Saint Mark's Concert Series 2008-2009

Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle Concert No. I

Joseph Adam, St. James Cathedral Organist, and Clint Kraus, St. James Cathedral Associate Organist, open the commemorative Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle with a concert featuring Les Corps Glorieux and other works. This concert will take place at St. James Cathedral, located at 804 Ninth Avenue in Seattle. For ticket information, go to the St. James Cathedral website.

Choral Mass

Organ Plus Concert

San Francisco organist Charles Rus and Saint Mark’s Cathedral’s Music Associate Brian Fairbanks open the Organ Plus Series for the 2008-2009 season. Mr. Rus will play music by American composers Steve Reich, John Adams, and Aaron Copland, as well as the baroque German composer Georg Böhm. Mr. Fairbanks will join Mr. Rus in a performance of J.S. Bach’s Flute Sonata in E Major and Mad Rush by Philip Glass. Admission: $10 donation.

St. Francis in Art and Song

Established in 1997, Peregrine Medieval Vocal Ensemble is an Artist-in-Residence at Saint Mark’s Cathedral. At 8:00, Peregrine will sing devotional music in honor of the feast day for St. Francis of Assisi, joined by harp and French horn. Before the concert at 6:30, sacred art historian, Victoria Scarlett, will give a lecture and visual presentation of art depicting the life of St. Francis of Assisi from Giotto di Bondone (c.1267-1337) to the contemporary. Free-will offering.

Flentrop Organ Concert/Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle Concert No. II

J. Melvin Butler, Canon Organist and Choirmaster of Saint Mark’s Cathedral continues the Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle on the Flentrop organ. Dr. Butler will perform Prélude, L’Ascension, and Messe de la Pentecôte. Tickets: $15/$12 seniors and students.

Gospel Extravaganza

Saint Mark’s Youth Ensemble will join many of the Puget Sound area’s finest gospel choirs for a concert to benefit the S.A.A.C.P (Seattle African American Comfort Program). Guest choirs will come from Mount Zion Baptist Church, First A.M.E., St. Therese Catholic Church, United 4 Christ Ministries, and Shiloh Baptist Church, Tacoma. Free-will offering.

Organ Plus Concert

Roger Sherman, Associate Organist of Saint Mark’s Cathedral, will perform Music of the Reformation. The concert will include hymns sung by the audience. Admission: $10 donation.

Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle Concert No. III

Joseph Adam, St. James Cathedral Organist will perform Olivier Messiaen’s Livre du Saint Sacrement. This concert will take place at St. James Cathedral, located at 804 Ninth Avenue in Seattle. For ticket information, please go to the St. James Cathedral website.

Diocesan Children’s Choir Festival

Several youth choirs from the diocese will present a prayer service featuring music by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Billie Holiday, Robert J. Powell and David Maddux. Guest conductor, Geoffrey Boers, is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Washington. Free.

Flentrop Organ Concert/Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle Concert No. IV

Thomas Joyce, Assistant Organist of Saint Mark’s Cathedral continues the Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle on the Flentrop organ. Mr. Joyce will perform Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité. Tickets: $15/$12 seniors and students.

Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle Concert No. V

Clint Kraus, Associate Organist of St. James Cathedral continues the Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle with the Livre d’Orgue in addition to other works. This concert will take place at St. James Cathedral, located at 804 Ninth Avenue in Seattle. For ticket information, please go to the St. James Cathedral website.

Advent Procession and the O-Antiphons

The annual service of Advent lessons, carols, and processions features Saint Mark’s Cathedral Choir and the Compline Choir. This popular service includes banners, prayers and readings, incense, chants, motets and carols for the Advent season, and Peter Hallock’s incomparable settings of the O-Antiphons. Free-will offering.

Sounding Joy

Cantaré Vocal Ensemble, directed by Mark Adrian, is a 30-40 voice chamber ensemble with singers drawn from all around the Seattle area. Their holiday concert, Sounding Joy, will include traditional carol arrangements, new settings using familiar texts, and Poulenc’s Four Christmas Motets. For ticket information, please call 206-246-6040 or go to NWassociatedarts.org.

Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle Concert No. VI

Joseph Adam, St. James Cathedral Organist concludes the Olivier Messiaen Organ Cycle, performing La Nativité. This concert will take place at St. James Cathedral, located at 804 Ninth Avenue in Seattle. For ticket information, please go to the St. James Cathedral website.

A Cathedral Christmas

The Seattle Choral Company, directed by Fred Coleman, opens its 27th season with A Cathedral Christmas. The program will include music mostly by living American composers: Abbie Betinis, Eric Whitacre, Stephen Paulus, and Jason Robert Brown. For ticket information, please call 206-363-1100 or go to the Seattle Choral Company website.

Community Carol Sing

Sing your favorite Christmas carols, accompanied by cathedral organist Mel Butler on the Steinway piano and Flentrop organ. Free.

A Festival of Lessons & Carols

Saint Mark’s welcomes back The Northwest Boychoir and Vocalpoint! Seattle, celebrating its 30-year tradition with the presentation of its 2008 A Festival of Lessons & Carols. For ticket information, please call 206-524-3234 or go to www.northwestchoirs.org.

Flentrop Organ Concert

A recipient of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School, Erica Johnson has recently joined the faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts as Interim Professor of Organ for the academic year 2008-09. She was formerly an Instructor of Organ at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 2005-08. Dr. Johnson has concertized across Europe, Canada, and the United States, and her performances have been broadcast in both the United States and Germany. Tickets: $18/$12 seniors and students.

Choral Mass

Chinese New Year’s Celebration

Celebrate the Chinese New Year with traditional Chinese music from this magnificent ensemble directed by Warren Chang, world champion of the erhu (an ancient two-stringed fiddle-like instrument) and founder of the Chinese Arts and Music Association. Free-will offering.

Organ Plus Concert

Presently in his third year of study at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, organist Yohei Endo will play a program of Japanese music. Mr. Endo will be joined by harpist Naomi Kato and her son, Sho Kato. Admission: $10 donation.

Onyx Chamber Players

Back by popular demand, the Onyx Chamber Players are David White, piano; Cecilia Archuleta, violin; Meg Brennand, violoncello. They will be joined by guests J. Melvin Butler, viola, and Page Smith, violoncello. The concert will feature the Piano Quartet in A Major by Johannes Brahms. Tickets: $18/$12 seniors and students.

Flentrop Organ Concert

Martin Jean has risen to the highest ranks of the world’s concert organists. Dr. Jean is Professor of Organ at the Yale School of Music and Director of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Prior to assuming his position at Yale, he served as Associate Professor of Music and University Organist at Valparaiso University in Indiana and as Associate Professor of Music at Concordia College in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. Jean has won first prizes at some of the most prestigious organ competitions in the world, including the Grand Prix de Chartres, and has concertized extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Tickets: $18/$12 seniors and students.

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Saint Mark’s Women’s Choir with the University of Washington Women’s Choir and Mirinesse Women’s Choir

Three women’s choirs will join together for a celebration of feminine spirituality. The concert will include music by Hildegard von Bingen, Randall Stroope, Brian Fairbanks and Dent Davidson. Free.

Choral Mass

Organ Plus Concert

Canon Organist and Choirmaster, J. Melvin Butler, will be joined by violinist, Cecilia Archuleta. The concert will feature the beautiful Chaconne by Tomaso Antonio Vitali. Admission: $10 donation.

1809

Saint Mark’s welcomes Cantaré back for a concert entitled 1809, featuring music by Franz Joseph Haydn (200th anniversary of his death), Felix Mendelssohn (200th anniversary of his birth), and other compositions pertaining to Abraham Lincoln, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Darwin, and others who were born that year. For ticket information, please call 206-246-6040 or go to NWassociatedarts.org.

African Sanctus

African Sanctus is an unorthodox setting of the Latin Mass harmonized with traditional African music recorded by the composer on his journeys up the River Nile from 1969 to 1973. Taped tribal music from Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya is heard in counterpoint with the live chorus, soprano soloist and instrumental ensemble. The work is composed in 13 movements and reflects geographically the composer’s cross-shaped pilgrimage, from the Mediterranean to Lake Victoria, whereby the Kyrie represents Cairo and the Sanctus, Northern Uganda. Tickets: $18/$12 seniors and students.

Flentrop Organ Concert/The Annual All-Bach Recital

Craig Cramer is Professor of Organ and Artist in Residence at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He is also organist of St. David of Wales Episcopal Church in Elkhart, Indiana. A winner of many prestigious organ competitions, Dr. Cramer maintains an active recital career across America and in Europe, and has performed in forty-four of the United States as well as in Canada. The annual All-Bach recital this year will feature the famous Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, the Partita on Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig, and the rarely heard Toccata and Fugue in C Major, BWV 566. Tickets: $18/$12 seniors and students.

All Northwest

Opus 7, directed by Loren Pontén, will present their season finale, All Northwest. The concert will showcase musical contributions made to Pacific Northwest culture by some of the region's most prominent choral composers. Join Opus 7's composer-in-residence Jouh Muehleisen for a pre-concert lecture at 7:15. For ticket information, go to www.opus7.org.

Organ Plus Concert

Assistant Organist, Thomas Joyce, will be joined by Brian Chin in a concert of music mostly from the Italian Baroque era. Dr. Chin is a founding member of the Seattle Trumpet Consort, plays Principal Trumpet in the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, and is the Affiliate Professor of Trumpet at Seattle Pacific University. Admission: $10 donation.

Saint Mark’s Choir School’s Spring Concert

Saint Mark’s own youth choirs (the Junior Choristers, the Boys and Girls Choir, the Youth Ensemble), under the direction of Brian Fairbanks and Thomas Joyce, join together in a final concert to conclude their choir season. Free-will offering.

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