The NC State Choral Artists Prepare for PERSISTENCE
Learn more about the NC State Choral Artists's Fall 2024 Performance.
“The mountain winds bless the forests with love. They touch every tree, not one is forgotten.”
-John Muir
The NC State Choral Artists and the NC State Chorale will present PERSISTENCE, an innovative concert of modern choral music that connects ecological and social issues through the prism of perseverance.
The concert features exciting, cutting-edge music by living composers. The largest work is Alex Berko’s Sacred Place (2023), which the composer describes as “an ecological service that connects the old with the new, the sacred with the secular and the individual with their community.” It features texts by Wendell Berry, John Muir and Rabindranath Tagore. Other works include Shara Nova’s Carols After a Plague, Ayanna Woods’ triptych for voices and electronics, Shift and Jake Runestad’s beloved Come to the Woods.
Conductor Nathan Leaf describes the concert as “a bit esoteric” and “full of inspiring music.”
In explaining what ties these pieces and concepts together, he suggests that audience members “consider what we can learn from trees, how they live for years and years, persevering through drought, fires, thriving even while growing through and around the obstacles in their path to the point where the obstacle becomes a part the tree itself. The concert invites us to consider challenges that we face, how they affect us and if the example of the trees might offer us some perspective.”
As a part of the event, representatives from NC State’s Center for Human Health and the Environment will talk about the center’s work in understanding how human health is impacted by environmental factors and how to reduce adverse impacts.
The NC State University Choral Artists is a public-private partnership between the NC State University choral music program and professionals in the vocal music industry that brings excellent and innovative choral music to the NC State community. The ensemble attains the highest levels of musical artistry and is dedicated to collaborative musical performances that positively impact NC State students, the community and the Triangle’s choral music scene.
The concert will be on October 5, 2024, at 7:30 p.m., in Stewart Theatre on the NC State Campus. Tickets are available for purchase through NC State Ticket Central.
