 Happy New Year, team! In case you missed last month’s International Orange Chorale SF concert, including the premiere of my piece Come to Us in Water, you can catch the recorded livestream on Facebook (registration not required). Not surprisingly, IOC exceeded the high bar they set at the Berkeley concert and performed an amazing show. I’m very lucky to have worked with them as composer-in-residence these past two years. Director Zane Fiala introduces my piece at 52:15, and the music begins at 55:00. (I recommend you catch at least the last minute of Zane’s intro, where he explains the ritual breathing that begins the piece.) The program has a number of fantastic premieres, and if you have some time I hope you’ll give them a listen. Fun tidbit: IOC hands out ballots for audience members to vote on their favorite piece; the winner gets a reprise at a future concert. If you watch the show, you will perhaps not be surprised to hear that the winner—by a country mile, apparently—was ‘Pieces of My Heart’ by Lauren Bydalek (starting at 46:00). I voted for it too. It was the simplest piece on the program, and very beautiful, and clearly that’s what we all needed to hear that night. Can you guess the (distant) 2nd place piece? (Hint: the guy who wrote it is the only one who appears in this video with a mohawk. See 1:23:00.) Thanks for listening/watching. I hope your 2022 is off to a beautiful start! Mike  The Upcoming Concerts page on my website was blank for a long time. But I'm pleased to announce that the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, with whom I have been composer-in-residence since before Covid was a thing (you might remember them as the Zoom choir), will be premiering my newest piece, Come to Us in Water, in two concerts this December:
Saturday, December 4, 7:30pm at Christ Church in Berkeley, CA Saturday, December 18, 7:30pm at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in San Francisco, CA There’s too much going on right now. What this world needs is a video of singers meeting virtually to sing about virtual meetings. Please enjoy Zoom, my first official piece as composer-in-residence with San Francisco’s International Orange Chorale. (It’s three-and-a-half minutes long, and there are lyrics in the video description.) The planned June concerts did not happen, obviously. But I did have a nice Zoom chat with the choir (and two other composers on the program) about the music they had been planning to perform. And in the ensuing conversation I found myself talking about how it can be tough for us as choral composers to write music that really speaks to the moment, because for legal reasons we tend to use public domain text that is, by necessity, old. As I signed off the call, I thought: well, of course we can always write our own text. I could do that again. But what to write about...? You never know what's going to bubble up. I must have needed some levity in my life; at a time when everything feels really, super serious, Zoom is not. But there is a genuine message here: we are getting through all of this together, one day at a time. We couldn’t possibly do it alone. So isn’t it really, really amazing that we have some tools to help us carry on with our business and be with our loved ones whenever we want, even if we are far away? My twice-weekly Zoom chats (and online card games) with my brother in Tennessee and my dad in Florida have helped keep me afloat these past seven months. That’s something to sing about. And I’m really lucky to have this amazing choir to do the singing for me. Hurrah for International Orange Chorale, and hurrah for all of you. Hope everybody’s staying safe in these uncertain times. Lots of love, Mike  ...and I've got one of the Golden Girls.
Meanwhile, back in Oakland...Only three-and-a-half weeks until the Oakland Symphony Chorus premieres Mass for Freedom! Saturday April 13, 8:00pm at the First Congregational Church of Oakland. Hope to see you there. Check out Accord Treble Choir premiering my setting of Walt Whitman's "To Soar in Freedom and in Fullness of Power," June 9 in New York City. (It's less than 3 minutes.) They nailed it. More premieres below! [Newsletter readers, view in browser to hear streaming audio, or download here. About 6 min. long]
The Albany (CA) High School vocal department, led by director Mary Stocker, commissioned me to write two pieces for them this year. The first, The Gift to Sing, is a soul-pop tune premiered in March by the AHS "All-Choir" (i.e., all the singers in the dept.—a big group!) The second, Our Names, is a whole different animal. Sung by the more select Chamber Singers, in a more classical (but still contemporary) style, the text for 'Our Names' was penned by a student in the ensemble, Harpreet Kaur. Lucky for me, the Chamber Singers professionally recorded several pieces this spring, and 'Our Names' was one of them. You can download the recording for free on the Albany High Vocal Department website. Their work is thoughtful, precise, and profound—far beyond their years. I'm very proud and grateful to have worked with them. More on the piece, including text, here. This past year, Pacific Edge Voices became the first choir to perform the entirety of my choral cycle Hymns from a Meadow (poems by Robert Frost).
I penned some thoughts on the piece for PEV's blog ahead of their spring concerts, in which they beautifully performed A Prayer in Spring and gave the world premiere of Rose Pogonias.
Accord’s director, Liz Geisewite, sang soprano in the premiere of “A Prayer in Spring” last summer at the Choral Chameleon Institute. She commissioned me to write this piece for her fantastic ensemble of nine women, and specifically for this concert, titled On Wings. New Yorkers, I hope you can make it to a show!
The Albany High School combined choir successfully premiered “The Gift to Sing” on March 28. I like this recording I made at a late rehearsal, with director Mary banging out the piano part and her very talented students still getting the hang of their parts. It’s raw in a good way.
And having the choral experience I missed the first time around (when I was busy playing guitar in the jazz band—and my rock band, the immortal Flibbertigibbet).
This spring will see the premiere of three commissions I’ve been busy composing for high school choirs. More details forthcoming, but suffice it to say, I am very excited to be writing for some seriously talented students. Quick performance info: March 20, 2018 Premiere of 'Voices from the Freedom March' (mash-up arrangement of six iconic spirituals) Sunset High School Concert Choir, Portland, OR Christopher Rust, director March 28, 2018, 7:00pm Premiere of 'The Gift to Sing' (poem by James Weldon Johnson) Albany High School All-Choir, Mary Stocker, director Albany Veteran’s Memorial Building 1325 Portland Ave., Albany, CA Free admission (donations graciously accepted) May 2018 Commission for Albany High School Concert Choir, text and more precise info TBD |
AuthorComposer Michael T Roberts shares his thoughts on writing, playing, and teaching music. Comments? Please e-mail Mike. Archives
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