LET MY LOVE BE HEARD

This compelling program features a commissioned work, Truth,  by indigenous artist Sage Bond and arranged by Zanaida Robles.  It asks urgent questions about who is seen and heard, historically and into the present day.

Sage Bond says, in part, 

Mother, hold my hand
Hold on to the price of my life

Tears haven’t dried, always in strife…
Awaken now creation of a day, can you dream for me?

In How Can I Cry, artist Moira Smiley sets a lament that “is about singing for those who cannot sing, or who have been told to be quiet.”  She questions her right to sing for others, asking “How can I cry about freedom, when I have lived a whole life of liberty?”  

We look to Mari Valverde’s When Thunder Comes to acknowledge the power of coming together in community to impact change and Kyle Pederson’s Reconcile, which calls us into consciousness toward healing and awareness. 

Let my love be heard, by Jake Runestad, underscores the universality of loss and grief and the gentle healing love offers:

And as grief once more
Mounts to heaven and sings
Let my love be heard
Whispering in your wings

Featured on the second half of our program, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, by Black English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, is a celebration of Native American heritage through a multi-cultural fusion of Native American legend, 19th century American poetic fiction, and English late-romanticism. The London premier of Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast in 1898 was a smashing success, resulting in overnight fame and respect that few men of color could have hoped to enjoy in the early twentieth century. Because of Coleridge-Taylor's incredible success in a field dominated by white males at a time when racism in America was peaking, Coleridge-Taylor’s influence on Black American artists and intellectuals was powerful and far-reaching.  

The work was last performed at Carnegie Hall in 1915 when it was performed as part of a "Concert of Negro Music" conducted by renowned conductor/composer J. Rosamund Johnson (Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing). It is regrettable that such a monumental work declined into virtual obscurity after Coleridge-Taylor's death at the young age of 37 in 1912. But with our performance this evening, we shine light on this fantastic work by this amazing composer, a composer who can still inspire the American musical community, just as he did a century ago.

FULL PROGRAM

FOUNTAIN VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL TROUBADOURS

KEVIN TISON, Director

DAN FORREST Light Beyond Shadow

ALEXANDRIA HILL, Violinist

CHRISTINE WU, Violinist

THOMAS DUBOSKI, Violist

KEVIN MILLS, Cellist

GARRETT YOUNG, Pianist

TRADITIONAL SPIRITUAL Hold On, arr. Moses Hogan

NATIONAL CONCERT CHORUS

SANDRA SNOW, Guest Conductor

CASEY COOK, Collaborative Pianist

SUSAN & BRIAN GAUKEL, Projection Designers

MARI VALVERDE When Thunder Comes

Fumi Tanakadate, chū-daiko

Midori Kaneko Larsen, chū-daiko

Barbara Merjan, shime-daiko

KYLE PEDERSON Reconcile

Fumi Tanakadate, Drummer

MOIRA SMILEY How Can I Cry

Andrii Strelkivskyi, Dancer

Kyle Motl, Bassist

SAGE BOND Truth (World Premiere), arr. Zanaida Stewart Robles

Sage Bond, Guitarist and Soloist

Kyle Motl, Bassist

Fumi Tanakadate, Drummer

JAKE RUNESTAD Let My Love Be Heard

NATIONAL MASTERWORK CHORUS

HARVARD-WESTLAKE UPPER SCHOOL SYMPHONY

ZANAIDA STEWART ROBLES, Conductor

MARK HILT, Conductor

JOHN ROSAMUND JOHNSON Lift Every Voice and Sing, arr. Zanaida Stewart Robles

WILLIAM GRANT STILL Punto from Danzas de Panama

BRENT MICHAEL DAVIDS Indigenous/Undigenous II: Lenape

SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast

CHAUNCEY PACKER, Tenor