Resonance Works is a Pittsburgh-based performing arts non-profit that empowers musicians and inspires audiences with intimate, genre-defying productions featuring everything from opera and musical theatre to orchestral, choral, and chamber music. Through a mix of evocative new works and timeless classics, we challenge traditional assumptions about classical music and invite audiences to connect with the work in fresh and unexpected ways.
The Resonance Chamber Orchestra and Chorus take center stage in February with two concert performances centered around Indian-American composer Reena Esmail’s 2016 work This Love Between Us: Prayers for Unity and Bach’s glorious Magnificat.
One of the most exciting voices in music today, Esmail works between the worlds of Hindustani and Western classical music traditions, aiming to bring communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. This Love Between Us reflects on the themes of unity and kindness, juxtaposing texts from seven different religious traditions (and in seven different languages!)
Building on the success of our “remarkable” (onStage Pittsburgh) Mass in B Minor last season, Bach’s sparkling Magnificat anchors the first half of the program along with Breaking Bread, a solo work by American composer Nkeiru Okoye, which serves as a kind of invocation for the mesmerizing sonic journey to come.
To Breathe Free explores the twin themes of remembrance and possibility with a reprise of Copland’s vibrant Appalachian Spring, poignant works by Pulitzer prize-winners Caroline Shaw and George Walker, and the world premiere of An Anchor in Time by Gilda Lyons, celebrating Resonance Works’ 10th anniversary. Two performances in Bloomfield and Carnegie feature mezzo-soprano Timothi Williams, baritone Daniel Teadt, the Resonance Chamber Orchestra and Festival Chorus, led by conductor Maria Sensi Sellner.