In a moment when the world can feel overwhelming, I Sing the Body Electric offers something joyful, human, and deeply needed: a celebration of the body and the connections that make us whole.

The International Orange Chorale of San Francisco invites you to an evening of vibrant choral music exploring embodiment, movement, love, and the profound beauty of being alive in a human body.

Artistic Director Chris Filice has crafted a program that embraces joy as an act of resistance. At a time when messages about bodies can feel politicized or divisive, this concert makes a simple, powerful statement:

Every body deserves safety, love, and joy.
The program unfolds in four musical chapters:

Embodiment

We begin with music that invites us to return to ourselves — to inhabit our bodies fully and consciously. Dave Malloy’s haunting Prayer opens the evening with singers placed throughout the space, surrounding the audience in sound before flowing directly into Ingrid Stölzel’s luminous meditation Into Being.

Movement

A set of folk-inspired dance works celebrates the body in motion, reminding us that singing is not just sound — it’s physical expression, breath, rhythm, and presence.

Celebration

The centerpiece of the concert is the electrifying title work, I Sing the Body Electric, a thrilling choral tour de force inspired by Walt Whitman’s ecstatic poetry about the human form.

Connection

The program concludes with music about the relationships that make our bodies meaningful — love, intimacy, friendship, and shared humanity — including Nick Weininger’s joyful setting of ee cummings’ i like my body when it is with your and Ayanna Woods’ radiant Golden Hour, which reminds us that we are, quite literally, made of sunlight.

Following the concert, we warmly invite you to stay for a post-show reception, where you can meet members of the ensemble, connect with fellow audience members, and celebrate the music together. Composer and IOCSF member Nick Weininger will also be in attendance.

We hope you’ll join us for an evening that is playful, heartfelt, and deeply human.

I Sing the Body Electric - Berkeley