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US Premieres of Arvo Pärt's Virgencita and Habitare fratres in unum by Boston Choral Ensemble

Nov. 05, 2013

US Premieres of Arvo Pärt's <em>Virgencita</em> and <em>Habitare fratres in unum</em> by Boston Choral Ensemble

On November 17, The Boston Choral Ensemble presents a program dedicated to the choral music of Arvo Pärt, and includes the US premieres of both Virgencita and Habitare fratres in unum.

Dedicated to Józef Stanislaw Durek, the composer’s long-time editor, Habitare fratres in unum is a setting of the brief Psalm 133, which describes the blessing of brotherly unity. Pärt provides the following note on Virgencita:

When Agustin Gutierrez Canet, the Mexican ambassador to Estonia, invited me to Mexico, my interest and notions of the country were strongly affected by the famous legend of Juan Diego and his reports of the apparition of the Virgin Mary. The happy anticipation of being in Mexico very soon and the name Guadalupe left me no peace; they inspired me to write a choral work which I took along as a present to the people of Mexico: Virgencita.

As part of the Boston Choral Ensemble's “Raindrops Footsteps” concert series, the program also features performances of Pärt’s Dopo la vittoria, Magnificat, Solfeggio, and Bogoróditse Djévo. Dr. Andrew Shenton, editor and contributor to the Cambridge Companion to Arvo Pärt (CUP, 2012), directs the chorus. Shenton is currently working on a monograph that deals contextually and analytically with the choral and organ works of Arvo Pärt, which is to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2015.

Repeat performances take place on November 22 at St. Paul’s Church in Cambridge, MA and November 24 at Gordon Chapel in Boston.

For more information on Arvo Pärt, please visit www.universaledition.com.

Visit www.bostonchoral.org for more information on the performances. 

Arvo Pärt
Virgencita (2012)
for mixed choir a cappella
6’

Habitare fratres in unum (2012)
Psalmus 133 (132)
for choir (S,A/Ct,T,B) or vocal ensemble (S/Ct,A/Ct,T,B) a cappella
3’

Dopo la vittoria: Piccola cantata (1996/1998)
for mixed choir a cappella
11’

Magnificat (1989)
for SATB choir
7’
 
Solfeggio (1963)
for mixed choir a cappella
6’

Bogoróditse Djévo (1990)
Mother of God and Virgin
for SATB choir
1’

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