Program in brief

Sicut cervus
Rosephanye Powell (b. 1962)

This powerful and ethereal setting of Psalm 42 evokes the mysticism and otherworldly quality of plainchant. The contemplative ending offers, in its final moment, a harmonic ray of hope.
Sung in Latin. With Prime Voci of the Seattle Girls Choir (March 8 concert only).

Draw on,  sweet night
Casey Rule (b. 1989)

A beautiful contemporary adaptation of a Renaissance madrigal by John Wilbye (1574–1638).
Sung in English.

I am music
Dale Trumbore (b. 1987)

This setting of an anonymous text full of vivid imagery and mystery describes the many moods and emotions that music can evoke, as told from the point of view of music itself: “I tell the story of love, the story of hate, the story that saves, and damns.”
Sung in English.

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

“What would it sound like if Leonardo da Vinci were dreaming? And more specifically, what kind of music would fill the mind of such a genius? The drama would tell the story of Leonardo being tormented by the calling of the air, tortured to such a degree that his only recourse was to solve the riddle and figure out how to fly.”
Sung in English, with Italian fragments taken from the notebooks of Leonardo.

Treputė Martela
Vaclovas Augustinas (b. 1959)

Based on an old Lithuanian folk song, the text tells of a young girl plucking, stretching, and spinning flax while dancing at the same time.
Sung in Lithuanian.

Gitanjali

Karen P. Thomas (b. 1957)

This is a setting of a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, the renowned Bengali poet, artist, composer, and winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature. The title translates to “a prayer offering of songs.”
Sung in English.

Still wie die Nacht
Mari Esabel Valverde (b. 1987)

A lushly chromatic setting of the famous 19th-century Romantic love poem.
Sung in German.

Our Phoenix
Mari Esabel Valverde 

Of this work calling for equality for the trans community, the composer writes: “This work is a lamentation, an outcry, and a rousing to a movement for equality. We must demand more from ourselves for ourselves and for those who follow us. Let us, then, be like the phoenix and rise.”
Sung in English.

The Turtle Dove
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)

Vaughan Williams published this arrangement of an 18th-century English folk ballad in 1919, after recording an innkeeper singing the tune in Rusper, Sussex, in 1907. Several lyrical parallels can be found in Robert Burns’s “A red, red rose.”
Sung in English.

Up/Rising Into (World premiere)
Mari Esabel Valverde

This premiere work, commissioned by Seattle Pro Musica, is set to a text by Amir Rabiyah, a multiracial, trans, disabled, queer poet and librarian whose work explores living life on the margins and at the intersections of multiple identities. The composer dedicates this piece to transgender and non-binary youth everywhere.
Sung in English.

A red, red rose
James Mulholland (b. 1935)

James Mulholland’s gentle, sensitive, folk-like setting of the well-known Robert Burns ballad is a true standard in the choral repertoire.
Sung in English.

We hold your names sacred
Mari Esabel Valverde

The composer writes, “We do not need to be told the traumas of members of the Black and transgender communities as a prerequisite to boldly show up for them. For those who are here, we must act now and continue learning along the way. Let us say our sisters’ names and fight for justice as they would have it.”
Sung in English.

When thunder comes
Mari Esabel Valverde

Set to a powerful text by the 2011–2012 United States Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis, this piece highlights the contributions of the “civil righteous [who] are finished being meek,” including Sylvia Mendez, Harvey Milk, Helen Zia, and Freedom Summer.
Sung in English.

For our March 8 performance of When thunder comes, we are joined by students from the following schools and choirs:

Jane Addams Middle School, Alex Gagiu, conductor

Lincoln High School, Aimee Mell, conductor

Seattle Girls Choir Prime Voci, Sarra Sharif Doyle, conductor

Seattle Girls Choir Cantamus, Alex Gagiu, conductor