This concert focused on the environment features the world premiere of Praeordinatus Ut Astra Sacrificia Nostra ("Fore-Ordained As Stars Our Sacrifices") by MIT alumnus and Tony Award-winning composer Jamshied Sharifi, commissioned for the Linde Music Building's opening season. The title comes from W. S. Merwin's poem "For a Coming Extinction," which addresses human-caused mass species extinction.
The program includes In Praise of the Humpback, arranged by Fred Harris and performed in memory of biologist and environmentalist Roger Payne, who discovered humpback whale songs in 1967. Sharifi's To the Light, to the Flame, inspired by Mary Oliver's poem "The Summer Day," joins other works for small and large ensembles celebrating nature's beauty and power. Remarks from MIT President Sally Kornbluth complete the event.
Program
Miguel Zenón (b.1976)
Summit (2025)
MIT Wind Ensemble
Jamshied Sharifi ‘83 (b.1960)
To The Light, To The Flame (2014)
Dedicated to the memory of Keith and Debra Stransky
Satoshi Yagisawa (b.1975)
Divertimento (2006)
V. Arioso
VI. Feroce
MIT Wind Ensemble Flutes
Alexandre Glazounow (1865-1936)
Quartet for Saxophones (1932)
II. Canzona variée
IV. Variation à la Chopin
MIT Wind Ensemble Saxophone Quartet
André Lafosse (1890-1975) arr. Michael Peters (G)
Epithalame
from Suite Impromptu (1948/arr.2025)
MIT Wind Ensemble Brass
Paul Halley text by Wendell Berry (b.1952)
What Stood Will Stand (1996)
MIT Chamber Chorus, Ryan Turner, conductor
Peter Godart ‘15, ‘19, ‘21
For Roger Payne (2025)
Arr. F. Harris, with chorale by Jamshied Sharifi
In Praise of the Humpback Whale (2019)
Humpback whales, MITWE, MIT Concert Choir, MIT Chamber Chorus, Peter Godart, piano, Evan Ziporyn, bass clarinet
Remarks
Dr. Sally Kornbluth, MIT President
Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935) arr. Evan Ziporyn
Corta Jaca (1895/2023)
MIT Wind Ensemble Clarinets with Evan Ziporyn (bass clarinet), Laura Grill Jaye (ukulele), Emily Albornoz (guitar), and Frank Wang (pandeiro)
Remarks
Jamshied Sharifi ‘83
Jamshied Sharifi ‘83 , lyrics: Layla Sakamoto Sharifi & Jamshied Sharifi
Praeordinatus Ut Astra Sacrificia Nostra (“Fore-Ordained As Stars Our Sacrifices) (2025)
World Premiere
MITWE, MIT Concert Choir, MIT Chamber Chorus, and guest vocalists
Notes
Zenón | Summit
This piece started off as a Brass Fanfare, and it was specifically written as an opener for tonight’s show. I was shooting for something that made a statement right away, while also using the idea of “groove” as a driving force. I eventually started to think about Brass Bands from various musical traditions (like the ones in New Orleans or in the Balkans, for example) and tried to incorporate that feeling into the composition. The title sort of has two meanings. The first is a mountain top, or the top of a structure (which is where the ensemble will be placed for tonight’s performance). The second one is a gathering of great minds and great leaders, which is what MIT feels like to me.
- Miguel Zenón
Jamshied Sharifi ‘83 | To the Light, To the Flame
I wrote “To The Light, To The Flame” in 2015, as a response to the loss of two friends, both around my age, both unexpected losses. It is a meditation on the fragility of our lives, on the paradoxical sense of them being both long and brief, and on the need and wish and desire to live presently, fully, and with intention. It was a gift to the M.I.T. Wind Ensemble and to Fred Harris, and it gave me great pleasure that it found a place as the opening of MIT’s 2020 online commencement certain during the pandemic, a time of loss and uncertainty. While writing the piece I came back several times to Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day.” It was in some way a guide to the composition. I wish the M.I.T Class of 2020 the best at this threshold in their lives.
Halley | What Stood Will Stand
Paul Halley composed What Stood Will Stand for a service at New York City’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine when Wendell Berry gave the sermon. The piece is a “primal Sabbath’s hymn” that celebrates the good and wholesome things that Berry prophesies “will stand, though all be fallen.” Halley punctuates that hopeful promise with many ecstatic Alleluias, concluding with the Nicene Creed’s chanted promise of “the life of the world to come.” Follow along with the lyrics here.
Gonzaga/arr. Ziporyn | Corta Jaca
Composed by Chiquinha Gonzaga in 1895 and originally titled Gaúcho, Corta Jaca
(roughly “Cut the Jackfruit”) is a maxixe—a vibrant dance form blending European polka with Afro-Brazilian rhythms, laying the foundation for choro and samba. My arrangement for multiple clarinets is based on the version recorded by Abel Ferreira, who helped define Brazilian clarinet playing in the mid-20th century. I’m thrilled to perform the piece with my fellow MIT clarinetists, many of whom first played it with me during the MIT Wind Ensemble’s 2023 tour of Brazil.
- Evan Ziporyn
Sharifi | Praeordinatus Ut Astra Sacrificia Nostra (“Fore-Ordained As Stars Our Sacrifices)
Layla Sakamoto Sharifi is a student, writer, and musician living in New York City
“Praeordinatus Ut Astra Sacrificia Nostra" (“Fore-Ordained As Stars Our Sacrifices”) addresses the ongoing and seemingly unstoppable human destruction of the natural world; specifically human-caused mass extinction, which according to the science is happening a rate more than a thousand times the background rate. These extinctions are almost certainly caused by habitat destruction, overkilling, pollution, and climate change, and show no signs of slowing.
The piece begins with a recitation of the taxonomic names of species lost to human activity, leading to a brief, intense lamentation. This is followed by an instrumental interlude, and a meditation on death, grief, and loss – a setting of the poem “Graves”, by Layla Sakamoto Sharifi, written for this composition.
The title is a line from the poem “For a Coming Extinction” by W. S. Merwin.
Ursus arctos californicus (California Grizzly Bear)
Taudactylus diurnus (Mount Glorious Day Frog)
Cervus canadensis canadensis (Eastern Elk)
Alinea luciae (Saint Lucia Skink)
Carcharias taurus europaeus (Mediterranean Sand Tiger Shark)
Mundia elpenor (Ascension Crake)
Diceros bicornis longipes (Western Black Rhinoceros)
Felis tigris sondaicus (Javan Tiger)
Nesiota elliptica (Saint Helena Olive Tree)
Ninox albifacies (Laughing Owl)
Glaucopsyche xerces (Xerces Blue Butterfly)
Corvus viriosus (Robust Crow)
Struthio camelus syriacus (Arabian Ostrich)
Zalophus japonicus (Japanese Sea Lion)
Ceratotherium simum cottoni (Northern White Rhinoceros)
Loxodonta africana pharaohensis (North African Elephant)
Cylindraspis indica (Reunion Giant Tortoise)
Mortuus! (Dead!)
Extincti! (Extinct!)
Mortuus! (Dead!)
Extincti! (Extinct!)
Mortuus! (Dead!)
Extincti! (Extinct!)
Mortuus! (Dead!)
We came upon a gravestone, green
Hollow, drained like droughts, fire, bird bones
Mourned out like Earth beneath us
Words faded flat, stains
Swallowed, cracked, by wild things
Turn stone rock,
and turn death feral
The cure for grief…
Break it open
Our graves will turn green
Our bones will turn to rock
The ground above will grieve
But it all goes on turning
Over and over again
