THEOTOKOS
12.7.23
MANHATTAN
THEOTOKOS
Cantatas: Yesterday and Today
THURSDAY, Dec 7, 2023 | 7:30 PM
St. Mary’s Church, 440 Grand St., MANHATTAN
RAHA MIRZADEGAN, soprano
LEIKEN, tenor
WILL COPELAND, violin
CLAY ZELLER-TOWNSON, bassoon
KELSEY BURNHAM, flute
DOUG BALLIETT, viola da gamba
ELLIOT FIGG, harpsichord
Join us on Thursday, December 7th for Cantatas: Yesterday and Today as 5BMF’s 2023-2024 season continues with a side-by-side program presenting old and new church music. This offering links the liturgical traditions of the Baroque with contemporary compositional voices and features the 5BMF debut of the ensemble THEOTOKOS.
One of the jewels of human achievement is the concept of “complete” church music: original music composed and assigned to every event in the church’s liturgical year. This has been famously accomplished by Palestrina, J.S. Bach, and a handful of others; Telemann’s Harmonischer Gottesdienst is a lesser-known complete cantata cycle, perfectly suited for a chamber ensemble like Theotokos. Doug Balliett, bassist, composer, and leader of Theotokos, is engaged in creating his own contemporary “complete” church music cycle, with cantata-masses for every event in the 3-year Catholic calendar. Cantatas: Yesterday and Today pairs two Telemann cantatas – those assigned to the first two weeks of Advent – with two newly-composed cantatas by Balliett.
TICKETS
THURS 12/7 7:30 PM
ST. MARY’S CHURCH
440 GRAND ST.
PAY WHAT YOU WILL
Please consider supporting this program with a ticket price of your choice!
RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED.
PROGRAM
GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN: Daß Herz und Sinn, o schwacher Mensch, TWV 1:194 (1726)
DOUG BALLIETT: Cantata for the First Sunday of Advent
TELEMANN: Endlich wird die Stunde schlagen, TVW 1:440 (1725)
BALLIETT: Cantata for the Second Sunday of Advent
ARTISTS
THEOTOKOS
THEOTOKOS
Theotokos is the living embodiment of a baroque church ensemble. In residence at St. Mary’s Church on Grand Street on the lower east side of NYC, every week a new cantata is composed and performed by the group, based on and tightly linked with the liturgical readings assigned to that date. In addition, theologically relevant baroque and pre-baroque music is regularly performed, ranging from Palestrina to Telemann, early American church music, and beyond. Theotokos also runs a Gregorian Chant club, open to all, which regularly meets to chant mass and the divine office. In 2021 Theotokos began a fruitful collaboration with the Juilliard School Historical Performance program. Other guest performers have included Davóne Tines, Jean Rondeau, Myriam Rignol, Thomas Dunford, and William Christie.