For Immediate Release: September 15, 2025

Anima Mundi Productions’ 2025-26 concert season is a love letter to our planet, with three concerts and multimedia productions featuring music that celebrates the beauty of nature and calls attention to endangered plants and animals. As co-artistic director Tiziana DellaRovere said, “music and art are powerful ways to inspire feelings of compassion for all creatures and to be loving stewards of our environment.”

Mass for the Endangered: Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 3:00pm

The first of these events is a unique film presentation of a work of music, poetry, and video animation called Mass for the Endangered by composer Sarah Kirkland Snider (praised for “An unerring knack for breathtaking beauty”–The New Yorker) with art and poetry by Nathaniel Bellows. The piece, which reimagines the Mass as a tender but urgent prayer for our planet, is performed by the world-renowned British vocal ensemble and chamber orchestra, Gallicantus.

This screening will take place in the ScienceWorks Museum at 1500 E. Main St. in Ashland, and will also include opportunities to take part in a community art project led by artist Karen Hanken and learn more about the endangered animals of our region.

Singer Cecilia Duarte with percussionist Jesús Pacheco and pianist Ana Maria Otamendi:
Sunday, March 22, 2026 at 3:00pm
SOU Music Recital Hall, 450 S Mountain Ave, Ashland

The season continues in March with Grammy Award-winning Mexican-American singer Cecilia Duarte, offering an enchanting program of songs about nature that spans centuries, genres, and languages. Duarte has been praised by The New York Times for her “creamy-voiced mezzo-soprano,” and has been featured in leading roles at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, and beyond. She’ll be accompanied by Spanish percussionist Jesús Pacheco and Venezuelan pianist Ana María Otamendi.

Pianist Daniel del Pino: Sunday, May 31, 2026 at 3:00pm
SOU Music Recital Hall, 450 S Mountain Ave, Ashland

Virtuoso pianist Daniel del Pino returns to Ashland following his sold-out performance with cellist Amit Peled last year for a Flamenco-infused journey on themes of nature, punctuated with new poems from resident poet Tiziana DellaRovere. The winner of six international competitions, including the prestigious Steinberg International, del Pino has captivated audiences worldwide from Carnegie Hall to Madrid's Auditorio Nacional and has been described by the Spanish press as "Deservedly considered one of the best Spanish pianists of our time."

SPECIAL CONCERT:
Shireen Abu-Khader and the Usul Ensemble: Sunday, December 7, 2025
SOU Music Recital Hall, 450 S Mountain Ave, Ashland

An ambassador for the Arabic musical tradition, Palestinian-Jordanian-Canadian vocalist and composer Shireen Abu-Khader leads the mixed vocal/instrumental Usul Ensemble in an enchanting concert of captivating melodies from the Levant, featuring Sufi-inspired songs, timeless Arab classics, and stirring folkloric compositions.

This concert was previously scheduled for our 2024-25 season, but was postponed due to the artist’s health issues. Anima Mundi Productions is proud to present this extraordinary international ensemble at this time of escalating conflict. According to executive director Ethan Gans-Morse, “music has the power to undo the dehumanizing effects of war by opening our hearts to the grief and suffering and hope and longing expressed through each culture’s musical tradition, so that we come to know them as human beings, restoring the humanity that violence strips away.”

For more information and for tickets, please call (541) 833-3066 ext. 1 or visit www.HumanityTickets.com

FREE CULTURAL EVENT:
Experience Middle Eastern Food & Culture: Friday, December 5, 2025

Anima Mundi Productions is partnering with Ashland Together and Chef Jacki Rosen to offer a free evening of Middle Eastern food, music, and cultural learning with Dr. Abu-Khader, supported by the Ashland Food Coop. Full details:

Friday, December 5, 2025
7:00-8:30 pm Wesley Hall, Ashland Methodist Church
175 N Main St. (on the corner of Laurel St.)
RSVP at www.AnimaMundiProductions.com/RSVP-2025
This event is free but RSVP is required as space is limited. There will be opportunities at this event to support humanitarian food aid in Palestine.

About the Heart of Humanity Series

Now in its seventh season, Anima Mundi Productions’ annual concert series is dedicated to bringing world-class musicians to Southern Oregon for musical events that turn the concert hall into a space for renewed hope, communal healing, and mutual understanding.