This May, The Esoterics is excited to present a concert of new works by the African-American composer, Tara Mack. An avid choral singer for much of her life, Tara is currently a soprano in the London Oriana Choir. In 2019, inspired by her choir’s five-year project to promote women composers, Tara began to write choral music of her own. Since then, she has written, studied, and encouraged other choral musicians to compose. Her works have been commissioned and performed throughout the US and Europe, by such ensembles as: the Choral Arts Initiative, the New York City Master Chorale, the New Amsterdam Singers, the Wellspring Ensemble, C4, the Brown University Chorus, Inversion Ensemble, Vox Urbane, Austin Cantorum, Singing City, Junger Kammerchor Köln, and the Covent Garden Chorus.
Tara enjoys setting texts that reflect her political values, her African-American culture, and her experiences as a mother – and this program that she curated for The Esoterics to perform represents each of these influences in equal measure. Among other pieces composed by Tara, The Esoterics will perform a cycle of six pieces by Mack with the title, Virtues of resistance. This cycle includes short texts by activists – including Saul Alinsky, Arundhati Roy, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Gwendolyn Brooks, Emily Greene Balch, bell hooks, and Fannie Lou Hamer – on the themes after which each movement is titled: Faith, Anger, Courage, Community, Love, and Joy. Mack encountered these quotations – which originate from the struggles for emancipation from slavery, women’s suffrage, human rights, environmental justice, or peace movements – while creating a social justice handbook, and included them in the cycle to challenge, affirm, and inspire. After this six-movement cycle, the ensemble will close its program with the world premiere of Island, setting another poem by Langston Hughes, a commission written specifically for The Esoterics.
We are so happy to welcome Tara to Seattle for the weekend of these concerts! She will be in attendance at both concerts, outlining her works and answering audience questions. Please join The Esoterics as we commemorate RITES & RESISTANCE, a concert of rhymes, romance, risks, and rage!

Each Esoterics project is a distinctive and unrepeatable experience,
both for performers and our audience-community.
This project is no exception, so treat yourself to an evening
that will leave you enchanted, delighted and enriched.

By request, Sunday concerts in Tacoma are now “matinee” - at 3pm, in the Paul Thiry designed chapel at Christ Episcopal Church Tacoma, 310 North K street - acoustics of this intimate space are simply incredible!
General admission ticket prices are $20 at the door (same in advance). Discounted admission ticket prices are $10 at the door (same in advance) for students, seniors, the un(der)employed, and the differently-abled. Active singers in other choral groups may also attend for $10.
Advance tickets are available online at www.TheEsoterics.org/next

Note: The Esoterics sincerely believes economic status should never preclude enjoyment of great music - so there is also “Pay as you Can” option available at the door.