Eric Whitacre presents his newest electro-choral work

Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre presents his newest electro-choral work, Eternity in an Hour with his immaculate choir, the Eric Whitacre Singers.

The hour-long work is an invitation to come and truly be in the moment – a moment beyond busy lives and noisy days, a moment to sink into Whitacre’s musical harmony and be bathed in the resplendent light of Jerram’s Gaia.

This sense of awe is something Whitacre has found not only in music but also in poetry:

‘I have long been transfixed by the opening lines of William Blake’s extraordinary poem “Auguries of Innocence”. It seemed to me that Blake had simply and perfectly described presence, that elusive state where past and future cease to exist and all that remains is a profound sense of wonder in even the most ordinary objects.

My hope with Eternity in an Hour is that the music will help the listener (and the performers and, candidly, me) experience a little bit of that awe and timelessness.’

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
from ‘Auguries of Innocence’ by William Blake (1757 – 1827)

Gaia is a touring artwork by UK artist Luke Jerram. Measuring seven metres in diameter and created from 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface, the artwork provides the opportunity to see our planet, floating in three dimensions.