An accomplished composer, conductor, and lecturer, Eric Whitacre has received composition awards from ASCAP, the Barlow International Composition Competition, the American Choral Directors Association, and the American Composers Forum. In 2001 he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the coveted Raymond C. Brock commission by the American Choral Directors Association; commercially he has worked with such luminaries as Barbra Streisand and Marvin Hamlisch. In the last ten years he has conducted concerts of his choral and symphonic music in Japan, Australia, China, Singapore, and much of Europe, as well as at dozens of American universities and colleges where he regularly conducts seminars and lectures with young musicians. He received his M.M. in composition from the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied composition with Pulitzer Prize-winner John Corigliano.

This Marriage, which sets a beautiful love poem by the 13th-century Persian poet, Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, was written in 2005 as a gift to his wife, celebrated soprano Hila Plitmann, on the occasion of their seventh wedding anniversary.

Here is the complete text:

May these vows and this marriage

be blessed.

May it be sweet milk,

like wine and halvah.

May this marriage offer fruit and shade

like the date palm.

May this marriage be full of laughter,

our everyday a day in paradise.

May this marriage be a sign of compassion,

a seal of happiness,

here and hereafter.

May this marriage have a fair face

and a good name,

an omen as welcomes the moon in a

clear blue sky.

I am out of words to describe

how spirit mingles in this marriage.

04/07