The 20th MATA Festival kicks off with MATA Divine Mysteries, the premiere event in a new initiative devoted to sacred music. The intimate interior of Yorkville’s evocative Church of the Epiphany will host a sunset ritual performed without pause. The centerpiece of the evening will be David M. Gordon’s (USA) mesmerizing song-cycle Mysteria Incarnationis, a forty-minute meditation on Christ’s taking on of human form, setting text of Ephrem the Syrian, sung in the original Syriac. Additional works by Shawn Jaeger (USA) and Lydia Winsor Brindamour (USA) (pale, pale light), together with a world premiere miniature from MATA Alumnus Nico Muhly (MATA 2004, 2008) will round out a spectacular night of contemporary sacred music. A new music dream team of Miranda Cuckson, Ariadne Greif, Blair McMillen, Sarah Brailey, and Russell Greenberg has been specially assembled to give life to the evening’s works.

Program (to be performed without pause)

Shawn Jaeger (USA): Thousands of Years to Make it What it Was (2015)
Lydia Winsor Brindamour (USA): pale, pale light (2015) NYP
Nico Muhly (USA): New Work (2018) WP – MATA Alumni Commission
David M. Gordon (USA): Mysteria Incarnationis (2015) NYP

Ariadne Greif, soprano
Sarah Brailey, soprano
Miranda Cuckson, violin
Blair McMillen, piano
Russell Greenberg, percussion