Chakra & Chime: A choral meditation from the Pacific Coast Trail

• Paige Stockley, cello

For the final concert of its 31st season, The Esoterics is thrilled to present Jeffrey Derus' From wilderness. Derus' composition is scored for chorus, soloists, crystal singing bowls, and cello, and is a meditation on the transformative experience of traveling the Pacific Crest Trail, from Campo, California, through 28 stops in northern California, Oregon, and Washington state, ending in Manning Park, British Columbia.

In this hour-long wash of serene sound, you will find moments to reflect on the sacredness of nature, and discover the beauty within yourself. The 25 voices of The Esoterics will be guided by a celestial sound-bath of eight crystal singing bowls, and accompanied the obbligato cello of soloist Paige Stockley. This work features texts by twenty different poets, including Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Robert Frost, Lord Byron, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Muir, Carl Sandburg, Hilda Doolittle, Lucy Eddy, Kate Chopin, and Nora Ghassan Addullatif.

In his piece, Derus has aligned the rainbow of seven pitches of the singing bowls and their sacred syllables (lam, vam, ram, yam, ham, ksham, and om) with the seven chakras of the body (the root, sacrum, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow, and crown), as well as their attributes: stability, pleasure, confidence, compassion, communication, intuition, and awareness. Five soloists will give voice to different "spirit animals" (the wolf, fox, fish, eagle, and mockingbird) that one might encounter on the trail.

Through landscape and soundscape, supported by the architecture of poetry and ancient Sanskrit homeopathy, From wilderness offers an opportunity for meditation, self-discovery, wonder, and healing. We hope that you can join The Esoterics for this extraordinary choral event of quiet introspection and profound beauty.

2 performances:
- Saturday, December 14, 8pm at Plymouth Congregational Church in Seattle
- Sunday, December 15, 7pm at Christ Episcopal Church in Tacoma

About The Esoterics

http://www.theesoterics.org

About Paige Stockley, cello

Cellist Paige Stockley, faculty at Cornish College of the Arts, is is the founder of the St. Helens String Quartet, which received two 4Culture grants for commissioning new works and a recording residency at Jack Straw. The quartet is releasing its first CD of new works , entitled American Dreams, and performs at Benaroya Recital Hall, Lopez Community Center, and Cornish College of the Arts.

Paige holds a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Her early training was at the University of Washington, where she studied with cellist Toby Saks while earning a double major in Political Science and English. She has also played in orchestras around the world: from Connecticut to Spain, Mexico City, Prague and Krakow, spending a year at the European Mozart Academy playing under the baton of Sandor Vegh and studying with Steven Isserlis. Her main teachers have included Ardyth Alton, Michael Haber and Valentin Hirsu. She served as the cellist on a West Coast tour with singer Rickie Lee Jones and was principle cellist on the European Mozart Academy tour of Mozart's Zaide arranged by Luciano Berio.

Performing frequently with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and the Auburn and Tacoma Symphonies, Paige also records television and film soundtracks with Seattle Music. She coordinates the Seattle Chamber Music Festival’s "chamber music in the public schools" program each spring, and is the artistic director of Second Sundays in Snohomish.

Her 140-year-old French cello, made in 1879 by Francois Hypolite Caussin, is perfectly complemented by a French bow made in 1880 by the great master Voirin. Paige’s worldwide, cello-related travels have influenced her non-musical interests as well, deeply informing her interests in design and cooking. She lives in a 100-year-old house near Seattle’s Lake Union, with her husband Steve and daughter Daisy.