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Communications Chair

(Un)Common Ground – Season 14 President’s Message

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Dear friends, 

 

Welcome to Season 14! A few highlights…

This weekend we’ll be heading to SUNY Schenectady for our third rehearsal of the season. We’ve welcomed a cohort of phenomenal new Companios and have already revisited some familiar spots–South Presbyterian Church and the public library in Dobbs Ferry, NY, and First Parish in Brookline, MA–as well as exploring a new and lovely space at Wellesley College. Later in the season, we’ll return to William Floyd High School for a workshop with their talented young singers. Our Artistic Director Erik Peregrine has brought us another transportative program, (Un)Common Ground, which celebrates our connections to our environment and each other. At its center is a brand-new work by Forrest Pierce, Fire in the Meadow, which we have the privilege of premiering after participating in a commission consortium earlier this year. We can’t wait to share it all with you at our spring concerts!

Of course, all art exists in context, and I composed this message in the leadup to Election Day here in the US. Amid the uncertainty, chaos, and acrimony in the public sphere, I am galvanized by the knowledge that there are also choirs. Beyond the power and catharsis of music in its own right, a choir gives a refreshing example of a healthy civic body. It’s not always easy and we make (many) mistakes, but choral singers show up. Choral singers reach out to help their neighbors. Choral singers work to achieve harmony and to share the stories told by dissonance. Our ability to live these practices, in and out of the rehearsal room, is more necessary than ever. 

With that in mind, I invite you to join me in supporting Ensemble Companio as we continue our season and begin planning our fifteenth anniversary celebrations. This month, we’re launching our annual fundraiser, Drive to Sing: Celebrating Our Legacy and Shaping Our Future. Your contribution will directly sustain the adventurous and deeply moving artistry you’ve come to know and love, support new commissions by underrepresented composers, and help us be a  source of joy, connection, and resilience for years to come. Also, speaking of our fifteenth season, if you or someone you know would like to join (or rejoin) our musical community, we’d love to hear from you (audition information here).

We are so grateful to you, our wider community, for the consistent outpouring of time, talent, and treasure which has allowed us to reach this milestone. We seldom, if ever, know what the future holds, but one thing I do know is that we choral singers in our millions (and Companios in particular) will keep turning up, week after week, month after month, season after season. Our pencils will be sharpened (or tablets charged) and our hearts will be open. We will keep seeking–and finding–(un)common ground.

 

Warmly,

Emily Higgins
President, Ensemble Companio

 

Communications Chair

From the Director: Heavenly Home

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Dear Friends,

How does one speak to how the world has changed since we last shared live music with you? Where does one even begin? It seems almost easier to recount the things which haven’t been radically altered. And yet, even after all this time, I am once again thrilled to share news of our upcoming concerts with you. It is strange how normal this feels, and yet how precious.

Our 2021-2022 program, “Heavenly Home,” explores the complex joy of (re)defining home and belonging amidst upheaval. In a way, this season’s repertoire shares threads of our ensemble’s pandemic story, weaving together music that we had prepared to perform in 2020, music that we explored together virtually in 2021, and music fresh to this 2021-2022 season. Behind our performances this season are the ghosts of canceled concerts, of fear and uncertainty and Zoom and loss and isolation and the endless stream of heartbreaking changes we have endured. Behind them, too, is the love through which we have persisted.

                “…look what happens with a love like that!”

In September 2021, we shared our first live rehearsal since March 2020. We had not seen each other for a year and a half. The absolute and overwhelming joy of being together again–changed, certainly, and yet still connected–was (is) indescribable. 

                                “Alleluia!”

This April, we will share our first season concert since March 2019. It has been three years. Perhaps there is nothing I could write to adequately capture the spirit of this moment. Thankfully, we deal not only in words, but in music too. 

                                                “Come to my garden…”

The repertoire we will share with you in “Heavenly Home” is both exhilarating and poignant. Highlights include Betty Jackson King’s stunning setting of Psalm 57, Shawn Kirchner’s beloved Heavenly Home triptych, and a host of lush choral works from across time and place by Shavon Lloyd, Reena Esmail, Zhou Long, Michael Bussewitz-Quarm, and Caroline Shaw, among others. Another triumph of this upcoming season is the long-awaited world premiere of Carlos Cordero’s “Garden,” originally commissioned to celebrate our 10th Anniversary Season in 2020-2021. Though Carlos and I could never have predicted the way events would unfold since beginning our collaboration together, “Garden” somehow speaks even more profoundly in the wake of our past three years. While we lost the opportunity to share our milestone tenth season with you, we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate our fittingly unconventional 11th Anniversary Season this spring. 

In the wise words of one of our founding members, “our anniversaries go up to eleven.” 

This season is first and foremost a celebration. Since September, we have celebrated the blessing of coming home to each other. Now, we finally celebrate coming home to you. 

We are thrilled to welcome you again so very soon.

 

In love and gratitude,

 


 

 

 

Erik Peregrine, DMA
Artistic Director

Communications Chair

CompComp Winner Announcement

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