A Tapestry of women's voices

In December, spiritual music usually means ecclesitical Christmas carols. But while "Joy to the World" is as inevitable this time of year as days growing shorter, there are other faiths and other voices to be heard.

Tapestry, a women's vocal ensemble, brings a concert drawn from spiritual sources -- ancient and contemporary -- to Staller Center Sunday afternoon.

Boston-based Tapestry -- Laurie Monahan, Cristi Catt and Daniela Tosic, joined by Sandra Morales-Ramirez (voice and percussion) and Shira Kammen on vielle (a Medieval fiddle) and harp -- present a program of music on an Old Testament theme and an operatic cantata written by Stony Brook University music professor Sheila Silver that premiered last year in Washington, D.C. Silver, who has taught at Stony Brook since 1979, won the 2007 Sackler Prize for composition for her opera "The Wooden Sword."

SOMETHING OLD The first half of Sunday's performance is inspired by the Bible's "Song of Songs," also known as "Song of Solomon," in the Old Testament. "It's spiritual music of shared Jewish and Christian origins," says Monahan. She and her co-founders launched Tapestry in 1995 with a concert performance of Steve Reich's "Tehillim." The group has four recordings on Telarc and two on the German label MDG.

"Song of Songs: Come into My Garden, a Portrait of Sensual and Spiritual Love" combines biblical text, Latin chant, Hebrew cantillation and medieval composition with Israeli songs and modern improvisation. "You'll hear close harmonies in a fascinating palette of old and new," says Monahan. "There's an immediacy and purity about it."

SOMETHING NEW Monahan says she's been looking forward to performing at "Sheila's school" since Tapestry's 2010 collaboration with Silver at the Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler galleries. Silver was commissioned by the Smithsonian to write a cantata for the gallery's "In the Realm of the Buddha" exhibit. "The White Rooster" is her operatic retelling of a Tibetan folk tale performed as a play within a play. Five Tibetan nuns flee into India when one is shot by a Chinese soldier. Taking refuge, they pass the time by enacting a story about suppression, liberation and forgiveness. Finally, help arrives from an unexpected source.

Conceived for four female voices, the cantata weaves traditional Tibetan melodies with chant, harmonies, recitation and arias accompanied by hand drums and Tibetan singing bowls. The bowls are played by tapping them or rubbing the rims as you might a wineglass.

"When we were about to premiere the piece," Silver recalls, "the State Department intervened to say we couldn't mention Tibet or China" because of Beijing's diplomatic sensitivity. "So we couldn't make the nuns Tibetan or the soldier Chinese. But I've decided that the abstraction is OK because it makes the story more universal."

WHAT Tapestry in concert

WHEN | WHERE 3 p.m. Sunday, Staller Center Recital Hall, Stony Brook University

INFO $34; stallercenter .com, 631-632-2787