[PIANO AND VOCAL MUSIC THROUGHOUT]
The Brahms Requiem is a very interesting piece.
You realize it’s really unique in its message.
That it’s not all about the sadness of death but it’s about the hope of the living.
It’s really an inclusive message of hope and light and it’s so exciting to be able
to bring that alive.
Creating a fresh, modern voice for a population that might not be as familiar with the masterwork
so it would speak to them.
Sine Nomine is group that I founded with Dr. Alissa Deeter, who is professor of voice here
at UNC Charlotte, and Mark Johanson.
The group is made up of teachers on each level - collegiate, secondary, high school, middle
school and elementary and members of the community that have studied music as well.
We have challenged these students to perform a masterwork without a conductor.
This is causing them to take the risk, accept the challenge, and just go forth and make
music.
This project goes back a couple years where I had my first opportunity to perform the
Brahms Requiem in this piano duet version in New York City.
I thought it was so beautiful and intimate trying to sound like all of the instruments
in the orchestra and create the same type of power and resonance all on 88 keys.
The ability to bring masterworks in to the university, into the college, into communities
is a great idea but it’s not always affordable.
The Sustainable Symphony allows any kind of community, big or small, to enjoy a masterwork.
When Brahms had been having his Requiem performed many places in Europe, his symphonies were
very often performed with one instrument and we love that idea of being able to bring the
large masterwork into a more intimate venue.
I’ve had the privilege of getting to know Judy Cope, the Executive Director of the Sorel
Foundation for many, many years.
The Sorel Foundation had many beautiful prizes that they call “medallions,” but there
was nothing for women who were more seasoned in the field and perhaps who were doing larger
projects and partnering with other organizations.
So we created something called a Legacy Medallion and presented it to Judy and to the board,
and they loved the idea.
So the very first year was going to be to create a commissioned piece to go along with
Brahms’s Requiem.
Facets from Amass is four movements taken from my larger oratorio, titled Amass.
The original Amass was commissioned by Matthew Culloton and The Singers.
This is the group that I sung in; it’s a professional choir in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The texts for Facets were all taken from a book called Love Poems from God.
Out of all of them, I really thought that Where All Are Welcome spoke to me the most.
It starts out “Why this great war between the countries?
The countries inside of us.
What are all these insane borders that we protect?”
It’s a wonderful counterpoint to the Brahms.
It is a very open, wide, expansive look at faith and spirituality that doesn’t necessarily
have its finger on religion.
Jocelyn Hagen has a very distinct voice in her music and it took Sine Nomine a little
while to get a foothold into it.
There’s some very chromatic harmonies at the beginning and that tests our ears a little
bit, and the texture of the choir can change so quickly.
That creates some challenges for choirs, but it sends a really beautiful sound out.
It’s a joy to be able to do Facets from Amass and the Brahms Requiem.
It’s a feather in every person in this program’s cap to be able to say they performed it.
[APPLAUSE]