The Crossing: Philly's First Night Out

Over the past year, Groupmuse Philly has known many living room dreams, and a handful of great Massivemuses too, but we've never gotten a chance to present our community with A Groupmuse Night Out, but thanks to The Crossing, that's about to change.

A Groupmuse Night Out is when a leading local classical music institution provides our community with a stack of heavily discounted tickets so that we can take a field trip out of the living room and into the concert hall on the cheap!

The Crossing is a choir that won a Grammy for best choral performance this very year. They're white hot and, on Saturday Night, they'll take you to another world - one they call Tower and the Garden. The program will feature two world premiers and two older but still new works, specifically written for The Crossing:

Gregory Spears - The Tower and the Garden (world premiere)
James Primosch - Carthage (world premiere)
Joel Puckett - I enter the earth
Toivo Tulev - A child said, what is the grass?

Like so much of what The Crossing does, these are works that explore big questions -- those fundamental to all existence and those specific to our moment but no less important.

Tickets for this evening run $35, but The Crossing is good people and they want us there, so we've scored a stack for only $15 -- more than half off! But supplies are limited, so get on it if you want to join!

Are we called today to pacifism or activism?
What do we protect, the integrity of capitalism
or the health of the community?

These questions lie at the root of poems by Thomas Merton, Denise Levertov, and Keith Garebian. Set by Gregory Spears in a new 30-minute work for strings and choir, they also ask us to consider the relationship between technological innovation and its dangers that often lead to haunting sociological change. Philadelphia composer James Primosch sets an excerpt from Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, an exploration of the balancing effect of desire and longing on our lives. The program includes two additional works written for The Crossing, Toivo Tulev’s A child said, what is the grass? and Joel Puckett’s dizzying, entrancing I enter the earth.

THE TOWER AND THE GARDEN

The Tower and the Garden is a setting of three poems for choir and strings. The texts juxtapose the dangers of unchecked technological advancement (the tower) and the need for a place of refuge (the garden) in a world threatened by war and ecological disaster. Each text is written by (or about) artists who used Catholic thought or Catholic imagery to challenge the status quo.

The first text, by poet and Catholic activist Denise Levertov, is a meditation on the tower of Babel and the dangers of technological collapse. The second poem, written by Trappist monk and social activist Thomas Merton, is a meditation on the garden of Gethsemane and the search for truth amidst the uncertainties of the modern world. The poem, which was published in 1968, has an eschatological tone in keeping with the turmoil-filled era of the late-60s. The final poem, written by Keith Garebian, is an homage to queer filmmaker Derek Jarman and his small cottage garden at Dungeness, England. Situated precariously between a nuclear power plant and the sea, the cottage and garden was Jarman’s austere refuge during the final months of his struggle with AIDS. While an atheist and highly critical of the church, Derek Jarman was intrigued by the role religious and hagiographic narratives could play in his filmed critiques of the British establishment. This is is most notable in his film The Garden, which was shot in Dungeness.

What's the music?

The Crossing Choir

Attendees

Ruth Anne C.

Karen S.

+1

John S.