Sonnets to Orpheus

Sonnets to Orpheus is a multidisciplinary song cycle for voice, string quartet, ukulele and harmonium, set to Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s cycle of poems which has been called an “utter acceptance of everything that is alive and earthly… the wholeness, the transfigured body of these poems, is a return to the simplest human experiences of seeing and breathing, beyond thought.”

The cycle is scored by 13 composers: Sheena Birrittella, Aoife O’Donovan, Jherek Bischoff, Ellen Reid, Qasim Naqvi, Christopher Rountree, Andrew Rowan, Bobby Halvorson, Tim Carr, Danielle Birrittella, Greg Uhlmann, Kyle Sanna, Areni Agbabian and Derek Stein.

Only in a city such as Los Angeles would we be able to conceive of a project that holds space for exploring the lines between theatre, film and concert. We are creating an immersive sonic and visual environment that transcends the form of the song cycle.