Next Series Presents: Extinctions

Join us for this musical meditation for our time, performed by the internationally recognized GU Chamber singers led by Prof. Frederick Binkholder, and composer + violin soloist David Schulman ("Mysterious and beautiful" — The Washington Post).
The program includes musical works new and old, inspired by the extraordinary, mysterious lives of birds. The concert features the world premiere of Extinctions — Schulman's new requiem for lost bird species. Written for amplified violin and choir, and sung in Latin, Extinctions incorporates rare archival footage from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: heartrending last field recordings of birds newly declared extinct.
The performance will also mark the premiere of Joy Fiske's Bài Hát Xuyên Trái Dât ("A Song Through The Earth"). Fiske is a Georgetown student composer, and a member of the GU Chamber Singers.
Concert introduction by author and renowned bird expert Peter Marra, Dean of the Earth Commons Institute for the Environment and Sustainability.
After the concert, all audience members are invited to a casual reception to meet and chat with Special Resource Guests (both musicians and bird experts), and to experience a new "Audio Gallery" installation in the Davis Center Lobby. The installation features stunning recordings of several birds that fought their way back from the brink of extinction. It also includes the first chance to hear an audio interview with the scientist who, in 1986 made the last extant recording of the Kauai Oo — a beautiful singer whose entire species, genus, and family now have gone extinct.
As the composer has written:
There are moments when singers must break sticks.
There are moments when singers must chant and hiss.
There are moments when singers must sing as beautifully as possible.

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Host or Publisher Georgetown University Dept. of Performing Arts