Silence and Sound: Arvo Pärt's Music for Strings
As a part of the city-wide celebration of Arvo Pärt’s 90th birthday, James Blachly and Experiential Orchestra bring their deep connection to the music of Pärt to the Cathedral. In this immersive performance, EXO invites listeners to explore the unique acoustics of St. James Chapel, the largest chapel in the Cathedral, where each note will reflect and reverberate – a meditation in stone, wood, and silence as well as sound and space. This carefully curated repertoire for strings and percussion includes two US premieres of works of Arvo Pärt.
The performances on Thursday and Friday will be proceeded by a pre-concert talk at 6:30pm given by Michael Pärt, son of Arvo Pärt and co-founder of the Arvo Pärt Centre, which serves as both the composer's personal archive and a research concert. Michael will be joined on February 20th by theologian and author Peter Bouteneff, whose book, Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence, examines the powerful interplay between Pärt's music and the composer's own deep roots in the Orthodox Christian faith.
These talks are open to ticket buyers and will take place in St. James Chapel.