Shining Night: A Portrait of Morten Lauridsen
Presented by Cathedral Voices
Cathedral Voices presents a screening of
Shining Night: A Portrait of Morten Lauridsen
Saturday, November 2 at 6PM
Room #305 - The Center
Shining Night offers a glimpse into the life and music of one of America's greatest contemporary composers, National Medal of Arts recipient Morten Lauridsen, who has written much of his remarkable music in his rustic cabin on Waldron Island and his home on San Juan Island. He has been called 'the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic' by musicologist Nick Strimple.
Exploring the relationship of art, nature, and spirituality, Shining Night reveals the composer through the lens of his love for the natural world together with his passion for music and poetry, interwoven with commentaries from composers, conductors, singers, and friends.
Filmed between 2010-2011 in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Aberdeen, Scotland, and Waldron Island, the documentary conveys the richness and breadth of the award-winning composer's life, with a soundtrack featuring his masterworks- Lux Aeterna, O Magnum Mysterium, Nocturnes (Sa Nuit D'Ete, Soneto de la Noche, and Sure On This Shining Night), Dirait-on and Madrigali.
Since opening in Palm Springs, California on February 7, 2012, the film is winner of four Best Documentary awards at US Film Festivals. Now being screened throughout the world, Shining Night was named 'a heartening rarity' by Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal. Directed by Michael Stillwater and co-produced with his wife Doris Laesser Stillwater, it gives audiences a rare encounter with music that inspires humanity and conveys a spiritual transmission to singers and audiences alike.