COLLABORATIVE WORKS FESTIVAL: AMERICAN SPIRIT
A festival of concerts which explored the complicated relationship between America and religion.
CONCERT I
THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS
presented in partnership with The Poetry Foundation
Nicole Heaston, soprano
Laquita Mitchell, soprano
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Michael Brown, piano
Shannon McGinnis, piano
PROGRAM
Considered by many to be the first notable American intellectual movement, transcendentalism has had a profound influence on succeeding generations of intellectuals and American artists of all stripes since its beginnings in 1820s and 30s New England. Established as a major cultural phenomenon in 1836 with the publication of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s definitive essay, Nature, the movement had its impact upon future generations built into its core ideals of independence of intellectual thought and original insight. With a central philosophy that encouraged people to immerse themselves in nature and isolate themselves from society’s institutions in order to discover Truth, the movement has been a natural draw for artists, including poets and composers, particularly those who have aimed to distinguish the American classical arts from their European ancestors, and define what they perceive as an authentic and distinct American voice.
C. IVES: selected songs
N. ROREM: selected settings of Walt Whitman
A. COPLAND: Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (sel.)
L. HOIBY: The Shining Place
CONCERT II
THE SPIRITUAL
Nicole Heaston, soprano
Laquita Mitchell, soprano
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Michael Brown, piano
Shannon McGinnis, piano
PROGRAM
When thinking about the United States’ beginnings, we often think of the Pilgrims, whose famous meal with the Native Americans they encountered upon landing here we attempt to recreate every year at Thanksgiving. These pilgrims represent the two basic principles upon which the United States’ foundation is based: the search for both economic and religious freedom. While faith and religion have played a fundamental part in the evolution of American identity, American composers have developed a distinctly unique relationship with these topics in contrast with their European counterparts.
Much of the music written by American classical composers that deals with faith and spirituality has been written in a distinctly secular context. The American composer has generally only encountered this subject in the form of an artistic meditation on faith, in a way that in recent years has become in fashion to call ‘spiritual’.
L. BERNSTEIN: Simple Song from Mass
S. BARBER: Hermit Songs
A. COPLAND: Old American Songs (sel.)
J. HARBISON: Mirabai Songs
J. CARTER: Cantata