Rebecca Clarke passed away on this day in 1979. Here's a little #FlashbackFriday clip of her beautiful setting of Yeat's poem "The Cloths of Heaven" from Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago's 2021 Collaborative Works festival…
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“…For me, Buxtehude’s cantata, “Herr, wenn ich nur dich hab’ “ is a hope-filled prayer turning to whatever higher being is out there for some comfort. The world could definitely use some solace these days, and I think I am drifting towards this musical memory a lot this week, because Buxtehude’s music is a ray of sunlight in what feel like increasingly dark and terrifying times…”
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A lot of this fall is devoted to recording projects - one of my greatest passions as a musician. In just a few weeks, I will be starting another recording project which will have its first sessions towards the end of this month in the United Kingdom: a recording of Rebecca Clarke's songs. I really look forward to sharing more…
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I hope you had a wonderful Summer! My apologies for taking a summer hiatus from the newsletters, but the summer ended up being quite the busy time between the packed concert schedule, navigating some exciting staff transitions at CAIC, and making sure there was a bit of space for a few days of vacation in there, as well…
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“…Yet the dialogue surrounding the subject of identity contains many pitfalls. Paradoxically, the individual can get lost in the heated conversation that inherently arises around the topic. Oftentimes, that discourse becomes reductive…Reduced to our pronouns, our race, our political affiliation, our religion, our nationality, or whatever category becomes the focus, the individual is blended into the oblivion of a colored bar on a graph or section of a pie chart…”
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In the tradition of Yule Logs on TVs everywhere, I went a little wild with the winter holiday stock footage and mixed in a little take on The Christmas Song that Myra Huang and I recorded on a whim…
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“The American Songbag is a ragbag of strips, stripes, and streaks of color from nearly all ends of the earth. The melodies and verses presented here are from diverse regions, from varied human characters and communities, and each is sung differently in different places.” - Carl Sandburg
So begins Carl Sandburg’s introduction to his groundbreaking collection of American folk song, The American Songbag. The anthology would redefine American notions of folk music…”
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