In Wayne PA (not far from Philadelphia) April 13 & 14, performances of Amy Beach’s moving choral-orchestral work, “Canticle of the Sun.” More info on the flyer below!

A translation by Matthew Arnold of a 12th-century text by Saint Francis of Assisi, Beach came across the poem by accident in the summer of 1923 when she had just arrived at the McDowell artists’ retreat. She was “forcibly” taken by it: “I went out under a tree, and the text took complete possession of me. As if from dictation, I jotted down the notes of my ‘Canticle.’ In less than five days, the entire work was done.” (_Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian_, p. 233 by Adrienne Fried Block)