A year ago, SACRA/PROFANA highlighted pop and choral pieces speaking to various social movements in our concert "Music As Social Change." This year, we're interviewing a selection of composers and arrangers featured in that concert set. Check out our latest "Composer Chat," featuring the talented artist and long-time friend of SACRA/PROFANA Shawn Kirchner, as we discuss what it means to be a man in the 2020s and how to model positive masculinity - especially in the music and composition sphere.

Composer: Derek Keller Conductor: Juan Carlos Acosta http://www.sacraprofana.org​ Funding for our season was provided in part by the following underwriters: City of San Diego Arts and Culture Commission, the County of San Diego, the California Arts Council, and our many generous donors. A note from the composer: "This piece was conceived as a critique of our mobile devices and the way we use them. As a nut shell of Nietzsche’s thesis, “Zarathustra’s Roundelay” helps to express this. Your cell phone is a manifestation of the Will – someone willed it into existence. While seemingly endlessly useful, I question to what end: tweeting, posting, doom scrolling to our obsession, distraction, and isolation? Since the pandemic’s onset, the message of the work has unexpectedly become more prescient and foreboding in our angst-ridden, tormented, and anguished moment. When premiered in person, the singers will realize the work with their cell phones using this webpage: https://www.derekkeller.com/o-mensch-media."

A year ago, SACRA/PROFANA highlighted pop and choral pieces speaking to various social movements in our concert "Music As Social Change." This year, we're interviewing a selection of composers and arrangers featured in that concert set, starting with our own Jasper Sussman. An accomplished singer and talented composer, she penned the piece "We The People," a setting of Langston Hughes's poem "Let America Be America Again," using choral voices to highlight the tension in Hughes's poem between the hope of the American dream, and the despair of our nation falling short of it. On this MLK Day, please enjoy the Q&A by SACRA/PROFANA's Assistant Conductor Lara Korneychuk, and may we all strive to carry on Dr. King’s ideals and drive out hate with love through our art and our action.

SACRA/PROFANA presents a Holiday Concert for 2020 as a gift to the community, featuring highlights from our 2019 performance as well as the premier of Amy Gordon's setting of "In the Bleak Midwinter Program Pat-a-pan - arr. Shawn Kirchner O Come Emanuel - Elaine Hagenberg Come Thou Long Expected Jesus - Brandon Waddles Amen! - arr. Brandon Waddles Love Came Down at Christmas - Stephen Sturk Mater Dei - Sarah Rimkus Who is This Boy? - Fahad Siadat Angels We Have Heard on High - arr. Saunder Choi ChristMashUp - arr. Amy Gordon What Child is This? Joy to the World In the Bleak Midwinter (virtual choir premier) Juan Carlos Acosta, Artistic Director Lara Korneychuk, Assistant Conductor Adam Ferrara, Collaborative Pianist Sopranos: Carolyne DalMonte*, Katie Colleen Hickey, Tasha Koontz*, Jasper Sussman, Jessica Trost, Becca Ung+, Libby Weber Alto: Gianna Hamilton^, Lara Korneychuk, Danielle Perrault, Elly Roseberry, Meghan Rossi Tenor: Aaron Burgett, Tony Malerich*, Dan Moyer, Mike Sakell, Timothy Simpson^, Kurt Wong Bass: R. Aaron Bullard, Aaron Davis, Adam Ferrara, Jonathan Gonzales*, Thomas Lokensgard, Jonathan Nussman, Zlatoslav Sokolov^ *Virtual choir only +Chorus Manager ^Live performances only

Words & Music by Amy Gordon Performed by SACRA/PROFANA Audio & Video Editing by Rumley Music & Audio Production Directed by Juan Carlos Acosta Commissioned during the COVID-19 Pandemic Half the world in slumber Half know neither night nor day The ticking of the clock stopped The rustle of pages silent. Is it here, in this state of waiting, we hold our breath with time?

The Listening - Cheryl B. Engelhardt Virtual Choir featuring members of the Summer Choral Intensive 2020 Video: Adam Ferrara Audio: Juan Carlos Acosta Percussion: students and staff Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech titled "Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break the Silence." The composer writes "Dr. King urged listeners to embrace 'unconditional love for all mankind' and made clear that love is not something weak or sentimental, but rather the access to initiating change and making history. In my opinion, Dr. King started listening. He was listening to the oppressed, the abused, the poor, the scared, and the unloved. In “The Listening”, I set out to recreate how he listened. This is the re-creation of the listening."

A Path to Each Other - Jocelyn Hagen and Timothy C. Takach Featuring members of SCI 2020 Video: Adam Ferrara Audio: Juan Carlos Acosta

Wanting Memories Words and Music by Ysaye M. Barnwell https://www.ymbarnwell.com Featuring members of the Summer Choral Intensive 2020 Video: Adam Ferrara Bass, shaker and cajon: Juan Carlos Acosta Audio: Juan Carlos Acosta

Lift Every Voice and Sing arr. Zanaida Robles Virtual Choir made up of students and interns from our Summer Choral Intensive 2020 Soloist: Melanie Athans Video: Adam Ferrara Piano: Adam Ferrara Audio: Juan Carlos Acosta "'Lift Every Voice and Sing' is a hymn that connects us to our roots, honors the present, and points toward the future. The poetry is epic and sophisticated. It speaks to our common struggle with brutality and injustice. And mostly, it speaks to the value of EVERY collective human voice that has ever been imprisoned, demoralized, persecuted, and/or murdered. Anyone and everyone can and should sing this song. But for me, and for many Black Americans, this song is our pride and joy." - Dr. Zanaida Robles https://zanaidarobles.com/ We are grateful to Dr. Robles for speaking with our students about this piece, it's context, history, and meaning, and we are honored to have the opportunity to sing this great American Anthem.