SANTA FE DESERT CHORALE ANNOUNCES 35^th ANNIVERSARY SUMMER FESTIVAL

OF FOUR CONCERT PROGRAMS AND TWO FILMS BETWEEN JULY 19 AND AUGUST 13, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Santa Fe, New Mexico, February 3, 2017: The Santa Fe Desert Chorale (SFDC) today announced plans for its 35^th Anniversary Summer Season comprised of fourteen concert performances and two film screenings. The programming theme for the 2017 Summer Festival is Liberté and Justice. Leading the Chorale as Music Director for his ninth season is Joshua Habermann.

Music from a Secret Chapel, a vocal chamber music program, will open the season on July 19, 2017 at the intimate Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel in Santa Fe.

Featuring eight of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale’s early music specialists, the program explores the music of William Byrd who lived and composed as a Catholic in Protestant England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1. Sistine Chapel composers, including Giovanni Palestrina, will be included on the program. Opening night festivities include a reception and dinner at Quail Run Resort in Santa Fe. The program will be repeated on July 23, August 2 and August 8, 2017 in Santa Fe, and on July 29, 2017 in Albuquerque. Free public talks will be given by Dr. Harris Ipock before each concert, except on July 29, 2017. (Please see attached schedule and venue listing for details.)

Liberté: Music of Resistance and Revolution was created and will be conducted by Joshua Habermann, Music Director. The program takes its name from the eighth movement of Francis Poulenc’s exacting a cappella work Figure Humaine which was set to texts by poet Paul Éluard written during the Nazi occupation of France. The second programming block focuses on music from the Terezin Concentration Camp. Works sung during the “Singing Revolution” (1987-1991) that forced the expulsion of the Soviets out of Estonia completes the program. Baltic composers

Cyrillus Kreek, Veljo Tormis and Arvo Pärt will be heard in this program celebrating freedom and the indomitable nature of the human spirit. Performances of Liberté are scheduled for August 1 and 11, 2017 in Santa Fe and on August 5, 2017 in Albuquerque. Steven Ovitsky, Executive Director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival will give free public talks before each concert. The documentary film The Singing Revolution will be shown on July 29, 2017 at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe. Trustee Emerita, Brahna Lauger Wilczynski, will introduce the screening which will also feature a musical sampling by SFDC vocalists.

Guest conductor, Dr. André J. Thomas will lead the Justice program, which will feature an appearance by award-winning soprano NaGuanda Nobles, and a world premiere by composer and pianist Brandon Boyd. Mr. Boyd’s composition will be set to poetry

written by participants in the Santa Fe County Youth Development Center’s “Voces de Libertad” program led by poet Demetria Martinez. The program of spirituals and gospel music will be performed on August 8 and August 13 in Santa Fe, and on August 12, 2017 in Albuquerque. Brandon Boyd will give the pre-concert talks before each performance. When I Rise, the documentary on the life of opera singer and civil rights icon Barbara Conrad, will be shown at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe on August 7, 2017. Filmmaker Dr. Don Carleton of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas (Austin) will give a talkback following the screening of the film which was premiered on Independent Lens on PBS.

The Hope of Loving, written by 2016 Composer-in-Residence Jake Runestad, gives title to the final program of the season. Pianist Nathan Salazar and a string septet from the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus join sixteen members of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale conducted by Music Director Joshua Habermann in performing John Corigliano’s Fern Hill. Set to a poem by Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill recalls a time that was “young and

easy.” Tarik O’Regan’s Triptych rounds-out this program celebrating today’s leading choral composers. Dr. Matthew Tresler, Assistant Music Director of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, will give free public talks before the concerts which will take place in Santa Fe on July 27, July 30 and August 10, 2017.

Ticket prices range from $75 to $20 in Santa Fe and $55 to $20 in Albuquerque. Discounted subscription plans are available as of February 3, 2017. Information and orders may be placed online at www.desertchorale.org or by telephone at (505)988-2282. Single tickets will go on sale to the public on March 16, 2017. For

information on group sales, ADA seating, or to purchase specially-priced student tickets, please call Box Office Manager, Emma Marzen, at (505)988-2282 ext. 1.

For images, or to arrange an interview with Joshua Habermann, please contact Janice L. Mayer, Executive Director at (505)988-2282, or Janice@desertchorale.org.

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Mission:

 The mission of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, one of the nation’s premier professional vocal ensembles, is to excite, engage and inspire diverse audiences with the beauty and power of great choral music.