PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Inspired by the exquisite 15th-century Chansonnier Cordiforme (“Heart-shaped Songbook”), Eya sifts through a fantastic array of music and poetry that speaks of longing, sensuality, and union with the Beloved.

Heartform knits the sacred and secular into one theme of sacred desire. In this inventive and luminous program, Eya layers the delicately-crafted works of the Chansonnier Cordiforme, featuring French and Italian motets of the early Renaissance, folded within the poetic lines of Rumi, John Donne, Richard Rolle, the Song of Songs, Shakespeare, Peter Gabriel, and more.

Featuring a ravishing musical commission by Baltimore-based composer Douglas Buchanan, and music of Hildegard von Bingen, Francis Poulenc, Richard Einhorn, and Gregorian chant.