Composer, conductor, Buddhist and model: Inside the restless mind of Eric Whitacre
'It would be Vangelis meets Thomas Tallis,″ he says.
To his surprise, his proposed marriage of electronica and 16th-century vocal music got the thumbs up. Eternity in an Hour debuted at the Royal Albert Hall last year and is poised to make its Australian premiere with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.
Whitacre is a musical rarity: a popular, highly regarded composer, conductor and performer who straddles the divide between classical and contemporary music.
He has an aura of rock star glamour as crosses his Sydney hotel foyer in black jeans and sweater. With collar-length hair and chiselled good looks – he could be Sting's much younger brother – he looks more the techno band member he once was than a conductor at home on podiums around the globe.
It's the third time he has worked with the Philharmonia's young adult ensemble VOX, who co-commissioned the piece with the Proms and Flemish Radio Choir. Whitacre will perform a range of electronics while conducting the work also scored for choir, piano and cello.
Its title is based on a stanza from William Blake's poem Auguries of Innocence:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
Whitacre first read the poem in his early 20s and admires its eloquent meditation on impermanence and the interconnectedness of all things.
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