• La Pasión Según San Marcos:
    A Creative Learning Project

    This project began with students from around New York City exploring some of the ritual elements of Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos, a stunning oratorio that tells the story of the Passion through the cultural and musical history of the Latin American people, including Batá drumming from Cuba and Capoeira dance from Brazil. High school singers and their teachers rehearsed the music from La Pasión beginning in the Spring of 2012 and met throughout the calendar year with famed Venezuelan conductor Maria Guinand, to whom the piece is dedicated. 

    The project culminated on March 10, 2013, with a Carnegie Hall performance of La Pasión conducted by Robert Spano, featuring 120 New York City high school singers, members of the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela Choir, professional soloists and the Orquesta la Pasión.

  • Osvaldo Golijov (Chris Lee)

  • On November 3, 2012, many of the student musicians participated in a daylong workshop with Osvaldo Golijov and musicians from Orquesta la Pasión as a way to learn more about the cultural and musical origins of the piece. The below videos capture some of the music-making and learning from the workshop.

    At a workshop with high school students, Composer Osvaldo Golijov shares some of his personal experiences that impacted the development of La Pasión según San Marcos as Creative Learning Project participants share their original compositions inspired by the oratorio.

    Composer Osvaldo Golijov, percussionist Mikael Ringquist and singer/dancer Reynaldo González-Fernández interact with students around Batá, a Cuban ceremonial music derived from Yoruba religious practices in Africa.

    Composer Osvaldo Golijov and pianist/composer Gonzalo Grau discuss the tension of syncopation and share the origins of "Por Qué," a selection from La Pasión según San Marcos that is derived from the mambo music of Cuba.

    Percussionist Marcus Santos helps students learn how to perform some of the Brazilian samba rhythms that Composer Osvaldo Golijov has used in La Pasión según San Marcos.

  • Lead support for La Pasión según San Marcos: A Creative Learning Project is provided by The Irene Diamond Fund.

    La Pasión según San Marcos: A Creative Learning Project is generously underwritten by Martha and Bob Lipp.

    Public support for this program is provided by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.


    Osvaldo Golijov is the holder of the 2012–2013 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall.

    Additional support is provided, in part, by an endowment grant from The Irene Diamond Fund.

    This concert and the Choral Classics series are made possible, in part, by an endowment fund for choral music established by S. Donald Sussman in memory of Judith Arron and Robert Shaw.

    Funding for the Carnegie Hall Live broadcast series is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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