Seven Responses

Seven Responses was premiered June 24-25, 2016, and repeated at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, August 21, 2016. 

It is available for future performances through:
Alliance Artist Management: info@allianceartistmanagement.com

Our recording of Seven Responses was released December 14, 2016.

Program & Premiere Information

Dieterich Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri & Seven Responses to Buxtehude: seven 15-minute works by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, David T. Little, Santa Ratniece, Caroline Shaw, Lewis Spratlan, Hans Thomalla, Anna Thorvaldsdottir

You can download the full program here.

Sunday August 21st, 2016 — 3 pm

Buxtehude's Cantatas 1-4 (feet, knees, hands, and side) and the responses of David T. Little, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Caroline Shaw, and Hans Thomalla

Sunday August 21st, 2016 — 7 pm

Buxtehude's Cantatas 5-7 (breast, heart, and face) and the responses ofLewis Spratlan, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, and Santa Ratniece

Continuing & expanding our role as curators of new music…

Seven of the world's foremost composers composed fifteen-minute musical responses to Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri, an iconic sacred work of the German Baroque consisting of seven cantatas. The Crossing performed the new works in repertory with Buxtehude's 17th-century work with two leading ensembles in their respective fields of performance: Quicksilver Baroque and Claire Chase's International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). Seven Responses challenges artists and audiences alike to explore our relative distance from, or closeness to, music across centuries, cultures, and continents.

Each composer was invited to collaborate with an author of their choice, or to create their own libretto - those include the words of Icelandic poet Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir, American poet Paul Kane, the words of St. Clare of Assisi, and Danish poet Ursula Andkjær Olsen.

The Crossing's commissions have increasingly addressed issues related to the environment, to equality, and to the individual's place in the community. Human suffering is often a theme in contemporary secular works, similar in character to sacred works of the past. Membra Jesu Nostri (1680) addresses the suffering of Christ; this was the starting point for each of the Seven Responses.

The composers for the project were chosen for their diverse styles and common interest in works with political or social themes; they come from Denmark, Latvia, Germany, Iceland and the USA and included two Pulitzer Prize winners. 

Major funding for Seven Responses was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from an anonymous supporter, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music, Debra Reinhard and Pamela Prior, and Eric Owens.