CAE Presents: Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil

Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 7:30pm
Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 3:00pm

Rose City Park United Methodist Church

This concert will run approximately 70 minutes, without intermission.

Adult/Senior – $22 in advance / $30 day-of and at the door
Student – $5 in advance and at the door
Pay what you can – This ticket option is designed to make CAE concerts accessible to those who find our standard ticket pricing might prevent them from attending our concerts.

The most recent collaboration between Eric Whitacre and poet/lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri, The Sacred Veil captures the human experience through an intimate and compelling story of life, love and loss. Silvestri’s wife, Julie, died of ovarian cancer at age 36 in 2005, leaving two young children. Including texts from Silvestri, Whitacre, and Julie herself, the profoundly moving score tells a story of courtship, love, loss, and the search for solace.

The lyrics are also used to evoke Silvestri’s concept of a thin veil that separates the past from the future, the living from the dead, the temporal from the eternal. Whitacre’s profoundly moving score uses simple melodies played by the piano and a solo cello to provide a ground for the sometimes straightforward, sometimes soaringly complex choral parts.

The Sacred Veil is one of the most important musical works of our time, a work of cathartic and transformative art that captures the human experience, and that resonates universally for anyone whose grief—recent or deep-seated—has never completely found closure.

We are presenting these concerts in partnership with the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Oregon & SW Washington (OCAOSW). A portion of proceeds will support OCAOSW’s work to build community, expand educational outreach, and create spaces where people facing ovarian cancer feel seen and supported.

We hope you can join us for these special concerts that highlight how choral music can reach the heart and heal the soul.