Kantorei: Exile Lamentations

"Throughout history, peoples have been exiled from their native homelands. Some because of religious or political persecution, others due to government overthrow or hostile takeover for economic gain. Australian composer Paul Stanhope juxtaposes ancient Hebrew texts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah with modern-day Palestinian and Syrian poetry in his 'Exile Lamentations.' Dutch/South African composer Peter Louis van Dijk composed the moving lament 'Horizons' for the King’s Singers; it is based on a 16th-century Bushman painting of a European ship inhabited by people they saw as 'gods' but who would soon be the cause of the Bushmen’s near-extinction. Humberto Ak’abal was one of Guatemala’s most important and revered poets. Kantorei, along with the Guatemalan choir Vocalis, has commissioned Grammy-nominated composer Jake Runestad to create a new work for string quartet, choir, and marimba (the national instrument of Guatemala) using a collection of Ak’abal’s poetry."