MICHAEL T ROBERTS
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News/Blog

Zoom-a Zoom Zoom Zoom

10/6/2020

 
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
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...and I've got one of the Golden Girls.

Support Accord's Release of "To Soar" on CD

3/20/2019

 
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Accord Treble Choir (NYC) is releasing a new album, and it will feature my piece "To Soar in Freedom and in Fullness of Power" (text by Walt Whitman), which Accord beautifully premiered this past June. 

You can help support this very worthy endeavor by pre-ordering the album in digital download or CD via their IndieGogo campaign.  Donations of any amount are also accepted, and if you live in the New York area, you can also get tickets to their June concert (where I may have another new piece on the program—TBD), and other in-person perks. 

This will be the first-ever "official" recording of one of my choral pieces. Exciting, needless to say, and I hope you will join me in giving Accord some love as they launch this project in celebration of their 10th anniversary! 

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. 
Buy tickets

​Hope to see you there. 

'To Soar' on video, and more premieres

6/21/2018

 
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!

'Our Names' premiere recording

6/20/2018

 
[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.

Guest-Blogging 'Hymns from a Meadow'

6/18/2018

 
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. 

‘To Soar’ premiering in NYC next month!

5/2/2018

 
Accord Treble Choir will be premiering my a cappella choral piece, “To Soar in Freedom and in Fullness of Power” (poem by Walt Whitman), next month in two NYC performances:

Sunday, June 3, 3:00pm
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
199 Carroll St., Brooklyn, NY

Saturday, June 9, 6:00pm
St. Ignatius of Loyola Episcopal Church
552 West End Ave, New York, NY
(entrance on 87th street)
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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 Fruits of Spring

5/2/2018

 
2018 has been a delightfully busy (by my humble standards) year of choral premieres and performances. Here are two for you to enjoy.  (newsletter readers, open in your browser to hear audio)
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. ​​​

Read More

I’m Going Back to High School!

1/22/2018

 
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

'A Prayer in Spring' to be performed Wednesday at SF Conservatory

1/22/2018

 
A composer-led choir will be performing my setting of Robert Frost’s “A Prayer in Spring” this Wednesday at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I’ll be there—hope you can also make it on short notice. The details:

Wednesday, January 24, 7:30pm
SF Conservatory Recital Hall
50 Oak St., San Francisco
Free admission

'A Prayer in Spring' was the piece I developed at the Choral Chameleon Institute this past summer, and will be conducted by one of my fellow composers from the Institute, Bryan Lin. 

If you miss this one, you can hear 'A Prayer in Spring' (along with the world premiere of 'Rose Pogonias') this April 12 and 15 at Pacific Edge Voices’ spring concerts in SF and Berkeley!

Pacific Edge performs two 'Hymns' next month

11/11/2017

 
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Purchase your tickets to hear Pacific Edge Voices perform two pieces from my new choral cycle, Hymns from a Meadow. One is a world premiere, the other a West Coast premiere; I hope you will come share in the birth of these new works! 

Thursday, December 7, 7:30pm
The Green Room, 401 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco
(Mindy and I will be attending this one)

Friday, December 8, 7:30pm
The Crowden School, 1475 Rose St, Berkeley
​

The Hymns bring together four sublime Robert Frost poems to depict an imagined meadow in northern New England as it changes through the four seasons. (PEV will be performing the remaining two Hymns in their spring concert.)

Along with works by Copland, Lauridsen, and others, December's winter-themed concert will include: 


In Hardwood Groves (World Premiere)
A mezzo-soprano soloist stands in for the poet, watching the autumn leaves fall and pondering nature’s endless cycle of death, decay, and rebirth. The chorus chants the relentless fall of the leaves, “over and over again,” and underlines the central message of the poem with a solemn refrain: “They must go down…They must go down into the dark decayed."

Stars (West Coast Premiere)
Written in the depths of winter, Frost’s stars “countlessly congregate/O’er our tumultuous snow”. They watch humanity dispassionately, “like some snow white Minerva’s snow-white marble eyes,” sharpening the already keen edge of the night’s “wintry winds.” 

​Pacific Edge Voices, under Lynne Morrow's direction, puts together very engaging programs and sings them beautifully. They've been performing my work for ten years now, including a number of premieres, and I'm delighted they've chosen to sing the Hymns.


Listen/watch as PEV performs my arrangement of "Hawai'i '78" this past June. ​​
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