This autumn, The Esoterics invites you to find courage and hope in dark times, connect with nature and our community, and reflect in a concert series with the choral music of LA-based Indian composer Juhi Bansal. Juhi creates works that draw subtly on traditions of her own upbringing (and those from around the world) and entwines them intricately with gestures from western classical music. Her music incorporates themes of cultural diversity, nature and the environment, strong feminine energy, and the immigrant experience.
This series of pieces weaves together stories of migration, resilience, and transformation. Together we will journey through evocative landscapes: from Fear (becoming ocean), a setting of Khalil Gibran’s poetry where a river surrenders to transformation, to Aurora, inspired by Inuit legend and employs kulning – a singing style of ancient Scandinavian shepherds. Other highlights include In perfect light, a meditation on contrasts, and Absence, a poignant setting of 12th-century Andalusian philosopher Abu Bakr al-Turtushi.
The concert will also feature Bansal’s theatrical Language of the earth, performed with percussionist James Doyle, asking: If the earth could speak, what would it say?
The evening concludes with We came searching for a home, a brand-new five-movement work drawing from Ellis Island and Angel Island immigrant archives, voices of First Nations people, and poetry from Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Sojourner Truth, and Emma Lazarus’ iconic The New Colossus.
In a remarkable twist of fate, while in the final stages of composition for We came searching for a home, Juhi was forced to flee her own home in Los Angeles. The Palisades fire destroyed her house and nearly all her possessions, including the first version of this score, still in manuscript. Juhi recreated the entire score from memory in order to meet her commission deadline earlier this year.
Please join The Esoterics for a rich evening of song that speaks to the courage it takes to face the unknown, the strength of community, and the universal search for home.
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