Vox Humana SF Announces Second Season

Don Scott Carpenter leading the debut performance of Vox Humana SF

Following up on its debut this past February, Vox Humana SF, the a cappella choir led by its Artistic Director Don Scott Carpenter, has planned two concerts in San Francisco for the coming season. The first of these will be performed only in San Francisco, and the other will “tour” to Belvedere and Healdsburg. City Box Office has created a single Web page for both of these events, which includes specific information about the music to be performed. However, here is a basic summary of what to expect:

Friday, November 8, 7:30 p.m., Grace Cathedral: Sergei Rachmaninoff’s a cappella All-Night Vigil, a setting of the Vespers service, will be performed in its entirety. The will be preceded by two selections by Dmitry Bortniansky, the first Russian to lead the Imperial Chamber Choir when he was appointed in 1796. He composed a series of “concertos” for this ensemble. The program will begin with the eighteenth of these, a setting of Psalm 92 (“It Is Good To Praise the Lord”). He composed seven pieces under the title Kjeruvimskije pjesni (cherubic hymns), the last of which will be performed after the Psalm setting.

Saturday, February 15, 7:30 p.m., St. Mark’s Lutheran Church: Voyages will be a much more diverse offering. The program will begin with the earliest composition, the “Gloria” setting from the 1597 Sacrae Symphoniae collection by Giovanni Gabrieli. The newest will be “God’s World” by José Daniel Vargas and “Paklalakbay” by Robin Estrada, both of which will receive world premiere performances. Other recent compositions will be by Joan Tower (“Descending”), Jake Heggie (“Stop this Day and Night With Me”), and Jacob Mühlrad (“Ay Li Lu”). The nineteenth century will be represented by Fest- und Gedenksprüche, Johannes Brahms’ Opus 109 cycle of three motets for mixed double choir. This will be complemented by one of Gustav Mahler’s settings of a poem by Friedrich Rückert, “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen’.”