Help Us Celebrate Our 20th Anniversary!

 
2022-2023 is ProMusica Arizona’s 20th performance season.

Since its founding in 2003, ProMusica Arizona has become a leader in bringing live music to audiences primarily in the North Phoenix area. With almost 100 multigenerational singers and instrumentalists, the group has performed more than 285 times for over 139,000 people. ProMusica Arizona is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization and is supported by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, which receives support from the State of Arizona and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Don’t miss our 20th Anniversary Celebration concert:

20th Anniversary Celebration

The season will conclude with ProMusica Arizona’s 20th Anniversary Celebration featuring the world-premiere of Saguaro Song by Arizona composer Craig Bohmler, well-known for Arizona Opera’s Riders of the Purple Sage. Saguaro Song is a suite of five songs for choir and orchestra with texts by award-winning Canadian author Marion Adler who uses the iconic saguaro cactus as a metaphor for the seasons of life. In addition, ProMusica Arizona will present A World Without Boundaries by Timothy Powell with texts by American astronauts. The piece was commissioned for ProMusica Arizona’s 15th anniversary season. Morten Lauridsen’s “Sure on This Shining Night,” Ola Gjielo’s “Sunrise” (“Gloria”) from Sunrise Mass, and other musical gems will be featured to round out the festivities. 

Performance times/venues:

Saturday, April 1 at 7:00 pm
All Saints Lutheran Church in North Phoenix

Sunday, April 2 at 3:30 pm
American Lutheran Church in Sun City

ProMusica Arizona is inviting photographers and artists to submit high resolution photos of Saguaros or photos of artworks featuring Saguaros to be included in a slideshow that will accompany the performances of Saguaro Song. To serve as inspiration, photographers and artists can read the texts of Saguaro Song by clicking here. ProMusica Arizona is looking for photos and artworks that depict the various movements of the piece, and proper credit will be given to photographers and artists whose works are chosen to be in the slideshow. Please send Saguaro photos or photos of Saguaro artworks to info@pmaz.org by March 10, 2023. For questions, call Yvonne Dolby at 623-326-5172.

Make a Tomorrow Gift Today!

 
The Friends of Note Legacy Giving Circle is made up of distinguished individuals who have chosen to make a commitment to the ProMusica Arizona Chorale & Orchestra through a planned legacy gift from their estate.

To become a member of the Friends of Note and make a planned gift, or for more information, please contact Lissi Weiss at (612) 209-0644 or endowment@PMAZ.org.

You can help the music live on!

Past Performances

For information about performances from prior seasons, please click here.

A Musical Champagne Salon

Again in 2023, ProMusica Arizona held A Musical Champagne Salon in an exquisite private home in the Anthem Country Club. Guests were treated to an enjoyable evening of musical performances by talented ProMusica Arizona soloists and small ensembles. A wide variety of heavy hors d’oeuvres and desserts, plus champagne, wine, and other beverages, were served and enjoyed indoors and outdoors. This was our major fundraiser for the year, and our members and volunteers did their very best to make the admission price worth every penny!

Christmas Through the Ages

The holiday concert, Christmas Through the Ages, featured new arrangements of traditional carols “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and “The Huron Carol,” as well as favorites like “Carol of the Bells” and “Sleigh Ride.” ProMusica Arizona also presented the world-premiere of ProMusica Arizona Chorale member and professional composer Ryan Gunderson’s “Jesus, Refulsit Omnium“ (“Jesus, Light of All the Nations”), one of the first hymns in honor of the Nativity stemming from 368 A.D. As always, the audience was invited to join in singing several well-known carols of the season. 

Favorites – Past & Present

October 15 and 16, 2022

ProMusica Arizona kicked off its 20th anniversary season with Favorites – Past & Present. The opening concert featured a full first half of patriotic favorites including “America the Beautiful,” “God Bless America,” toe-tapping John Philip Sousa marches, and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The second half continued with more favorites including music by John Williams; a medley of songs by Stephen Sondheim, including “Send in the Clowns;” and a Richard Rodgers medley with songs from The Sound of Music, South Pacific, and Oklahoma, to name a few.

One of the pieces performed in the second half was “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana; click on this link to hear the Chorale performing it with the Scottsdale Philharmonic Orchestra.

Favorites – Past & Present was sponsored by Andrew Z Diamonds & Fine Jewelry in Anthem, AZ. Visit their website at www.andrewzdiamonds.com.

Misa Azteca

April 2 and 3, 2022

Misa Azteca is a staged, concert piece for orchestra, choir, soloists and pre-Columbian percussion ensemble by composer by composer Joseph Julian Gonzalez. It is based on the “ordinary” and “proper” of the Roman Catholic High Mass and verses from the Cantares Mexicanos, a collection of pre- and post-conquest verse of the Mexica (the Aztecs). Misa Azteca is sung in Latin, Spanish and Nahuatl, hybridizing two cultures and religions into a unique eight-movement, oratorio-style, musical celebration. This concert was presented in collaboration with the Carolyn Eynon Singers. In addition, Mexican-American dancers from Ballet Folklorico of the Ollin Yoliztli Dance Academy in Phoenix gave beautiful, energetic dance performances 45 minutes before the concerts, and visual artists from the Arizona Latino Arts & Culture Center displayed their artworks at the venues, putting everyone in the mood for the Mariachi-style music.

Musical Champagne Salon

March 19, 2022

As always, ProMusica Arizona’s 2022 Musical Champagne Salon was held in an exquisite private home in the Anthem Country Club. Guests were treated to an enjoyable evening of musical performances by talented ProMusica soloists and small ensembles. A wide variety of heavy hors d’oeuvres and desserts, plus champagne, wine, and other beverages, was served and enjoyed indoors and outdoors.

An Arizona Holiday

December 4 and 5, 2021

Our December concert this year was in collaboration with the Arizona Christian University Firestorm Chorale. It featured traditional festive holiday fare as well as works by Arizona composers, most with a connection to ProMusica Arizona. Arrangements of well-known Christmas carols by our own Aaron Smith (tenor section leader), Frank Darmiento (trombone), Dana Graybeal (retired music teacher – Thunderbird HS and Phoenix College), and Craig Bohmler (Riders of the Purple Sage composer and ProMusica Arizona friend) delighted our audiences.

An Arizona Holiday was sponsored by Andrew Z Diamonds & Fine Jewelry in Anthem, AZ. Visit their website at www.andrewzdiamonds.com.

Let Music Live!

October 16 and 17, 2021

Exploring the joy that music brings to our lives, the first concert of our 19th season contained both celebration and contemplation. The program began with “Come to the Music.” Next, “The Awakening” for choir and orchestra by Joseph Martin described a world of silence, then erupted into the joyous exclamation, “Let music never die in me, forever let my spirit sing, let music live!” The Chorale and Women in Song continued this theme throughout the concert, singing texts about how music touches our lives. The orchestra played Beethoven’s powerful “Egmont Overture” and a short Haydn symphony. As the finale, the combined ensembles performed “If Music be the Food of Love, Sing On!”