On Thursday evening (Nov. 9), come and hear the U.S. premiere of “to the Celestial City”, a new composition by Judith Bingham. The piece is part of the program to be performed by Yale Schola Cantorum and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble (DNVE) in Woolsey Hall at 7:30 p.m.
An acclaimed composer, Bingham was commissioned by the Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) and the DNVE to create this new work to deepen the relationship between the two organizations. This includes a fall 2023 DNVE residency in New Haven and an ISM student conductor residency in Copenhagen in May 2024.
“to the Celestial City” premiered in June 2023 under the direction of David Hill in Copenhagen, but Thursday’s performance will be its first U.S. performance.
In her notes on the composition, Bingham reflects on “how many people, in any age, are wandering through the world looking for a home. Living life without a home seems to us like one of the very worst things that can happen.”
Using text from Psalm 107, John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and The Book of Proverbs, Bingham contemplates how the pilgrimages of the past are still occurring in the present, a path that can ultimately still be a perilous journey. Read more from Bingham in the full program notes.
Other works included in the concert will be from William Byrd, Felix Mendelssohn, Carl Nielsen, Caroline Shaw, and Johan Sebastian Bach. View full details.
The concert is free and open to the public.