We regret that, due to restrictions placed on gathering, we are unable to offer The Month of Moderns 2020.
Be well. Be in touch.
Stop back in late June for more information
on Season 2020-2021.
Thursday, July 2 @ 7pm
The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia
pre-concert talk with Donald and the composers @ 6pm
in the Burleigh Cruikshank Memorial Chapel
The Book of Never, a world premiere from Aaron Helgeson
on texts of the Novgorod Codex
Beloved of the Sky, a world premiere from Tawnie Olson
with major support from the Barlow Foundation
The Woman Where We Are Living (2014) by Robert Maggio
on texts of Alois Alzheimer
with Elizabeth Steiner, harp
Three new works that confront our use of words: writing, naming, calling.
Based on the Novgorod Codex — a 10th-century book of Russian psalms overwritten hundreds of times with heretical sermons — Aaron Helgeson’s The Book of Never confronts our complex present by unearthing phantoms of our ancient past. Dense harmonies build on layered echoes of ancient hymn fragments: a banished monk’s apocalyptic visions of a distant future.
Tawnie Olson's new work, Beloved of the Sky explores the creative process through journal entries of Canadian icon Emily Carr. From the fire of inspiration, to the tragicomedy of a creative block, to the quiet beauty of a day of steady work, each movement celebrates the search for beauty (however defined) and individual expression.
Following the success last year of Robert Maggio’s Aniara, we revisit his 2014 commission The Woman Where We Are Living, a look at aging through the notes of Dr. Alzheimer and the thoughts of the first patient diagnosed with the disease that bears his name.
