The Western Wind will perform EXODUS on Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 at 8:00PM at The Fraunces Tavern Museum Flag Gallery in New York City.
Acclaimed for "impeccably curated early-music performances in intimate historical venues," the ever-inventive Salon/Sanctuary Concerts offers a special interdisciplinary project for the Passover and Easter season, featuring early American music in one of America's most historically significant structures. With musical selections interspersed with readings of historical narrativetexts read by noted stage and film actors, the performance will feature Shaker Hymns, early African-American Spirituals, as well as works by noted American composers William Billings (1746 - 1800), Abraham Wood (1752 - 1804), Stephen Jenks (1772 - 1856), and M. Durham, the first known American female composer.
Proto-Spirituals and Shaker Hymns interspersed with readings from historical narratives reveal the enduring power of liberation imagery for various "Alien Nations" of earlyAmerican history and offer a window onto the founding "Promised Land" imagery of American consciousness.
Builtin 1719, Fraunces Tavern is the oldest structure in Manhattan. The original site of the departments of War, Treasury, and State where George Washington bid farewell to his troops in 1783 sets the stage for this starkly beautiful American repertoire.
Since1969, the internationally acclaimed vocal sextet The Western Wind has devoted itself to the special beauty and variety of a cappella music. The Ensemble's repertoire reveals its diverse background - from Renaissance motets to Fifties rock 'n'roll, from medieval carols to
Duke Ellington, from complex works by avant-garde composers to the simplest folk melodies. The ensemble's demanding performance schedule has included such venues as Lincoln Center,
Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, ArtPark, The Ordway Theater, The Metropolitan Museum, The Frick Museum, The Jewish Museum, Folger Shakespeare Library, Library of Congress, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Salon/Sanctuary Concerts has been praised by Time Out NY for "impeccably curated early-music performances in intimate historical venues," and by MusicWeb International: "It is a rareoccurrence at any concert or opera when every possible aspect of the performance experience succeeds completely. I am not simply referring to the musicians, concert hall or instruments but to the gestalt: the unified whole that makes the sum greater than all of its parts." Founded byArtistic Director Jessica Gould in 2009, Salon/Sanctuary Concerts offers the special chance to hear pre-Romantic music in intimate venues that complement the historicalcontext of the repertoire. Pleased to present special projects that cast alight on historical issues throughthe prism of music, Salon/Sanctuary takes pridein many special interdisciplinary performances featuring luminaries from the worlds of opera, theater, film, and dance. The series has garnered critical praise for its innovative programming, and continues to attract a diverse audience for its path breaking offerings.
The concert is set for Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 at 8:00PM at The Fraunces Tavern Museum Flag Gallery, 54 Pearl Street. $35 General Admission, $25 Students/ Seniors/EMA/ SRNY/ Museum members. For reservations, visit
www.salonsanctuary.org, or call 1888 718 4253.
