo; Zachary Finkelstein, tenor; Charles Robert Stephens, bass.
March 2023 • The Glimmer
The Glimmer was the last of our New American Composers concerts for the 22-23 season, and featured composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Tate, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, is dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition.
For his Seattle Pro Musica commissioned work, Jerod set the poem The Glimmer by Washington state poet laureate Rena Priest.
February 2023 • New Colossus
New Colossus was the fourth of our New American Composers concerts, and featured composer Saunder Choi. Some of Choi’s most profound works focus on the experiences of immigrants.
For his Seattle Pro Musica commissioned work, Saunder chose to address the issue of gun violence in America.
December 2022 • Behold the Star
Behold the Star was the holiday concert of our New American Composers series, and featured composer Shruthi Rajasekar. Composer and vocalist Rajasekar explores identity, community, and joy.
November 2022 • Songs for the People
Songs for the People was the second of our New American Composers concerts, and featured composer Melissa Dunphy. Born to refugee parents and raised in Australia, Dunphy immigrated to the United States in 2003 and has since become an award-winning and acclaimed composer specializing in vocal, political, and theatrical music.
October 2022 • My Heart Be Brave
My Heart Be Brave was the first of our New American Composers concerts, and featured composer Marques L.A. Garrett. Marques focuses on traditional music of the African diaspora, as well as contemporary choral music by Black composers.
For his Seattle Pro Musica commissioned work, Marques chose a text by the Black American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, with its evocative text asking to ”teach this tongue the singer’s soulful art.”
2021-2022 season
May 2022 • The Way Home
The Way Home honored America’s multicultural heritage with music that seeks to foster respect for all persons and groups, especially immigrants and refugees. SPM singers performed music by young composers Saunder Choi, Caroline Shaw, Derrick Skye, and Chris Hutchings that explored the peril and helplessness faced by many refugees. Works by Melissa Dunphy, Reginald Unterseher, and Stephen Paulus expressed the hope that our hearts will open to welcome those in need of refuge.
March 2022 • Shall Not Be Denied
2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the nineteenth amendment, which granted female citizens the right to vote, and Seattle Pro Musica finally presented this concert which celebrated the diverse array of music written by American women during the past century. This concert explored the variety of women’s voices in the realm of choral music, with music by Reena Esmail, Shruthi Rajasekar, Emma Lazarus, Rosephanye Powell, and our own Karen P. Thomas.
December 2021 • Love came down
After the isolating year of COVID-19, Love Came Down was a celebration of everything that Seattle Pro Musica values about choral singing: community, togetherness, inclusion, and joy. This concert celebrated the 500th anniversary of the death of Josquin des Prez, one of the most influential choral composers of the European Renaissance, and featured a diverse range of BIPOC composers that explored our connection to tradition, to our community, and to the Earth itself.
Spring 2021: Choral Tapas
During the height of the pandemic Seattle Pro Musica teamed up with Seattle Cucina Cooking School to create a virtual event that presented one new and one old choral work sung by the choristers of Seattle Pro Musica, as well as an appetizer demo by Seattle Cucina and cocktail recipe by in house mixologist Katie Skovholt.
May 2021 • Choral Tapas
The finale for the Choral Tapas series presented music by composers Josef Rheinberger, Felix Mendelssohn, and Saunder Choi followed by an interview with Saunder Choi. Concluding this series Seattle Pro Musica taught the audience how to make Spanish churros with drinking chocolate and “the Ad Astra” cocktail.
April 2021 • Choral tapas
In the third bite-sized concert Seattle Pro Musica presented music by composers Jerod Impichchaachaaha’Tate, Sergei Rachmaninov, and Johannes Brahms. The featured snacks of the evening was a Paella para ti and an “Ascension '' cocktail, and the interviewed composer of the night was Jerod Impichchaachaaha’Tate.
March 2021 • Choral Tapas
The second concert featured music by composers Melissa Dunphy and Gabriel Fauré, an interview with Melissa Dunphy herself, and a new musical snack and cocktail. Gambas al ajillo with blistered shishito peppers and “The Smoky Triple M” were the celebrated bites of the night.
February 2021 • Choral Tapas
The first of four concerts from the Choral Tapas series that featured virtual choral music by composers Marques L.A Garrett and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a recipe for classic patatas bravas, and a lesson on how to make “The Restless Amadeus” a lovely cocktail for the evening.
DECEMBER 2020: COMFORT & JOY
In the midst of full pre-vaccine lockdown, Seattle Pro Musica put together an entire holiday concert of virtually recorded anthems and carols. Though we couldn’t gather in person, we still warmed our audience’s souls with beautiful songs by composers old and new. To close the performance, conductor Karen P. Thomas led viewers in a holiday carol sing-along.
2019-2020 SEASON
“Shall Not Be Denied'' was scheduled for March 2020; see March 2022 for more information. Smyth/Mozart will be presented in May of 2023. These performances were postponed due to COVID-19.
December 2019 • Solstice
Solstice presented joyous choral music from winter traditions around the world. Through choral works, SPM highlighted the comfort that festivals of light provide during the darkest time of the year.
December 2019 • Christmas with Seattle Pro Musica, Family Holiday Concert
Friends and family gathered together to sing-along to traditional carols and to listen to holiday stories. Students from area schools joined in the one hour concert.
2018–2019 season
May 2019 • Passion and Resurrection
In the season finale at St. James Cathedral, we presented Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds’s Passion and Resurrection, a dramatic masterwork for choir, soprano soloist, and string orchestra. We were honored to be joined by soprano Estelí Gomez from the GRAMMY-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth.
The program also included Frank Martin’s soaring Mass for Double Choir and the world premiere of Panta rhei, a new work by Seattle Pro Musica’s conductor, Karen P. Thomas.
March 2019 • Pacific Voices
Pacific Voices celebrated cultural influences on the Pacific Northwest with choral music from the Asian and Asian-American communities. The program featured composers representing China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, and the US, and each performance was preceded by a discussion with members of the SPM community about representation in the world of classical choral music.
December 2018 • Silent Night
2018 marked two important anniversaries: the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I and the 200th anniversary of the composition of the beloved carol “Silent Night.” Inspired by these events and the Christmas Truce of 1914, Silent Night celebrated the spirit of peace with holiday music from England, France, and Germany, interspersed with readings of letters from soldiers who experienced the horrors of war and the calm of the Christmas Truce.
2017–2018 SEASON
May 2018 • Sacred Ground
“Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us." — St. Francis of Assisi
Sacred Ground presented choral music that explores our spiritual relationship with the natural world. The program included: An Apostrophe to the Heavenly Hosts for multiple choirs by Healey Willan; Canticle of the Sun, a setting of the Saint Francis of Assisi text by rising star Tõnu Kõrvits; and Hyo-Won Woo's Amazing Grace in which singers recreated the sounds of wind, water, and birdsong.
March 2018 • Sounds and Sweet Airs
Seattle Pro Musica was joined by more than two dozen renowned performing arts organizations in a citywide celebration of William Shakespeare. Sounds and Sweet Airs showcased choral settings of poetry and prose by the Bard of Avon – including world premieres from Northwest composers Jessica French, Don Skirvin, and Giselle Wyers.
December 2017 • Winter Rose
The “winter rose” – also called the “Christmas rose” or “snow rose” – is known for blooming during the darkest days of winter in the mountains of Central Europe. Our holiday concert celebrates the light and hope symbolized by the winter rose with such favorites as Lo, how a rose e’er blooming by Praetorius and A spotless rose by Herbert Howells.
December 2017 • Christmas with Seattle Pro Musica, Family Holiday Concert
Traditional carols, holiday favorites, and an audience sing-along for children and families were featured in this one-hour concert. Our celebrity guest was storyteller and KING-FM announcer Lisa Bergman.
2016–2017 SEASON
May 2017 • Dona Nobis Pacem
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ masterful cantata for soloists, choir, and orchestra, is one of the most important anti-war compositions of the 20th century. Written between World War I and II, Dona nobis pacem (Grant us peace) is one of Vaughan Williams’ most significant works. We performed this impassioned plea for peace that blends Biblical text with the emotionally-charged anti-war poetry of Walt Whitman to create a searing indictment of the tragedy of war.
February 2017 • Chichester Psalms
Bernstein’s beloved Chichester Psalms was paired with James MacMillan’s deeply moving Cantos sagrados in this concert of sacred music for choir and organ. Both works explore the theme of liberation –the desire of humankind to seek social justice and peace. Scottish composer MacMillan’s riveting Cantos sagrados uses Latin American liberation theology poetry to address contemporary issues of government repression and the “disappearances” of political prisoners in Latin America. Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms speaks eloquently of humanity’s capacity for compassion and tolerance.
December 2016 • Star of Wonder
Our holiday program featured music from around the world selected yp to evoke the winter lights of the holiday season. The program covered over a thousand years of choral music, from medieval chant to contemporary works. Centerpieces included the ethereally beautiful Stars by Ēriks Ešenvalds, Morten Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium, and Eric Whitacre’s shimmering Lux Aurumque, as well as works by Judith Weir, John Rutter, and Gabriel Jackson.
December 2016 • Christmas with Seattle Pro Musica, Family Holiday Concert
Traditional carols, holiday favorites, and an audience sing-along for children and families were featured in this one-hour concert. Our celebrity guest was storyteller and KING-FM announcer Lisa Bergman.
2015–2016 SEASON
May 2016 • Bach - Mass in B minor
We closed our season with a sold-out presentation of J.S. Bach’s monumental Mass in B minor at St. James Cathedral. We were joined by the renowned period-instrument orchestra Pacific MusicWorks with concertmaster Tekla Cunningham, Baroque trumpet virtuoso Kris Kwapis, and four stellar soloists: Kendra Colton, soprano; Joseph Schlesinger, countertenor; Zach Finkelstein, tenor; and Charles Robert Stephens, bass.
March 2016 • Peace - Music of Three Faiths
Peace was a choral exploration of the deep connections between three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Anchoring the program were Gloria (everywhere) by Turkish-American composer Kamran Ince with words by the 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi, and I sing of love by Bernard Hughes with texts from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. The concert also featured uplifting works by Renaissance Jewish composer Salamone Rossi and contemporary Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, along with Islamic songs and interfaith chants.
December 2015 • Northern Lights - Music of Scandinavia and the Baltics
Our holiday program showcased music to evoke the shimmering beauty of the aurora borealis. The program spanned a thousand years of Baltic and Nordic choral music, from medieval chant and traditional carols to contemporary works by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Cyrillus Kreek, and Veljo Tormis.
December 2015 • Christmas with Seattle Pro Musica, Family Holiday Concert
Traditional carols, holiday favorites, a Sankta Lucia processional, and an audience sing-along for children and families were featured in this one-hour concert. Our celebrity guest was storyteller and KING-FM announcer Lisa Bergman.
2014–2015 Season
May 2015 • Prism - Pärt & MacMillan
We celebrated Arvo Pärt's 80th birthday with a concert of mystical, minimal music, paired with pieces by Scotsman James MacMillan whose hauntingly beautiful works have been described as "both timeless and contemporary." The program included Brian Galante's Exsultate and the world premiere of John Muehleisen's Eternity Passing Over, An Arctic Requiem, commissioned for Seattle Pro Musica by Shannon and Peter Polson.
March 2015 • Caritas - Sacred Music by Women
We celebrated International Women's Day with a tribute to great female composers across the centuries. St. Hildegard of Bingen's 12th-century chants were juxtaposed with today's most exciting new composers from North America, Korea, and Eastern Europe. The program included works by 13 composers including Melinda Bargreen, Sheila Bristow, Margriet Tindemans, Christine Donkin, and the regional premiere of Karen P. Thomas' Caritas abundat.
December 2014 • Noël - French Christmas
The holidays had a Gallic flair with Christmas motets by 20th-century French masters Francis Poulenc and Pierre Villette. The program also showcased medieval and Renaissance Christmas music from France along with traditional French carols.
December 2014 • Christmas with Seattle Pro Musica, Family Holiday Concert
Traditional French carols, holiday favorites, and an audience sing-along for children and families were featured in this one-hour concert. Our celebrity guest hosts were well-known French chef and restauranteur Thierry Rautureau, KING-FM announcer Lisa Bergman, and Père Noël!
2013–2014 Season
May 2014 • Brahms - Ein deutsches Requiem
"Now I have surmounted obstacles I thought I could never overcome, and I feel like an eagle, soaring ever higher and higher." So wrote Johannes Brahms, after completing his monumental German Requiem for choir, full orchestra, and soloists. It is a masterwork of great humanity with melting moments of compassion, a balm in troubled times.
March 2014 • Passio - Light in Darkness
The season of Lent has inspired composers to write some of their most beautiful and poignant works, plumbing the depths of human emotion. This concert presented a meditative collection of musical expressions of the Passion story, from the recently rediscovered Passion Week by Gretchaninov, to the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang - a modern-day allegorical take on Medieval mystery plays, in a format inspired by Bach.
December 2013 • Ceremony of Carols - Britten Centenary Christmas
2013 marked 100 years since the birth of Benjamin Britten, and our celebration of his centenary year concluded with a trio of gorgeous holiday works. His beloved classic A Ceremony of Carols was paired with his youthful choral tour-de-force, A Boy was Born. Also included was Conrad Susa's delightful Carols and Lullabies - Christmas in the Southwest.
December 2013 • Christmas with Seattle Pro Musica
Traditional carols, holiday favorites, and an audience sing-along for children and families were featured in this one-hour concert. Children from area schools joined us in performance. It was a delight for the whole family!
October 2013 • Britten+ Concert and Community Sing
We celebrated the centenary of Benjamin Britten with some of his most-loved choral works. Rejoice in the Lamb, Festival Te Deum, and Five Flower Songs were paired with beautiful pieces by Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre, and the world premiere of new music by Karen P. Thomas. The concert included a community sing of some of Britten's works for chorus and organ and featured Douglas Cleveland, organ, and Brian Chin, trumpet. Presented with generous support from the NEA and the Britten-Pears Foundation.
2012–2013 Season
Chorus America & Britten's War Requiem
Seattle Pro Musica and Seattle Symphony Orchestra & Chorale joined forces to co-host the 36th Annual Chorus America Conference, bringing choral luminaries from all over North America together to celebrate choral music in Seattle! Chorus America is the national advocacy, research, and leadership development organization for choruses, choral leaders, and singers.
There were many choral concerts and activities during the June 12-15, 2013 conference, highlighted by a collaboration of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra & Chorale and Seattle Pro Musica to present performances of Benjamin Britten's masterwork, the War Requiem, on June 13 and 15 at Benaroya Hall. 2013 marked the centenary of Britten's birth, and we were thrilled to join in presenting one of the most important and compelling works of the 20th century.
May 2013 • Lucis - Music of Light
Lucis audiences immersed themselves in the sound of contemporary classics – 20th and 21st century works written for a reverberant cathedral acoustic, and expressing humanity’s connection to the divine and to each other. The featured work was Canticum calamitatis maritimae by Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi – written to commemorate a tragic 1994 shipwreck. Also included are the luminous Lucis creator optime by the Lithuanian composer Vytautis Miskinis, and A drop in the ocean by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds.
March 2013 • Fleur - Songs of Spring
Fleur rejoiced in the return of the sun, with music that captured the beauty and splendor of spring. Eric Whitacre’s Cloudburst portrayed a wild thunderstorm with dramatic intensity; while Morten Lauridsen applied a delicate touch to the exquisite poetry of Rilke in Les Chansons des Roses. The evocative Five Flower Songs of Benjamin Britten provided a contemporary contrast to romantic songs of nature by Brahms and Mendelssohn. On March 10, Seattle Pro Musica welcomed the Bellevue Girlchoir as part of our Education & Outreach Program.
December 2012 • Weihnachten - A German Christmas
Audiences experienced the joyous sounds of traditional German choral music for the Christmas season, including our atmospheric candlelight processional, traditional carols, and beautiful works by Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Biebl and Distler.
December 2012 • Christmas with Seattle Pro Musica
This one-hour concert was designed for children of all ages, and featured traditional carols, an audience sing-along, and young choral singers joining us in performance. We even had a prize drawing for two lucky children to come up onstage and conduct!
2011–2012 Season
May 2012 • Resonance
Resonance invited audiences to be enveloped by luminous sound, as the singers of Seattle Pro Musica perform from all corners of St. James Cathedral. The experience was of aural immersion as multiple choirs surrounded the audience for the famous Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis, as well as other transcendent music for divided choirs.
March 2012 • Bach's St. John Passion
The St. John Passion is one of J.S. Bach’s greatest creations for choir, orchestra and soloists. This beautiful and dramatic masterpiece set the passion narrative as a gripping story, told with vivid intensity.
December 2011 • Celtic Christmas
Celtic Christmas featured lively melodies, gentle lullabies, traditional songs, and carols of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
December 2011 • Christmas with Seattle Pro Musica
Back by popular demand was a concert for the entire family. This one-hour concert was designed for children of all ages, and features traditional carols, an audience sing-along, and young choral singers joining us in performance.
2010–2011 Season
May 2011 • Appear & Inspire
Benjamin Britten's evocative paean to the patron saint of music 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, began in 2010! Families enjoyed traditional carols, holiday favorites, and an audience sing-along for children in this one-hour performance.
2009–2010 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, workshops, 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 2009 • Mendelssohn'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 is 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
This concert 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
The June 17, 2007 concert at Benaroya Hall was the grand finale concert of the 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 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
This 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 2005 • Libera - 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 and Asia with works by Monteverdi, Gabrieli and other Venetian composers for multiple choirs, organ and brass. Also works by contemporary composers from the Mediterranean, Middle East and 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 candlelight 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.
2000–2001 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.