What is Ephemeral Love?
songs are essential
Inspiration
In the Bayview District of San Francisco, a bold manifesto was painted on the wall behind the door of a tiny coffee shop. “Stay true to your house. Fabricate Consciousness” it began. “Compose. Shed light on how the mind works. Construct your perceptions. Join us in our dance. Songs work.” These short, bold phrases have stayed with us long after the coffee shop closed. We want our audiences to leave our concerts inspired not only by what they’ve heard, but by their entire experience of our programming. For choral music, which at its best is courageous and collaborative and dynamic, maybe a manifesto was just what was needed to launch a new ensemble–including some bits borrowed from that coffee shop wall:
An Unfinished Manifesto
Trust yourself. Be courageous. This is an invitation to participate. Explore. Ask questions. Create something new. Lead with what you know. Nourish an idea. Get in trouble. Go analog. We will help. Foster courage and grace. Songs are essential. Sing in your own voice. Songs matter. Make mistakes. Take notes. Songs are mechanism and message. Songs call us in. Black dots rendered into light and shadow, if only for a moment. Songs work–a transubstantiation from idea to living, breathing experience. Ours is a collective art and a conversation with the world. Join us.
a community of singers and audience members
Invitation
Concerts should feel like wandering through a new place, discovering something interesting around every corner, something that you remember long after you’ve returned home. “This is an invitation to participate,” says our manifesto. We’re looking to build a community of singers and audience members that care deeply about the importance of choral music presented in exceptional and thought-provoking ways. Choral music can only be made with others, exists live only for a moment, and is best when shared with an audience.
We want to invite our singers and our audience into a choral experience that is indeed edifying: with poems and texts that challenge and entertain and invite thought, with choral textures as simple as a chant or a drone to the complexity of eight or more interwoven parts. With familiar songs and arrangements as well as inspiring new commissions. We can’t wait to welcome you.
a doing, a making
Our Name
Conductor Robert Shaw once said that the arts “express that which is beautiful and intelligent and noble about being human” and that, far from being an ivory tower of retreat from the world, that “they are a doing, a making.” The result of that making is an intellectual and emotional connection, through music, that lasts, long after the music in the room is silenced. Ephemeral Love may be an unusual name for a chamber choir, but we hope it reminds our audiences that while a piece of music lasts mere moments, it touches us deeply, in profound and emotional ways.
SUPPORT EPHEMERAL LOVE
Make a Donation Today
As a start-up organization, we’re doing all we can to build a strong foundation for the future, and we are determined to succeed. While we hope to sell out all of our concerts and events, we will rely on the generosity of friends, family, singers, audience members and the community to help us build that foundation through donations of all sizes. Please consider a donation toward making our inaugural year the first of many to come.
