The SACRA/PROFANA choir. Courtesy photo
SAN DIEGO–San Diego’s cutting-edge vocal ensemble will perform challenging choral works by Ernst Krenek and Benjamin Britten.
The next concert in their 9th season will feature works by Austrian composer Ernst Krenek and British composer Benjamin Britten. Krenek and Britten were part of a flood of composers, musicians, and others who came to the U.S. from Europe in the years before and during World War II.
Ignited by the fall of Vienna to the Nazis while Krenek was in exile in America, The Lamentations of Jeremiah are thought-provoking, evocative, and unlike anything you’ll hear anywhere else.
“SACRA/PROFANA has a reputation for continually breaking the choral mold,” explains Artistic Director Krishan Oberoi. “Often that means stepping completely outside the choral realm – as we did in our recent Carole King concert – and sometimes it means finding repertoire that is so challenging that almost no one else is doing it. This repertoire is incredibly powerful, but also challenging enough that most choirs tend to shy away from it.”
In addition to Krenek’s Lamentations, we’ll also perform Benjamin Britten’s Sacred and Profane, one of the famed British composer’s last completed works. Like Krenek, Britten also left his home country during the early stages of WW II seeking opportunity and acceptance in America. Sacred and Profane, composed in 1975, is a collection of eight lyrics based on medieval English poems.
“The level of connection between these two pieces and their composers is quite remarkable,” says Juan Carlos Acosta, Associate Artistic Director. “Krenek and Britten have fascinatingly similar stories in their departure from Europe in the early days of World War II. Both even found their way to San Diego for a time. These choral pieces are among the most challenging either composer wrote and both of them were inspired by ancient sources in their composition.”
Performances will be held on February 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado in San Diego, and February 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way in Oceanside.
San Diego’s only year-round professional chorus, SACRA/PROFANA was founded in 2009 by New York native Krishan Oberoi.
