Out of Silence: Echoes of the Human Spirit
Studzinski Hall, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
Sunday, April 11, 2027 @ 2:30 pm
Crewe Center for the Arts, Margaret Griswold-White Performance Hall
111 Bedford St, Portland, ME 04101
What do we hear when everything is quiet?
In Spring 2027, ChoralArt invites you to join us on a unique and stunning musical journey through the many embodiments of silence: the soundless awe of the Northern Lights, the stillness of an Arctic tundra, the quiet ache of loss, the mystery of dreams, and the noiseless imagination of first flight.
At the heart of Out of Silence: Echoes of the Human Spirit is A Silence Haunts Me – Jake Runestad’s and Todd Boss’s powerful creation – inspired by Beethoven’s struggle with deafness and the silence that transformed his creative life. In the famous letter now known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, Beethoven confronted the devastating reality: the sense most essential to his art was disappearing. Runestad and Boss illuminate the anguish and resilience of a composer confronting a world without sound.
From this powerful centerpiece, the ChoralArt Singers and ChoralArt Camerata explore silence in its many forms. The program spans centuries and traditions, with music including Eric Whitacre’s Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Ēriks Ešenvalds Only in Sleep, Gabriel Fauré’s In Paradisum, and works by Claude Debussy, and others.
It will be an afternoon of rich illumination and sublime artistry as ChoralArt’s voices explore silence as a source of beauty, reflection, imagination, and human connection that counters a world filled with noise.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to pause, unplug, and listen deeply. Together, we will contemplate the wonder of silence through some of the most exquisite choral music ever composed.