As the new calendar year begins, I am excited to be working on (or finishing up!) a number of recent commissions.
My husband Tom and I just recently finished up new works for organ and soprano, commissioned by Jim and Grace Roman. I set a wonderful poem called “Verde embeleso” by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Tom set Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s “The Dying Child to Her Blind Father.” We both had a fantastic time exploring these stunning texts by writers who should be better known than they are currently, and writing for these wonderful performers. Grace is associate director of music and fine arts at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and a voice teacher at Bridges Academy of Fine Arts in Houston, and Jim is associate organist also at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. Both are highly accomplished musicians and we can’t wait to hear them perform the pieces sometime in the new year!
As they announced a few weeks ago, I am very pleased to be working with the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church, Oxford and their director James Potter on an anthem to be premiered during the 2021-2022 season. I am writing an anthem centered around Hagar’s verses in Genesis – she is the first person in the Bible to name God. As part of this initiative, the Cathedral Singers are also commissioning composers Bertie Baigent, Alison Willis, and Ben Rowarth.
I am honored to be working with Dr. James Jordan and Westminster Williamson Voices on a commission for a distanced, recorded performance in the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul this spring, health regulations and conditions permitting. I have set Emma Lazarus' “The New Colossus” in a piece designed to take advantage of the spacial possibilities of a distanced ensemble using inspiration from Shape Note music, as well as from the Shape Note-inspired works of composer William Duckworth, a favorite of both of ours. It was a pleasure to set such an iconic and idealistic American text in this idiom. Grammy®-nominated Westminster Williamson Voices is one of the most accomplished collegiate choral ensembles in the country, described by Gramophone as an ensemble of “intimate and forceful choral artistry.” James Jordan is known around the choral world as one of its most pre-eminent conductors and clinicians, and has authored more than 30 books on all aspects of the choral art.
Also for a distanced performance in the spring (conditions permitting), I am working on a commission for Nazareth College Chamber Singers and their director Brian Stevens. Brian is a great friend to many composers and has performed other works of mine a number of times, so I am thrilled to be working with him on something brand new. In honor of his love of bird-watching, I am setting Oxford poet Mary Anne Clark’s tribute to some of the most resilient birds on earth, “The Arctic Tern’s Prayer.” It is a stunning poem, and I sincerely hope to set more of her work in the future!
Moving slightly farther into the future, I am looking forward to working with Jeremy D. Jones and the Miami University Men’s Glee Club on a new work on the theme of “journeying.” The Glee Club is one of the nations oldest and largest collegiate choral ensembles, and you can hear their wonderful work on their recent album We Are. They are working with the National Collegiate Choral Organization to commission works by female-identified composers for men’s choirs/lower voices.
I am also writing a piece for Roger Bevan Williams and St Machar’s Cathedral Choir in Aberdeen, in hono(u)r of the 500th anniversary of the heraldic ceiling – one of the few to survive the Reformation. I enjoyed singing at St Machar’s very much during my final years in Aberdeen, and I am looking forward to writing this piece to mark the occasion. I will be writing a short canon or round to represent each one of the shields in the middle row, which I hope will give the Choir some great options and flexibility with how they perform the piece!
I am truly thankful to be working with every single one of these ensembles, and I welcome the opportunity to keep busy in the coming months!