Los Angeles Master Chorale, staged by Peter Sellars

Following their widely acclaimed collaboration on Lagrime di San Pietro (which was performed at Koerner Hall in 2020), Peter Sellars, Grant Gershon, and singers of the Los Angeles Master Chorale reunite with a deeply personal yet uplifting meditation on what it means to say goodbye to those we love. 24 singers will be accompanied by Baroque organ and viol da gamba to create an intimate ceremony of connection across time and space.

The luminous music of the Baroque composer Heinrich Schütz serves as the inspiration for this ceremony of remembrance and devotion. Schütz composed the Musikalische Exequien (Music to Accompany a Departure) during the terrible ravages of the 30 Years War, and it was dedicated to the memory of one of his dearest friends and benefactors. Schütz is widely regarded as the greatest German composer before Bach, and the Musikalische Exequien was the first requiem written in the language of the people rather than Latin. The music speaks with both quiet emotion and enormous depth of feeling.

Sung in German with English supertitles.