True Concord Voices & Orchestra quietly closes out its season this weekend on a poetic note.
The ensemble, coming off a monstrous year that included two major masterwork concerts at Centennial Hall, is teaming up with the University of Arizona Poetry Center for a concert focused on the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
The concert will feature two world premieres: A new cantata by Green Valley composer Gerald Near, who landed the inaugural True Concord commission of the Dorothy Dyer Vanek Fund for Excellence; and a new work by California composer Matthew Lyon Hazzard, winner of the inaugural Stephen Paulus Emerging Composers Competition.
The competition, which attracted 40 submissions nationwide, was inspired by the composer whose 9/11 tribute βPrayers and Remembrancesβ anchors True Concordβs Grammy-winning CD βFar in the Heavens: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus.β Paulus died in 2014.
The season finale also features guests who will read Dickinson poetry, including Arizona Daily Star cartoonist David Fitzsimmons, who reads Friday, March 23, at the Scottish Rite Cathedral downtown.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 22, at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive; 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 23, at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, 160 S. Scott Ave.; 7 p.m. Saturday, March 24, at St. Francis in the Valley Episcopal Church, 600 S. La Cañada Drive in Green Valley; and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 25, at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St. Tickets are $25 general admission, $40 reserved seats at trueconcord.org by calling 401-2651.
