Eric Whitacre's Eternity in an Hour Premieres in Cleveland
Eric Whitacre leads The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in the North American premiere of his recent work Eternity in an Hour.
Eric Whitacre's Eternity in an Hour receives its North American premiere on October 24 with The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and members of The Cleveland Orchestra, led by the composer. The day before, on October 23, the world premiere recording is released on Decca Classics, featuring the Eric Whitacre Singers. The hour-long work received its world premiere at the 2024 BBC Proms and subsequent Australian premiere with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in June 2025, which Limelight praised as “cinematic, meditative, calming, and completely unforgettable.”
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Drawing upon text from William Blake's Auguries of Innocence, Whitacre describes how his new work aims to reflect how Blake explores “that elusive state where past and future cease to exist and all that remains is a profound sense of wonder in even the most ordinary objects. My hope with Eternity in an Hour is that the music will help the listener (and the performers, and candidly, me) experience a little bit of that awe and timelessness.”
Eternity in an Hour expands upon the opening four lines of William Blake's 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.
“I decided to take those four lines and then see if I could create an hour-long piece that was, in a way, a journey deeper and deeper into that grain of sand. And hopefully find at the end of it that there is an essential magnificence that is as grand and beautiful as anything large or seemingly phenomenal. Even in the simple there is perfection," says Whitacre.
Eternity in an Hour is scored for choir, cello, piano, and electronics, which Whitacre developed in collaboration with electronics artist Lesjamusic. Whitacre describes the interaction between the choir and electronics:
“The goal is to make this seamless. I'm not thinking of it as electronics accompanying the choir and the strings and the piano. It's more a dance between all of the instruments and, in some cases, the voices. [...] So, there is a constant dialogue between all the musicians on stage. Hopefully it creates something that sounds both very ancient and very new at the same time.”
Looking ahead, Eternity in an Hour receives its Spanish premiere on November 8 with the Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana, where Whitacre serves as Guest Composer for the 2026–2027 season. The work receives its West Coast premiere with the Los Angeles Master Chorale on January 31. On April 10, the Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana also gives the Spanish premiere of The Sacred Veil.
Concert Information
Saturday, October 24 at 7:30pm EDT
Severance Music Center | Cleveland
More info
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
Members of The Cleveland Orchestra
Lisa Wong, Director of Choruses
Eric Whitacre, conductor
JOHN CORIGLIANO Fern Hill
ERIC WHITACRE Eternity in an Hour (North American Premiere)
> Further information on Work: Eternity in an Hour
Photo: Marc Royce