As Stars, Our Sacrifices

A part of the MIT Artfinity Arts Festival and the inaugural season of events in the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building at MIT.

MIT Wind Ensemble, MIT Concert Choir, MIT Chamber Chorus, MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Jamshied Sharifi, composer

Frederick Harris, Jr., Music Director

Ryan Turner, Laura Grill Jaye, conductors

MIT President Sally Kornbluth, guest speaker

This concert focused on the environment features the world premiere of Praeordinatus Ut Astra Sacrificia Nostra ("Fore-Ordained As Stars Our Sacrifices") by MIT alumnus and Tony Award-winning composer Jamshied Sharifi, commissioned for the Linde Music Building's opening season. The title comes from W. S. Merwin's poem "For a Coming Extinction," which addresses human-caused mass species extinction.

The program includes In Praise of the Humpback, arranged by Fred Harris and performed in memory of biologist and environmentalist Roger Payne, who discovered humpback whale songs in 1967. Sharifi's To the Light, to the Flame, inspired by Mary Oliver's poem "The Summer Day," joins other works for small and large ensembles celebrating nature's beauty and power. Remarks from MIT President Sally Kornbluth complete the event.

Host or Publisher MIT Music and Theater Arts