Choral Event THIS WEEKEND: The Esoterics Present FERVOR & FLIGHT!
This weekend, The Esoterics invites you to find courage and hope in dark
times, connect with nature and our community, and reflect in a concert
series with the a cappella choral music of Juhi Bansal. We will be
performing on Saturday October 11, 8pm, at Plymouth United Church of
Christ in Seattle and Sunday October 12, 7pm, at Christ Episcopal Church
in Tacoma.
Advance tickets can be purchased and more information is available below or
at theesoterics.org/next
https://calendar.time.ly/u1mdrp81/theesoterics.org/next. Tickets will
also be available for purchase at the door.
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TICKET INFORMATION:
Advanced pricing is $20 for general admission and $15 for discounted
admission. Pricing at the door will be $25 for general admission and $20
for discounted admission. Discounted admission is available to seniors, the
under and un-employed, members of other Seattle/Tacoma area choirs, and the
disabled. As with all Esoterics performances, pay-what-you-can pricing will
also be available at the door.
COMPOSER AND CONCERT INFORMATION:
An Indian composer who was brought up in Hong Kong and now lives in Los
Angeles, Juhi creates works that draw subtly upon each of these traditions
(as well as those from around the world) and entwines them with western
classical music. Her music incorporates themes of cultural diversity,
nature and the environment, strong feminine energy, and the immigrant
experience.
Our concert will begin with Bansal's setting of a poem by Khalil Gibran,*
Fear (becoming ocean)*. In Gibran’s text, the personified river trembles
with fear as it approaches the vast ocean. Beneath a duet of
Hindustani-style soprano soloists, the chorus assumes the role of the water
and embraces the inevitable - not disappearing, but transforming - to
abandon its individual identity and become part of a larger whole, the
ocean. Change is prefaced by hesitation about the unknown, and requires
great hope and courage.
Inspired by images from Inuit legend, Bansal’s Aurora employs kulning - a
singing style of ancient Scandinavian shepherds - to evoke the landscape of
the frosty north. Setting a text of her own, Juhi refers to the spirits of
the heavens, who dance and play as they lead us with colorful torches on
our way.
Bansal’s In perfect light sets verses from The old astronomer by the poet
Sarah Williams. This text is a short study of contrasts - rising and
setting, light and darkness, love and fear.
The Esoterics will be joined by a percussionist to present Bansal's*
Language of the earth*. In three movements - War, Storm, and Echoes - we
pose the question: what would the earth say? If it had a voice that we
could hear, how would the world respond to our exploitation, our
carelessness, our destruction? How would it remind us that humanity’s
relationship to the natural world is inextricable? How would it warn us of
the consequences? How would the earth give us hope and inspire us to change?
For Absence, Bansal translated a Moorish text by the 12th-century
Andalusian philosopher Abu Bakr al-Turtushi into English. Over his
lifetime, Al-Tartushi was able to travel a vast distance: from Spain,
across North Africa, and through the Middle East, as far as Baghdad.
Wanderlust is matched only by wistfulness in his poem, for as Al-Tartushi
travels, he searches in every corner for a trace of his beloved - a scent,
a sign, a shared star.
The Esoterics will close FERVOR & FLIGHT with We came searching for a home.
In her choice of texts from the Ellis Island and Angel Island Archives - as
well as fragments by Chief Standing Bear, Khalil Gibran, Paul Laurence
Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner
Truth, as well as accounts of terrifying journeys to the New World,
speeches from First Nations people, poems and graffiti from the walls of
detention centers, ending her cycle with Emma Lazarus’ The new Colossus,
the poem that is engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
CONCERT REPERTOIRE:
Absence (2018)
Aurora (2022)
Fear (becoming the ocean) (2023)
In perfect light (2019)
Language of the earth (2024)
We came searching for a home (2025)
We are so excited to bring this new and exciting work to our community and
hope you can join us for a night of reflection, connection, and finding the
light.
