The newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble will close its season with a performance of “Estro Poetico-armonico III,” a work by Jewish composer Yotam Haber which explores the generational inheritance of Jewish liturgical music.
The performance will take place on Sunday, June 7, at 4 p.m. at the Bell Cultural Center at MidAmerica Nazarene University (2000 E Pioneer Blvd, Olathe, KS 66062). A pre-concert discussion with Haber will be held at 3 p.m.
newEar’s website says that “Estro Poetico-armonico III” is one of its “most ambitious concerts in years.” newEar partnered with the Azrieli Foundation, a Canadian foundation supporting Jewish causes.
“Estro Poetico-armonico III” premiered in 2020 in Montreal, Canada. It was inspired by 18th-century Italian composer Benedetto Marcello’s preface to his collection of Jewish liturgical chant transcriptions.
“In Marcello’s preface to the first edition, he writes of the musical connection between what he heard in the synagogue and a historical lineage passed down from generation to generation all the way back to Mount Sinai. While this assertion can’t be proven in any way, the idea is evocative: a hope that an ancient oral tradition can withstand time and change,” Haber told The Violin Channel. “Like the Telephone Game, where children whisper messages from one ear to the next, a purely oral tradition will mutate. My own Estro is a sort of Telephone Game, with my own re-hearings and re-casting of the past.”
Haber’s work will be paired with works from other Canadian and Jewish composers, including Elizabeth Raum’s “Searching for Sophia,” Shulamit Ran’s “Mirage” and Vivian Fung’s “String Quartet No. 5.”
More information and tickets are available at newear.org.