Margaret Bonds & Frank Ferko

Our final concert of the season is the virtuosic hour-long a cappella Stabat Mater by American composer Frank Ferko, for chorus and soprano soloist. Ferko sets not only the traditional text describing Mary observing the crucifixion, but also modern accounts of mothers who have lost their children to war, crime, AIDS, and accident. Traversing a vast range of compositional influences from Palestrina to Messiaen, Ferko’s masterwork is both poignant and triumphant. Cantori presented the New York premiere of Ferko’s Stabat Mater in 2004. Also on the program is The night shall be filled with music, a rediscovered work by American composer Margaret Bonds, not heard since her death in 1972.