Arts at the Abbey Concert Series Features Belmont Abbey College"s Artists in Residence -- Carolina Pro Music to Share ‘Spanish Splendor’ with Audiences

Belmont, NC (PRWEB) March 19, 2005

Charlotte’s premiere early music ensemble, Carolina Pro Musica, will perform a special concert for Belmont Abbey College’s Arts at the Abbey concert series on April 11, 2005 at 8:00 PM in the Abbey Basilica, Belmont Abbey College. The event is free and open to the public.

The concert, Spanish Splendor: Music from 18th Century Europe and South America, will feature the grandeur of El Escorial to the far reaches of Peru and Argentina. The performance will include be newly discovered Spanish works for solo harpsichord and vocal works from Peru rarely heard in North America.

Carolina Pro Musica is a period instrument and vocal ensemble, which specializes in performing music written before 1850. Founded by Karen Hite Jacob in 1977, the group does many historic presentations and features such instruments as 18th century flute, recorder, viol and harpsichord, plus many medieval instruments including krummhorn, hurdy-gurdu, harp and shawm.

The ensemble, which consists of Karen Hite Jacob, harpsichord; Rebecca Miller Saunders, soprano (Gastonia native); Holly Wright Maurer, viol; and Edward Ferrell, recorder and flute, will be entering their 28th season this year.

For more information on Carolina Pro Music, please visit their website at http://www.carolinapromusica.org.

The Arts at the Abbey concert series is made possible in part by the Associated Foundation, Inc. of Belmont, The Monks of Belmont Abbey and other private donors. Karen Hite Jacob is the series’ coordinator. For additional information, call 704.334.3468 or email kjacob@vnet.net.

Ranked one of the best liberal arts colleges in the South by U.S. News and World Report, Belmont Abbey College celebrates excellence and virtue steeped in its 128 year Catholic Benedictine heritage. It is home to students from over 34 states and 17 countries and welcome everyone from any background or tradition committed to this vision of excellence and virtue. The campus consists of the College, the Monastery and the Abbey Basilica, which can be found on its sprawling 650 acres of picturesque landscape.

Just minutes from Charlotte, NC, the nation’s second largest banking center, Belmont Abbey College offers students numerous internship opportunities and career placement.

The College believes in development of the whole person – mind, body and spirit. By offering a wide array of clubs and activities including, Division II athletics, theatre, publications, and study abroad, Belmont Abbey College invests in the personal growth of its students.

Founded in 1876, the College celebrates its heritage and is inspired by the Benedictine monastic tradition. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the College and Abbey Basilica greet thousands of visitors each year.

# # #

Arts at the Abbey Concert Series Features Belmont Abbey College"s Artists in Residence -- Carolina Pro Music to Share ‘Spanish Splendor’ with Audiences

Gutsy Sacred Music Festival Features 9 World Premieres, Dave Brubeck Work, Intercultural Concert

NEW YORK (PRWEB) September 26, 2006

A gutsy music festival featuring premieres of nine bold works from Eastern and Western religious traditions, a rarely performed spiritual composition by legendary jazz musician Dave Brubeck and a transformative intercultural concert that weaves sacred music from earliest biblical times to the “golden age” of medieval Spain, when Islamic, Christian and Jewish faiths enjoyed an unrivaled harmony, will be held at Merkin Concert Hall in New York Nov. 4-5.

The second Festival of Universal Sacred Music, produced and sponsored by the nonprofit Foundation for Universal Sacred Music (http://www.universalsacredmusic.org), will feature the first performances of extraordinary commissioned works by some of the world’s foremost contemporary sacred music composers, including Emmy and Juno Award winners.

“The festival dares to juxtapose and integrate musical and religious styles and customs in ways that we believe will open people’s minds and hearts,” says foundation Executive Director Ullamaija Kivimaki. “The courageous, healing music will help us celebrate our diversity while at the same time recognize all that we share in common. And through this, it can give us a sacred musical experience far richer and fuller than that of any single tradition.”

The foundation’s purpose is to help bridge the spiritual differences that divide the world today by fostering the creation and promotion of music that reflects the unifying and unconditional love of God.

Under the music directorship of conductor Susanne Peck, the festival’s nine commissioned works will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Reserved seats are $ 35. Brubeck’s piece will be performed during Saturday night’s concert. The intercultural concert will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, with reserved seats $ 30.

Discounted Festival Passes, with reserved seats for all three concerts, are available for only $ 90. Groups, senior citizens and students are eligible for further discounts.

Complimentary receptions, during which audience members may meet the composers and musicians, follow the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon concerts.

Commissioned compositions and composers at the festival include:

“To God of All Nations,” a four-movement choral and instrumental piece, composed by University of Toronto professor and Hong Kong native Ka Nin Chan, that interweaves passages from the Bible, Koran and Buddhist writings to express the diversity of faiths and the oneness of God.

“The Family of God,” a harmonic, contrapuntal piece in four sections, by Emmy Award-winning Stephen Cohn of Los Angeles, observing the divisions humanity has created from its religious differences.

“Mandala for Dawn,” a musical mantra, by Kim Cunio of Sydney, Australia, of a soul’s liberation to light from darkness, as well as compassion, mercy and emptiness, following the killing of Dawn Griggs, a dear friend of the Cunio’s, who was murdered on her arrival in New Delhi for a meditation retreat; featuring the angelic voice of concert soprano soloist Heather Lee, winner of an ARIA award.

“Woods: A Prose Sonnet,” by Julie Dolphin of Purchase, N.Y., articulating an aural forest that celebrates the universal sum of love that rejoices in the beauty of life’s diversity as an expression of its inherent and coherent unity.

“Plus pr

Gutsy Sacred Music Festival Features 9 World Premieres, Dave Brubeck Work, Intercultural Concert