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Welcome to SDG news central. Here is where you can keep up-to-date on the latest happenings around the world with SDG-related concerts, commissions, and events. If you attend an SDG-related event or hear an SDG-related concert, we'd love to hear from you! Click here to send us a message.
Daniel Kellogg Premiere with South Dakota Symphony
Daniel Kellogg
On February 25 and 26, 2012, the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Delta David Gier, will present the world premiere of Daniel Kellogg’s From Everlasting to Everlasting. Commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria, this new 17-minute work is a Psalm cycle for orchestra and mezzo-soprano and is the fifth SDG commission from Dr. Kellogg.
read moreWyner Choral Work Is Next Premiere in SDG’s Psalms Project
West Window,
American Cathedral in Paris
Soli Deo Gloria is pleased to announce the world premiere of the next SDG commission in the Psalms Project, The Lord is close to the heartbroken, by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner.
Written for mixed chorus, the work is based on Psalms 34 and 68, using what the composer calls “a slight mélange” of several scripture translations. He has carefully selected his text with a keen ear for language that is singable and with a desire to call attention to what he describes as “the remarkable purity and hopefulness of the text itself.”
read moreWorld premiere of new Mass by Einojuhani Rautavaara
Finnish composer
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Photo: Maarit Kytoharju / Fimic
A notable event took place on November 25, 2011, in the Netherlands. The Jacobikerk in Utrecht was the site of the world premiere of a new 25-minute choral work, Missa a cappella, by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, performed by the internationally renowned Netherlands Radio Choir.
The event is notable for several reasons, the first and foremost being that a new large-scale work by Rautavaara, the leading Finnish composer of his generation, is a major event in itself. The Mass, which has been forty years in gestation (he wrote the Credo in 1972), not only has intrinsic value but also constitutes something of a spiritual testament. It was received with a standing ovation, with the choir repeating the beautiful Agnus Dei as an encore.
read moreIn Honor of Henryk Górecki
On the one-year anniversary of Henryk Górecki’s death, November 12, 2010, Soli Deo Gloria has posted a tribute page featuring clips and historical photos from the North American premiere of his beautiful, haunting Miserere, which SDG was privileged to sponsor in Chicago in 1994.
Chicago Bach Project 2012 Tickets Now On Sale
John Nelson conducting the Chicago Bach Choir and Orchestra
Johann Sebastian Bach
ST. JOHN PASSION, BWV 245
APRIL 4, 2012
8:00 p.m.
John NELSON, conductor
Nicholas PHAN, Evangelist
Stephen MORSCHECK, Jesus
Lucy CROWE, soprano
Meredith ARWADY, contralto
Marc MOLOMOT, tenor
Matthew BROOK, bass
CHICAGO BACH Choir and Orchestra
Donald NALLY, chorus master
Saint Vincent de Paul Church
1010 W. Webster Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
"Missa Solemnis" and "The Creation" DVDs Release
Soli Deo Gloria joyously releases to the world two new DVDs of sacred masterworks, filmed live in concert: Beethoven's rarely heard Missa Solemnis and Haydn's beloved oratorio, The Creation (Die Schöpfung), conducted by John Nelson.
NEW FROM THE SOLI DEO GLORIA COLLECTION / IDÉALE AUDIENCE
read more
Soli Deo Gloria Announces a Double DVD Release
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 . . . Circle the date. It's time to celebrate. A musical and visual feast is arriving! It's the U.S. release date for two new sacred masterwork DVDs in The Soli Deo Gloria Collection: Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Haydn's The Creation (Die Schöpfung), conducted by John Nelson and produced by Soli Deo Gloria and Idéale Audience.
read moreSven-David Sandström Commission on the Horizon
"God Be Merciful"
by Sven-David Sandström
It is with great pleasure that Soli Deo Gloria announces its next world premiere, a commission, in collaboration with the Sacred Music Department of Westminster Choir College, of God Be Merciful by Sven-David Sandström for a cappella choir. As one of Sweden’s most performed living composers, Sandström has an impressive catalog of works that includes some 300 compositions, ranging from operas and oratorios to intimate choral and chamber music. In recent years, he has been focusing especially on sacred choral music, which makes it is especially fitting that his new work, a six-minute a cappella choral piece based on Psalm 67, is the third release in Soli Deo Gloria’s Psalms Project.
read moreSoli Deo Gloria in Transition
Thank you, thank you, thank you! The entire SDG staff and board offer a standing ovation for CHANDLER BRANCH, our stalwart President and CEO who brought this organization full throttle into the 21st century. As you might imagine, we’re enormously sad to lose Chandler to another arts organization, but we’re also excited with him about his new work as Executive Director of Art Saint Louis. Bravo! (See Chandler’s letter of resignation.)
read moreCEO Chandler Branch Announces His Resignation
"Eleven years ago I joined the staff of Soli Deo Gloria and began the most enriching and formative professional experience I have ever had. Now, after many treasured adventures in the company of great friends and great music, the time has come to begin a new chapter in my life and to allow the same to take place in the life of SDG.
read moreKeep Up to Date
Upcoming Events
Daniel Kellogg
February 25-26, 2012: World premiere of the new SDG-commissioned work From Everlasting to Everlasting by Daniel Kellogg. Performed by the South Dakota Symphony, Delta David Gier, conductor, with mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Mary W. Sommervold Hall, Washington Pavilion.
John Nelson conducting
the 2011 Chicago Bach Project
(Photo: Charles Osgood)
April 4, 2012: Chicago Bach Project performance of the St. John Passion, BWV 245, at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Chicago, IL 8:00 p.m.
Recent Events
Andrew Megill, conductor; Irene Forte, SDG Project Manager; and Sven-David Sandström, composer, celebrate the premiere performance of Sandstrom's God Be Merciful , commissioned by SDG with the Sacred Music Department of Westminster Choir College, October 29, 2011.
The Dilijan Chamber Society string quartet, with tenor Daniel Plaster, perform the premiere of Vache Sharfyan's Have Mercy on Me, O God in Los Angeles, CA, September 25, 2011.
Conductor James Kallembach and composer James MacMillan confer after the premiere of MacMillan's SDG-commissioned choral work, Alpha and Omega, at Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago, June 4, 2011. (Photo: Megan Dulkinys)
Conductor John Nelson and composer Peter Bannister at a rehearsal for the premiere of Bannister's SDG-commissioned Psalm 96 at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, May 6, 2011.
