The University Singers present Ešenvalds’s St. Luke’s Passion with special guest Ēriks Ešenvalds
Choral Residency and Concert with Composer Ēriks Ešenvalds
The UVA University Singers are excited to announce their residency and concert with world–famous choral composer Ēriks Ešenvalds. His visit to UVA from Latvia will include the North American premiere of his St. Luke’s Passion, with the University Singers, orchestra, conductor Michael Slon, and guest soloists. Join us Saturday, April 13th, 2024 at 8:00 pm in UVA’s Old Cabell Hall. Tickets are available at the UVA Arts Box Office: https://artsboxoffice.virginia.edu/ | 434 924-3376 | and in person.
For those who can not attend the concert in person, the UVA Music Department will be live-streaming it on the "uvamusic" youtube channel.
The concert will also include other works by Ešenvalds – Only in Sleep, and Stars – as well as works by Jake Runestad (related to the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9), UVA graduate student composer Kristin Hauge, Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, and recent guest artist at UVA, Richard Danielpour – in a work featuring a text by UVA poet Rita Dove. The Singers will also be joined by alumni for a selection on the program. 
Ešenvalds is one of the most sought–after composers today, and as had works premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Gewandhaus Leipzig, The King’s Singers, Latvian Voices, the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, the Holst Singers, Polyphony, the Bavarian Radio Choir, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and the Latvian National Opera and Ballet. For more information visit https://www.eriksesenvalds.com/about/biography. His St. Luke’s Passion, which has not been heard in concert outside of Latvia, is a poignant combination of the traditional Passion narrative interpolated with episodes from the Prodigal Son story and poetry by James Weldon Johnson and Christina Rosetti. Grammophone describes it as, “unusual and highly effective… Ešenvalds has a highly individual and striking melodic style, and there are wonderfully memorable moments.”
The University Singers are thrilled to be hosting such a distinguished guest, and look forward to sharing his music in concert – join us on April 13th at Old Cabell Hall!
The University Singers is the University of Virginia’s flagship choral ensemble, heard by thousands each season in performances of a cappella and accompanied choral repertoire, including major works with orchestra. In 2017, the group joined the Charlottesville Symphony on the steps of the Rotunda to perform for UVA’s Bicentennial Launch Celebration, before an estimated crowd of 20,000. In recent years, the Singers have also sung for Les Misérables creators Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil during their UVA residencies, sung for the 2016 UVA Holiday greeting which received more than 400,000 views on social media, and toured the U.S and England, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Austria. During the pandemic, they continued to present virtual performances, and hosted online master classes with Eric Whitacre, Alice Parker, and other choral luminaries, and since have returned to live singing with performances for President Ryan’s Arts on the Hill series, and of Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard, and the Rachmaninoff Vespers with the Oratorio Society of Virginia, as well as collaborations with the Charlottesville Symphony, a National Anthem performance for the Washington Nationals, and a May 2023 concert tour.
For more info visit: http://music.virginia.edu/usingers | https://usingers.virginia.edu
All events are subject to change.