Celebrate Sacred & Profane’s 40th Year of bringing exquisite concerts to the Bay Area and the Mendocino coast with a program of masterpieces for a cappella choir at Gualala Arts Center on Saturday, May 19, at 7:00pm.

     Tickets are $20 in advance, plus $5 the day of the concert. Youth 7-17 are admitted free with an adult. Purchase tickets at BrownPaperTickets.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006 or in person at the Arts Center or Dolphin Gallery.

     Sacred & Profane is a chamber chorus committed to the accomplished presentation of the rich and varied art of a cappella choral music. The repertoire encompasses a diverse blend of styles and periods, including medieval thru contemporary, sacred and secular, traditional, ethnic, and folk styles.

     This concert will feature the Estonian composer Veljo Tormis’ Curse Upon Iron, a powerful work about the cultivation of iron as a vehicle for both ancient and modern warfare, as well as Arvo Part’s antiphon for peace, Da pacem Domine.”

     For the first time in many years, the chorus will sing its namesake work — Benjamin Britten’s Sacred and Profane: Eight Medieval Lyrics, the last piece that Britten composed for professional a cappella choir. The season will conclude with the world premiere of a new work commissioned from the compelling Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist.