The Wratislavia Cantans competition winners: mezzo-soprano Sterre Decru and her accompanying ensemble, the Aglica Trio, will perform works by John Tavener, Randall Snyder, Barbara Strozzi, Mieczysław Weinberg, and Francesco Cavalli, reflecting on transience, longing, and the fleeting nature of emotions.

The Italian artist Barbara Strozzi was one of the most acclaimed singers of her time and an exceptionally prolific composer. Her legacy is almost exclusively secular; eight collections of her works were published during her lifetime. The concert programme features Che si può fare from Arias op. 8. The Baroque era will also be represented by a work by Francesco Cavalli. This organist and tenor made history as the composer of highly popular operas, often based on mythological themes. Mythology inspired his three-act Il Giasone, performed at Venice’s Teatro San Cassiano in 1649, based on the story of the quest for the Golden Fleece. The evening will feature the aria Dell’antro magico from that opera. There will also be contemporary music: Two Chinese Songs by American composer and jazz musician Randall Snyder, written to anonymous Chinese texts from the 8th century. Mieczysław Weinberg’s subtle, warm Trio op. 127, will complement the programme. The core of the concert will be four movements from John Tavener’s 1983 collection To a Child Dancing in the Wind, inspired by the poems of William Butler Yeats, particularly their themes of the fragility of existence and the loss of sacrum in the modern world.