Desert Chorale Community Event Insights & Sounds to Return In Person

Desert Chorale Commissions Award-Winning Composer Jocelyn Hagen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 8, 2022: The Santa Fe Desert Chorale (SFDC) today announced their upcoming 40th Anniversary season. With their theme, Caminante: Journey through 40 Years, SFDC is thrilled to reach this milestone and plans to celebrate this year with their biannual festivals, community events, and more.

The main event of this celebration will be their 2022 Summer Festival, running July 13–August 5, 2022. The festival will feature three distinctive concert programs: Pilgrimage: Songs of the Mediterranean Basin; Mystics and Mavericks; and The Sounding Sea. There will also be two additional solo vocal recitals, known as Artist Spotlights, featuring some of SFDC’s professional artists.

Artistic Director, Joshua Habermann, will conduct the three programs this summer. “I am looking forward to celebrating the 40^th anniversary of our beloved Desert Chorale,” said Habermann. “As one of the longest-standing American professional choirs, the Chorale is a treasure in our national artistic landscape and a leading voice in American choral culture.”

Celebrations will kick-off with a ribbon cutting ceremony by the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, July 13th at 4:30 pm at the Church of the Holy Faith. Immediately following will be an Artist Spotlight recital—the first performance of the season. See below for details.

Sumer Program Descriptions

Pilgrimage: Songs of the Mediterranean Basin

Discovering the musical treasures of this diverse land.

We explore the cross-pollination of cultures that call the Mediterranean Basin home, catching a glimpse of Spanish, North African, Jewish, and Arab peoples through their sacred and secular music. Fifteenth-century songs from the Spanish Cancionero de Palacio stand beside Moroccan folk melodies, Middle Eastern hymns, Levantine chants, and Sephardic love songs in a joyful celebration of this musically rich region. Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Fattah Abbou, hailed as a “North African music master,” guitarist Jeremy Mayne, and percussionist Polly Tapia Ferber join sixteen Desert Chorale singers for a program that unites these Mediterranean cultures through song. (16 singers, oud, guitar, percussion; 3 performances)

Mystics and Mavericks 

Celebrating female sages and innovators, both ancient and modern. 

Showcasing works of medieval feminists ahead of their time: Kassia, the only woman composer in the Byzantine liturgical canon and Hildegard von Bingen, a patron saint of musicians. Celebrated sound artist Meredith Monk, MacArthur fellow, two-time Guggenheim fellow, and National Medal of Arts recipient, brings a selection of works that was recently released for choral performance, and (to our knowledge) has not been heard in New Mexico. Caminante, the Chorale’s 2022 commissioned bilingual work by award-winning composer Jocelyn Hagen enjoys its world premiere. We are also proud to feature another composition from our 2021 commissioned composer, Reena Esmail. Music by Moira Smiley, an in-demand American singer and composer whose choral works are performed around the world, rounds out this powerful program. (24 singers, 4 performances)

The Sounding Sea

In the high desert of New Mexico, water is a precious resource. 

We reflect on our relationship with this most essential element of life through this program, in collaboration with pianist Nathan Salazar. An exciting new generation of American composers is featured: Jake Runestad (Waves), Mason Bates (Sirens), and Matthew Lyon Hazzard (The Prow, When We are Gone). Also featured is Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae (Song of Maritime Disaster) by Jaako Mäntyjärvi, inspired by the 1994 sinking of the MS Estonia in which 852 lives were lost. As one of the leading American chamber choirs, the Desert Chorale embraces its role in preserving our country’s folk music heritage. This program closes with a combination of American sacred harp, spiritual, and folk arrangements. (24 singers, piano, 3 performances)

Dates and Locations for 2022 Summer Festival: 

Summer Artist Roster:

Artist biographies and headshots will be available on the Santa Fe Desert Chorale website (desertchorale.org) this spring.

The SFDC will conclude their 40th year with the 2022 Winter Festival. Benjamin Britten’s iconic work, A Ceremony of Carols, is the crowning jewel of this year’s Winter Festival. Harpist Emily Levin of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra joins the Chorale, unifying yuletide Middle English and Latin texts with gorgeous harp accompaniment. While originally written for treble voices, all 24 professional Desert Chorale artists will bring this cherished work to life. Beloved seasonal choral treasures round out this program and joyfully conclude the Desert Chorale’s 40th Anniversary.

Dates and Locations for 2022 Winter Festival

The artist roster for the Winter Festival, including biographies and headshots, will be available on the Santa Fe Desert Chorale website (desertchorale.org) this fall.

Tickets: Tickets for both Summer and Winter Festivals are on sale now at desertchorale.org/tickets or by calling the Box Office at (505) 988-2282. Tickets for regular season performances range from $20-$100 with discounts for students. Artist Spotlight recital tickets are $40.

Please note that all patrons will be asked to follow the SFDC’s most current COVID safety plan in accordance with state guidelines. Updates forthcoming.

SFDC to host its inaugural Insights & Sounds Symposium at the Acequia Madre House this July.

Our Insights & Sounds community engagement program is back, in person and bigger than ever! We are pleased to host the inaugural Insights & Sounds Symposium, collaborating with the Women’s International Study Center. Join us on Tuesday, July 26th for a day full of interdisciplinary dialogue through a choral music lens.

The Symposium will feature three sessions, each combining a discussion and musical selection to reflect the three Desert Chorale Summer Festival programs. Panelist and topic selections are in progress and will engage a wide swath of the Santa Fe community. Each panel will be followed by a 20-minute musical selection from the respective program. Various Desert Chorale singers and our guest artists for the Summer Festival will be performing throughout the day. Artistic Director Joshua Habermann will provide commentary on each of these programs, as well as facilitate the dialogue surrounding The Sounding Sea program.

This project also honors the legacy of the historic Acequia Madre House, which was built and stewarded by three remarkable Santa Fe women, including the founder of El Rancho de las Golondrinas, Leonora Curtin. These women and WISC reflect the spirit of our Mystics and Mavericks program, and our theme: Caminante–to travel one’s own path.

To learn more about this event, visit our website HERE. Capacity is limited, and registration will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The Santa Fe Desert Chorale Commissioning Club has commissioned composer Jocelyn Hagen to write Caminante for the 2022 Summer Festival program Mystics and Mavericks. 

Jocelyn Hagen composes music that has been described as “simply magical” (Fanfare Magazine) and “dramatic and deeply moving” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis/St. Paul). She is a pioneer in the field of composition, pushing the expectations of musicians and audiences with large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, opera, and publishing. Her first forays into composition were via songwriting, still very evident in her work. The majority of her compositions are for the voice: solo, chamber and choral. Her melodic music is rhythmically driven and texturally complex, rich in color and deeply heartfelt. In 2019 and 2020, choirs and orchestras across the country are premiering her multimedia symphony The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci that includes video projections created by a team of visual artists, highlighting da Vinci’s spectacular drawings, inventions, and texts. Hagen describes her process of composing for choir, orchestra and film simultaneously in a Tedx Talk given at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, now available on YouTube. Hagen’s commissions include Conspirare, the Minnesota Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, the International Federation of Choral Music, the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota, Georgia, Connecticut and Texas, the North Dakota Music Teachers Association, Cantus, the Boston Brass, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the St. Olaf Band, among many others. Her work is independently published through JH Music, as well as through Graphite Publishing, G. Schirmer, EC Schirmer, Fred Bock Music Publishing, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and Boosey and Hawkes.

“I’m thrilled to be composing for the Santa Fe Desert Chorale,” said Hagen. “A few years ago I traveled to Santa Fe to hear them perform and it was such a delight. Every composer dreams of writing for singers like these.”

Media Contacts: For more information, please contact Joanna Armstrong by email at joanna@desertchorale.org. For digital content, please contact Enrico Lagasca by email at enrico@desertchorale.org.

The Santa Fe Desert Chorale thanks the following organizations for their ongoing support: The City of Santa Fe Arts & Culture Department, the National Endowment for the Arts, New Mexico Arts, the New Mexico Humanities Council, New Mexico Bank & Trust, and the Santa Fe New Mexican.

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The Vision of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale: Singing for our common humanity.

Mission Statement: The mission of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale is to excite, engage, and inspire diverse audiences with the beauty and power of great choral music.

About the Santa Fe Desert Chorale: Founded in 1982 by Lawrence “Larry” Bandfield, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale is one of the longest-running professional music organizations in New Mexico, as well as one of the most distinguished. In his 2020 review of the Strength and Refuge: A Joyous Exploration of the Psalms program at Highland Park United Methodist Church (Tower Arts Series), Scott Cantrell of the Dallas Morning News remarked that, “The Santa Fe Desert Chorale [is] a top-notch, 24-voice group… comprising the crème de la crème of professional choral singers from coast to coast. The singing throughout was boldly projected, finely finished and expressed and, where necessary, quite nimble.”

Artistic Director Joshua Habermann, now entering his fourteenth season, leads the Chorale in repertoire spanning seven centuries, from early polyphony to contemporary works. The composition of the Chorale is truly national in scope and the ensemble is recognized as one of the finest American chamber choirs. Now in its 40th year, the Desert Chorale Summer Festival season is a centerpiece of the cultural life of Santa Fe, and among the nation’s most significant choral events.

The Chorale’s first commercial release, The Road Home, launched at No. 3 on the Billboard Classical Chart following a sold-out CD launch program in Santa Fe. Another recent highlight was an invitational appearance at the 2015 American Choral Directors Association National Conference, which was later broadcast by Minnesota Public Radio. In the 2017-2018 season, the Chorale presented three concerts in the Dallas area, and performed for regional ACDA conferences in Los Angeles and Chicago. In the 2018-2019 season, the Chorale toured to Dallas and presented regular winter and summer seasons in New Mexico, and in February 2020 the Chorale returned to Dallas as part of the Tower Arts Series of the Highland Park Methodist Church. In 2021, the Chorale began offering live streamed performances and access to full video recordings through their streaming service, Desert Chorale TV, sharing the beauty and power of choral music to a wider audience across the country and around the world.

Throughout its history, the Chorale has maintained a commitment to give voice to music from Hispanic and Native American communities. Dedicated to advancing the composers of our time, the Chorale has commissioned 28 works by 25 composers; three-quarters of the composers commissioned have been American. In addition, another seven works have been given their world or American premieres by the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. SFDC’s Commissioning Club selects and funds a new commission annually.

The ensemble performs at historical sites in Santa Fe such as the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and Cristo Rey Catholic Church, as well as other venues throughout the Southwest and across the nation. The Desert Chorale prides itself on its strong relationships within the community of Northern New Mexico, and enjoys collaborations with the Center for Contemporary Arts, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, The Jewish Film Festival, Museum of International Folk Art, and galleries throughout Santa Fe, among others.

Through its community engagement programming, the Chorale partners with other musical, artistic, social service, and educational organizations in Santa Fe and beyond. The Hearts in Harmony partnership with the Interfaith Community Shelter, now in its fifth year, is an example of the Chorale’s commitment to strengthening our community through song.