Hey all, Happy December!

​Please join me and Dr. Lynne Morrow for a free Oakland Symphony virtual event this Friday, December 4, 3:00-3:45pm Pacific Time.

Lynne and I will discuss the Mass for Freedom, my five-movement work for chorus and orchestra that Lynne commissioned and directed with the Oakland Symphony Chorus last year. I'll play some original recordings of the five spirituals that form the core of the work, and talk about why I was inspired by these particular songs. 

We’ll end with a video showing of the full premiere performance, so if you weren’t able to make the concert, I especially hope you'll check it out! There will be some Q&A afterward. 

Just RSVP here for a link to the Zoom. 

​I'm excited to relive the awesome experience of writing and premiering this work. Hope to see you there! 

Mike

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

Happy summer, friends! 

I'm excited to share some audio with you from the world premiere of Mass for Freedom, this past April 13 in Oakland: 

I've included the first and last movements (Kyrie and Agnus Dei), along with the text. While you're there, check out the great sneak-peek video if you haven't seen it already.

This is a live recording of a first performance, so there are some inevitable bobbles along the way. But these 120-or-so musicians pulled together some pretty tricky music pretty beautifully, thanks to a lot of hard work and the firm direction of Maestra Lynne Morrow. 

I miss working on it and hanging out with all those great musicians. The good news is that Lynne has big plans for the piece in 2020: the Mass is slated to go on tour with the Oakland Symphony Chorus next summer, with plans for performances in southern cities that were significant to the Civil Rights movement (think Selma) as well as Washington, D.C. 

In upcoming posts I'll be sharing other recent premieres: Accord Treble Choir ("New England Song") and International Orange Chorale ("O Child"). 

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. 

Mass for Freedom re-explores the sacred roots of five African-American spirituals that became anthems of protest during the Civil Rights movement. Scored for large mixed chorus and a 24-piece chamber orchestra, the work combines the spirituals with text from the Latin Mass Ordinary (in English translation) and additional words by a certain Michael T. Roberts, M.M., A.B., D.A. 

Advance tickets are $20. All seating is general admission. 

Oakland Symphony Chorus Spring Concert
Lynne Morrow, director
Saturday, April 13, 2019, 8:00pm
First Congregational Church
2501 Harrison St. 
Oakland, CA 

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!