Erin Westmaas, Darlington’s Upper School choral director, will perform with a Philadelphia-based, professional chamber choir called The Crossing on Jan. 3, 2010. The concert, titled “The Crossing in Winter: Lang and Esenvalds,” will be held at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia.
“The choir began in Philadelphia and so far performs locally there, though many of the members are now scattered around the United States,” Westmaas said. “We are committed to the performance of new and modern choral music. I sang with this group the year before I started working at Darlington, though it didn’t work out in the schedule last year for me to do so.”
According to the group’s Web site, this performance features the American introduction of Latvia’s emerging compositional giant, Eriks Esenvalds, in an impressionistic work based on ancient letters describing the phenomenon of Sun Dogs – ice halos that can mirror the sun and which have mystified with their beauty for centuries. Esenvalds’ ear for textures creates an intensely beautiful atmosphere that seems to float in time – not this time, and not the past, but perhaps a memory of the future. They will also sing his “Légende de la femme emmurée,” based on an Albanian folk song; its juxtaposing styles create tension between a modern language and purer, beckoning, earlier time.
The Crossing will also perform David Lang’s “The Little Match Girl Passion,” which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Lang sets Hans Christian Andersen’s fable in the format of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion; he writes of this work, “Her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness. There’s a kind of naive equilibrium between suffering and hope.” Lang’s sparse, minimalist, emotionally charged language inspired one
LA Times critic to remark, “There is no name yet for this kind of music.”
Westmaas holds a B.A. in Music Theory and Composition from Calvin College (Mich.) and a M.M. in Choral Conducting from Yale School of Music. Prior to her work at Darlington, she was a lecturer in music theory at Yale, a voice instructor for the Yale Glee Club, and music director for Yale University Church and Shoreline Community Chorale. She has directed, conducted and performed with several other vocal ensembles as well.
Westmaas and The Crossing will also give three summer concerts in June and July, performing pieces they have commissioned for a “Month of Moderns” project, funded by a grant from the Philadelphia Music Project.
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