72 Angels

According to Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah, Moses used God’s 72 names to invoke God to part the Red Sea, as told in Exodus. These 72 names, Shem HaMephorash, are the only lyrics of Lera Auerbach’s piece for choir and saxophone quartet. Auerbach grew up in a Jewish family in the Soviet city of Chelyabinsk by the Ural Mountains, but defected at the age of 18, and settled in New York. There, she studied composition and piano at the Manhattan School of Music, and at Juilliard, and has established herself as a versatile and inspiring artist. In addition to composing, she performs as a pianist, paints and makes sculptures, and has published collections of poems and essays. Auerbach was already composing music at the age of four, and made up stories that she told her parents. She doesn’t shy away from trying new approaches; a cappella opera The Blind, for instance, was performed to an audience whose eyes were covered. The Royal Danish Ballet commissioned ballet The Little Mermaid for the second centenary of H. C. Andersen’s birth. Like so much of Auerbach’s art, 72 Angels speaks straight to the heart, and invites each listener to make their own interpretation, and to listen both outwards and inwards.

72 Angels is a co-commission  between the Swedish Radio Choir and the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Cracow Singers, Collegium Musicale, Chorwerband Steiermark (Vocalforum Graz),  Zürcher Sing-Akademie, and Collegium vocale zu Franziskanern Luzern.