20th Anniversary Celebration

ProMusica Arizona’s 20th Anniversary Celebration will conclude with concerts April 1 and 2, 2023, presenting the world premiere of commissioned work Saguaro Song. The composition is a six-movement work for chorale and orchestra by Arizona composer Craig Bohmler, well-known for Arizona Opera’s Riders of the Purple Sage, and award-winning Canadian author Marion Adler. The composers use the iconic saguaro cactus as a metaphor for the seasons of life. For example, the fourth movement, “The Saguaro’s Lullaby,” is a tender piece in which the saguaro comes to life as a loving parent. This metaphor is based on the true story of an 11-year-old boy who spent the night sitting in a chair perched in the arms of a real saguaro.

In addition, the concert will open with A World without Boundaries, which includes text by astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Christa McAuliffe and naturalist John Muir, that was commissioned for ProMusica Arizona’s 15th anniversary. It will be followed by music from Apollo 13 for orchestra as we look toward the future. The orchestra will also play George Gershwin’s delightful An American in Paris Suite followed by a choral medley from Man of La Mancha culminating with “The Impossible Dream,” and the ethereal “Sunrise (Gloria),” second movement of Ola Gjiello’s Sunrise Mass. Completing the concert is Joseph Martin’s poignant The Awakening offering the profound words “Let music never die in me, forever let my spirit sing! Wherever emptiness is found, let there be joy and glorious sound…Let music live.”