Late August concerts debut new music from local composer about Mary, Dante
August 13, 2024
(Photo courtesy of Daniel Knaggs)
HOUSTON — A Houston-based composer is set to bring together a group of musicians for the performances of “Dante e la Donna: Journeying through earthly to celestial love” set for Aug. 30 and 31 at 7:30 p.m. at Cullen Hall at the University of St. Thomas (UST), located at 4001 Mt. Vernon St. in Houston.
Sponsored by Cor Mundi Center for Sacred Music and the University of St. Thomas, Dante e la Donna features rare and new music by Daniel Knaggs. From Zita di Lucca (chamber opera about St. Zita) to the unveiling of the 20th annual Ave Maria in composer Knaggs’ 50-Year Ave Maria Project (2004-2054), performers include the UST Choir, Monarch Chamber Players and featured soloists.
Houstonian Knaggs has earned an increasingly international reputation. In 2022, his music was performed in Asia, Australia, Europe, Canada and throughout the U.S.
While completing his doctorate in music composition at Rice University, Knaggs became director of music at St. Martha Catholic Church in Kingwood, where he led the music program from 2016 to 2019. In the fall of 2019, he became a full-time professor of music composition and theory at the College of Wooster in Ohio, before he began freelancing in 2022.
“It was a crossroads,” Knaggs said. “On one hand, the college was very good to me and provided security. Yet that position was, by default, taking my life in a direction that was not right for me.”
In early 2022, Knaggs founded a professional chamber choir in Poland called Ensemble Invocatio. He also started a nonprofit organization, Cor Mundi Center for Sacred Music, and had been accumulating important commissions.
“After seeking the wisdom of people I trust, I discerned that I had to go all in to give these endeavors a fighting chance,” Knaggs said.
This decision led Knaggs and his growing group of collaborators on adventure after adventure, the next one being Dante e la Donna. Knaggs began to conceptualize Dante e la Donna soon after composing his first chamber opera, Zita di Lucca, commissioned by and premiered at the 2023 Puccini Chamber Opera Festival in Lucca, Italy.
This opera recounts the moving story of St. Zita as seen through the eyes (and dialect) of her contemporary, Dante Alighieri, who, in his Inferno, referred to her as “St. Zita” nearly 400 years before she was even canonized. Knaggs found inspiration in the life of this extraordinary donna (woman) and thought it would provide unusual and compelling material for musical storytelling on stage.
Noting the brief duration of Zita di Lucca, Knaggs composed Dante Songs as a sort of prelude to the opera. These four song-settings of love poetry by Dante call to mind his beloved Beatrice while also foreshadowing a more celestial love to be found in St. Zita.
With Dante Songs and Zita di Lucca forming the first half of a concert, Knaggs continued the musical journey in a second half with celestial, angelic music about Dante’s ultimate donna: the Blessed Virgin Mary.
For Knaggs’s Three Marian Hymns, he won the first prize in the first International “Turoldo” Musica Sacra Competition in Italy (2011). Now, the UST Choir, led by Brady Knapp, will give these hymns their first-ever performance outside of Italy.
The evening culminates in the unveiling of Knaggs’ newest addition to his ongoing 50-Year Ave Maria Project, his ambitious undertaking of composing a new Ave Maria each year for 50 consecutive years. This year’s Ave Maria No. 20 includes a passage from Dante’s Paradiso, which sings of the power and tenderness of the Blessed Mother’s love for all people.
To purchase tickets for the Aug. 30 and 31 concerts, visit ddconcert.eventbrite.com, and for ongoing updates and videos, subscribe to Knaggs’ YouTube Channel at tiny.cc/DKYouTube and the Cor Mundi e-letter at tiny.cc/CorMundiList.