November 5th Early Sacred Music Sing-Along

We held an Early Sacred Music Sing-Along at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 5, 2006.  Directors and members from several local choirs participated and the audience sang along, just listened, or did some of both.  Sheet music was provided.  The event was hosted at and co-sponsored by Holy Family Episcopal Church in Rohnert Park.

The program included the following mostly Renaissance sacred music:

• William Byrd: Ave Verum Corpus
• William Byrd: Justorum Animae (5-Part)
• Chant: Ave Verum Corpus
• Guillaume Dufay: Alma Redemptoris Mater II (3-part)
• Peter Lutkin: The Lord Bless You and Keep You
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: O Bone Jesu
• Thomas Tallis: Lamentations of Jeremiah, First Set (5-part)
• Tomas Luis de Victoria: O Magnum Mysterium
• Tomas Luis de Victoria: O Vos Omnes

The following participated as directors, as well as singers:

• R. Daniel Earl, Director, Santa Rosa Symphonic Chorus
• Robert Hazelrigg, Director, Sonoma County Chamber Singers
• Steve Moore, Director, Mostly Motets Vocal Ensemble
• Ben Taylor, Director, Unitarian Universalist Choir

If you wish, you may view or download the flyer for the event.

October 27th Concert by the Valaam Ensemble

Mostly Motets presented a concert by the Valaam Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 27, 2006.  The event was held at Holy Family Episcopal Church in Rohnert Park.

Founded in 1993, the Valaam Ensemble consists of five professional male singers from the historic Valaam Monastery, located on an island in northwestern Russia.  Their repertoire focuses on sacred music, including Kievan chants, 17th and 18th century Russian polyphony, masterpieces of Greek, Serbian, Georgian church music, and some folk songs.  During the summer they sing at the monastery.  The rest of the year, they sing in nearby Saint Petersburg, produce CDs, and tour the world giving concerts and promoting the restoration of the Valaam Monastery.

The performance was sponsored by:

• The Lively Arts Committee of Holy Family Episcopal Church
• Mostly Motets Vocal Ensemble
• Numina Center for Spirituality and the Arts

If you wish, you may view or download the flyer for the event.

May 14th Concert in Santa Rosa

Our main Spring concert was held on Sunday, May 14, 2006, at Resurrection Church in Santa Rosa, California.  We sang sacred music from the Renaissance and Middle Ages.  The program included works by 15th and 16th century composers:  William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Guillaume Dufay, Josquin Desprez, and Walter Frye.  It also included some Gregorian chant and early polyphony from the Middle Ages.

If you wish, you may view or download:

• The Flyer for Mostly Motets' May 2006 Events
• The Program for Mostly Motets' May 2006 Concerts

May 7th Concert in Fort Ross

On May 7, 2006 we gave our second performance in the chapel at Fort Ross State Historic Park.  The concert program was the same as our May 14th Santa Rosa concert (see above)

Fort Ross was established in the early 19th century by Russian explorers and traders.  The chapel, which has been reconstructed, forms part of the fort and was the first Russian Orthodox chapel built south of Alaska.  The small building contains no seating, so those who gathered in the chapel stood, as is common in Russian Orthodox places of worship.  While the building is coarsely constructed, one can well imagine its original occupants using it as a refuge for cultivating the spiritual side of their beings, in contrast to much of the rest of their lives cultivating and exploiting the natural resources and wilderness around them.