Schedule

May
31
Fri
The Dessoff Choirs: Whitman Bicentennial Festival @ Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew
May 31 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

The final concert of the season, on the 200th anniversary of his birth, features several commissioned choral works that use the poetry of Walt Whitman. The concert begins with settings of Whitman’s poetry by twentieth century American composers Howard Hanson and Gregg Smith. Along with reprises of two Dessoff commissions from earlier in the season, the second half of the concert will offer two world premieres – a commissioned work by Eve Beglarian and Mathew Aucoin’s commissioned choral excerpts from his critically acclaimed opera, Crossing.

Pre-concert talk: 7:15 pm
Composers Writing to Whitman
Dr. Malcolm J. Merriweather along with
Eve Beglarian
Tania Leon
Douglas Geers
Mathew Aucoin

Song of Democracy   Howard Hanson (1896-1981)
Quicksand Years   Ian Sturges Milliken (b. 1984)
Whitman’s New York   Gregg Smith (1931-2016)
WHITMAN PREMIERE   Eve Beglarian (b. 1958)
WHITMAN PREMIERE   Tania León (b. 1943)
WHITMAN PREMIERE   Douglas Geers (b. 1968)
Crossing   Matthew Aucoin (b. 1990)

Jun
1
Sat
The Dessoff Choirs: Whitman in New York @ Grolier Club
Jun 1 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Malcolm J. Merriweather, conductor