"music
is what unifies . . ." (Seu-ma-tsen)
In a world which threatens continuously to fractionalize and marginalize, we rejoice to be a part of an art form that
unifies and reconciles.
BACKGROUND
CANTORI DOMINO has, in its
first nineteen years of incorporation as a tax exempt California non-profit organization (501(c)(3)), established a remarkable
record of growth by several measures, most notably:
These dimensions are inextricably intertwined and their development is primarily a result
of the leadership of artistic director, Maurita Phillips-Thornburgh. Her vision is clear and her love for the music and the art of choral singing
is contagious. Her ability to bring together singers of many levels to a focused
choral performance is well-known and well-regarded in the professional music community.
These factors, lived out in an environment that embraces with every gesture the idea that "music at its highest, as in Mozart and Bach, is pure play" (Watts), have drawn together an impressive core of
singers, sixteen paid and forty to fifty volunteers (including a number of professional singers). The resulting musical offerings are imaginative and joyful musical moments for performer and listener alike
and so we have enjoyed, with minimal increase in publicity effort and attendant cost, an increase in attendance at our concerts
from an average of fifty in the first season to over two hundred by the fifth season (with four to six hundred plus for the
Bach masterworks which are rotated each year to present the Mass in B Minor alternately
with the Passion According to St. John, and the Passion According to St. Matthew).
We
support the notions that:
1)
art is one of the four cornerstones — not a luxury but a necessity — for the health and well-being of the whole
community and not exclusive to the artist;
2)
form is not enough, but that, as in good architecture, form follows function and, further, in the art form called
music, the function is communicative process where the artistic expression has the possibility of being new in every
moment;
3)
the real therapeutic value of music occurs because of this unique dimension called "process" ; and
4)
because at many levels (local, national, universal) the human community is in crisis, the very best thing we or anyone can
do for a world in need is to do what we are meant to do and in that act we encourage those we encounter to do likewise (if
you are a singer, practice; if you are a doctor, practice).
"You open the sky and give a happiness and hope to your audience."
"You are medicine for our pain."
". . . deep artistic and human expression . . . the strongest probably provoked by Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms
. . . and exciting Gerlitz' Credo” (translated from Pojizerski
Listy, 11 August 93, Vladmir Havrada, critic)
VARIETY AND OUTREACH
CANTORI
DOMINO's primary purpose is to make music live and in so doing, to bring something of health and wholeness
back to the community. We do so by pursuing and embracing the highest caliber
of artistic understanding/performance and the general public's experience and appreciation of the arts, predominantly music,
through concert presentations of great choral literature from all historical periods (including commissioned new works), often
given in an environment of visual art. We have a particular interest in cross-cultural
events offered both as an outreach to the particular audiences who would resonate with them and to underscore our philosophy
that authentic artistic expressions are always compatible. Past years have included
collaborations with Francis Awe and the Nigerian Talking Drum Ensemble (1993); music of the late North Indian sitarist and
composer, Amiya Dasgupta (1994), and American Indian artists with their varied voices of art, music, and dance (1995) –
side by side with music of composers influenced by both American and western European tradition including Dave Brubeck (1995).
We also have a specific interest in preserving and promoting the legacy of great choral music and as such
have presented six major choral workshops under the direction of Maurita Phillips-Thornburgh together with clinicians of international
acclaim—Dr. Roger Wagner and Paul Salamunovich (1991); Dr. Keith Clark and Jeannine Wagner (1992); Sir David Willcocks
(1997, 1999, 2000, 2002). Sir David Willcocks and Jonathan Willcocks joined us again on Memorial Day weekend 2009, for
a two and a half day workshop, followed by the annual Dulcis Memoria concert in which they each conducted. The
program included Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and
the west coast premiere of Jonathan Willcocks’ A Great and Glorious
Victory as well as his children’s opera, The
Pied Piper of Hamelin.
In winter 2003, we mounted a master class on the art of the baroque obbligato aria with master clinicians:
Maurita Phillips-Thornburgh, soprano; Jonathan Mack, tenor; Kenneth Knight, bass-baritone together with members of Bach’s
Circle: Allan Vogel, oboe; Janice Tipton, flute; Patricia Mabee, harpsichord and friends. Ten auditioned singers participated
in the afternoon class and evening concert.
International tours include: Eastern Europe: in the footsteps of J. S. Bach (1993); Portugal-Spain
(2001); One-week residency at York Minster, England (2004); Italian Odyssey (2007); and An Adventure in Eastern Europe (2010).
We serve a cross-cultural,
multi-ethnic, inter-generational Los Angeles County population, providing access and particular encouragement for the general
public to find a new or renewed appreciation for the value of the artistic voice in addressing the increasing fragmentation
of the human community. Audiences and volunteer singers come from as far
east as Phoenix, and from San Diego to Santa Barbara. They range economically
from the disenfranchised to the privileged, and in age from our eighteen year old alto to our seventy-five year old soprano.
Regular season concerts
are presented in-residence in Santa Monica, with performances scheduled throughout Los Angeles County.
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