Category: Announcements

Zanaida Stewart Robles Singers logo under dramatic stage lights with text announcing the group is officially not-for-profit

ZANAIDA STEWART ROBLES SINGERS

We’re now an official not-for-profit organization!!

Zanaida Stewart Robles Singers creates intergenerational artistic experiences by inspiring and cultivating cultural, intellectual, and spiritual engagement through choral music. 

The ZSR Singers Summer Choir Intensive
is happening August 4-10 at
Neighborhood UU Church, Pasadena.
Cost is $100 per person.
Ages 16+
Visit www.zanaidarobles.com to register or for more info.
Zanaida Stewart Robles conducts a diverse choir and string ensemble in performance at Neighborhood UU Church, with colorful stoles and a pipe organ in the background.

Compositions

Exterior view of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis in Missouri, featuring Romanesque architecture, green-tiled domes, and twin towers against a cloudy sky.

New work headed for St. Louis

I just submitted the manuscript for my new setting of O Magnum Mysterium for soprano and organ. The work was commissioned the American Guild of Organists and will be premiered next year at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis during the 2026 AGO National Convention.

Singing

Vocal soloist performs with choir, conductor, and chamber ensemble on stage during a concert, with projected text above honoring Ahmaud Arbery.

Photo by Mercy Luna

Saturday, May 24 was a night of powerful choral singing at the Wallis Theater in Beverly Hills. I was honored to be a soloist with the GRAMMY Award-winning group Tonality in the premiere performance of Alexander Lloyd Blake’s new work entitled Running From, Running To: A Musical Reflection on Ahmaud Arbery.

Read more about this powerful work in these news features in the LA Times and the LA Sentinel

Travel

My HW choral students performed Haydn’s Paukenmesse at Carnegie Hall earlier this month. Though I didn’t conduct the performance myself, it was incredibly rewarding to hear the singers rave about their experience and to see them dance together with joy and pride over their accomplishments. Dr. Julie Yu-Oppenheim was efficient, expressive, and hilarious in rehearsal. And she was masterful on the podium in performance. My students loved her! When we weren’t in rehearsal, we got to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Big Apple.

For Fun

Group of colleagues enjoying an outdoor dinner at a long marble table at a restaurant, smiling and relaxed in the evening sunlight with pizza and drinks.

We had a fun summer-time meet-up with members of the Southern California Vocal Association (SCVA) and composers from the California Choral Directors Association (CCDA)

Passengers smiling and interacting with a calm tabby cat sitting on someone’s lap during a flight, capturing a joyful moment aboard a commercial airplane.

I sat next to a kitten on the plane to New York!

Happy summer travels

(or staycays), everyone!

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TODAY, MAY 25, IS MY 46th BIRTHDAY!!

While I’m celebrating my own journey today, I want to send a little encouragement your way, too. May this season of your life bring unexpected kindness, meaningful change, and reasons to smile. We’re all in this together, and I’m so grateful for the connection.

Zanaida in red and gold graduation gown smiling with two children at a university commencement ceremony, surrounded by a crowd of graduates and family.

Celebrating 10 years as a DMA

I wanted to be a “doctor of music” ever since I was 8 years old. In December 2014, after more than 4 long years, I graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. I walked in the Thornton graduation ceremony in May 2015. Here’s a memory of me with my daughters on that special day. I think 8-year-old me would be amazed!

Conducting

Registration starts in just a few days!

Sign up to be part of our Summer Intensive with the ZSR Singers — we’re singing Carmina Burana this year!

Flyer for the Zanaida Stewart Robles Singers summer choir intensive featuring ‘Carmina Burana.’ Program begins August 2025 in Pasadena. Registration opens June 1, 2025.
Check us out on Facebook

For Fun

Woman playfully posing at a Roland keyboard during a rehearsal with sheet music, surrounded by fellow musicians preparing for a performance in a room with red stage curtains.

Come see the Frostig School community production of “Bye Bye Birdie” on May 29, 30, 31 at 7pm and June 1 at 2pm at the Frostig School in Pasadena. I’m playing in the band!

Close-up of feet wearing beaded, multicolored sandals with double buckle straps and coral pink toenail polish on a wooden floor with white fringe rug visible in corner.

Spring pedicure with Mother’s Day shoes

Smiling woman holding the book ‘Choral Repertoire by Women Composers’ in a cozy study space, highlighting contributions of female composers in choral music history.

Check out this new textbook. I’m on page 592!

Close-up of a woman leaning in affectionately toward a relaxed tabby cat on a bed with soft blankets, capturing a tender moment of connection and comfort.

In love with my cat

What’s on your mind?

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I’m so excited to announce my first album, coming December 1st!

(Final cover art is pending, based on the painting above by Paul A. Smith.)

TRACK LIST

Mass in E minor
-Kyrie
-Gloria
-Credo
-Sanctus
-Agnus Dei

Ecstatic Expectancy

Psalm 61

Magnificat*

Nunc Dimittis*

Veni Sancte Spirtus

The CSULB Bob Cole Chamber Choir
Dr. Zanaida Stewart Robles, conductor
Dr. Heejung Ju, collaborative keyboard artist

Dave Tull, percussionist

*The California Coleridge Taylor Singers
Dr. Zanaida Stewart Robles, conductor
James Walker, organ
Wells Leng, piano

Singing

Sunday, November 3 at 10am

Neighborhood UU Church Pasadena

Michael Fausto conducts the Neighborhood chorus with me singing “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me” arranged by Moses Hogan. I also get to sit in the soprano section while Michael conducts the “Kyrie” from Mozart’s Requiem.

Gonna be fun!!

Conducting

On Wednesday, October 16, I conducted the Harvard-Westlake Chamber Singers at the Riverside City College High School Choral Festival. Singing music by Williametta Spencer, Christopher Wong, and Ralph Vaughn Williams, these young singers were terrific!

For Fun

Woke up from a nap with cats all over me!

Me, starstruck with composer Frank Ticheli after conducting his “Earth Song” at Neighborhood Church last month.

Guava Harvest

Originally published as part of Zanaida’s October 2024 newsletter

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Organizations and Institutions

There are so many institutions and organizations that are a blessing to my life. Some have been blessing my life for decades! Besides the pride and joy I feel to be employed at Neighborhood UU Church Pasadena and Harvard-Westlake School, I was happy to reconnect with friends in the George Robert Garner III branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians during a recent branch meeting via Zoom. Watching my freshman daughter perform as a soloist during the Beach Cafe at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSULB was thrilling not only because my kid was brilliant (!), but because of all the familiar faces and pathways and buildings I got to enjoy at my alma mater.

This fall, I’ll reconnect with friends from the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the California Choral Directors Association through various projects and performances. Organizations like Tonality, Street Symphony, USC Thornton School of Music, The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, All Saints Church Pasadena, The San Gabriel Valley Choral Company, and more – these special organizations and institutions with which I’ve been affiliated are never far from my heart.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the ups and downs organizations and institutions must endure. No organization is perfect, and there are times when I feel let down by them. Still, I value the vision and purpose of these institutions. I recognize the ways in which I have benefitted from their existence, and I want to give back. I can’t participate in everything nor do I have a ton of volunteer hours or money. But I’ll try to show up when I can and give a little money here and there whenever possible.

This is how I can live out my gratitude.

Favorites

I recently realized that Dr. Adolphus Hailstork is my favorite Black composer! It feels really good to have fallen in love with this composer simply from just being exposed to his music more and more on the radio and on social media. Dr. Hailstork celebrated his 80th birthday this year! Here’s my current favorite piece of his, sung by one of my favorite ensembles:

Shout For Joy by Adolphus Hailstork:

The release of my first commercial single, “Ecstatic Expectancy”!!

On Monday September 23, my choral piece Ecstatic Expectancy was released on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Instagram/Facebook, TikTok & other ByteDance stores, YouTube Music, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, Tidal, iHeartRadio, Claro Música, Saavn, Boomplay, Anghami, NetEase, Tencent, Qobuz, Joox, Kuack Media, Adaptr, Flo, and MediaNet.

Look for Ecstatic Expectancy wherever you listen to music, and let me know where you were able to find it! My first commercially released album is soon to follow, too, so stay tuned!

For Fun

Conducting the Neighborhood Chorus for Ingathering/Water Communion Sunday, September 8

My office at school (for which I am grateful!) sometimes feels like a sad closet with a lame window. So I created some sunshine to brighten it up.

Did you know you can swim, fish, and go kayaking in the Los Angeles River? Last month, I had the best time kayaking on the water in this very picture. Can you imagine me in a kayak, paddling down that sliver of water in this picture!?! I’m planning to go kayaking one more time before LA River Kayak Safari closes for the season on September 30.

Sexy Archie

Ollie looking down on us all

Originally published as part of Zanaida’s September 2024 newsletter

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After the end

This one’s a little heavy.

Lately, I’ve been reading and watching stories about apocalypses and dystopias. Some recently-watched films and TV series include “The Last of Us,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Fallout.” Also feeding the fires of my apocalyptic musings are the following 3 books:
“This is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone, “A Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick” by Zora Neale Hurston, and “The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On” by Franny Choi. Even after what seems like annihilation, life and love find a way of continuing, in some form or another, even in post-apocalyptic times.

I asked Perplexity for a definition. Here’s what it said:

“An apocalypse refers to a revelation or disclosure of great importance, often involving the end of the world or a catastrophic event. The term originates from the Ancient Greek word “apokálupsis,” meaning revelation…It’s important to note that while “apocalypse” is often associated with destruction, its original meaning emphasizes revelation and disclosure, which may or may not involve catastrophic events.”
I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no such thing as THE apocalypse. But our world(s) – what ever we define as our world – keep ending over and over again, everywhere, at different times and in different places. We’ve already known massive apocalypses that affect millions over decades and apocalypses that inevitably and utterly destroy us, irrevokably changing each of us from the inside out…apparently just like an apocalypse is supposed to. It’s inevitable.

Isn’t apocalypse the nature of our existance? Isn’t that why today is so SO precious? Because annihilation is inevitable? Because change and evolution and death and new life and new days are inevitable? Though it’s unbareable at times, I accept that I’m living in a time of apocalypse and that a new day is on the horizon, for better and/or for worse, how ever we define “better” or “worse.” Things may get weird and awful and scary going forward, but it will get beautiful, too. We’re truly gonna be okay. It’s inevitable.

Composition

I just finished my commission for the 2025 ACDA National 11-12th Grade SATB Honor Choir. With poetry by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, it’s an up-tempo piece dealing with perseverance and hope. I think it’s gonna be hella-fun to sing! Can’t wait for the premiere in March 2025 at the ACDA National Conference in Dallas, TX.

Will you be there?

Conducting

Preparing to conduct 5 movements from Shawn Kirchner’s glorious “Songs of Ascent” for this year’s ZSR Summer Choir Intensive has been a rich and humbling experience. The performance will happen on 8/11 as part of the 10am service at Neighborhood UU Church in Pasadena.

Singing

Woohoo! On Saturday 8/10, I’m singing in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Orchestra World Tour happening at the Shrine Auditorium.

Get tickets

Soundcloud Song of the Month

Pie Jesu

by Maurice Duruflé, sung by Zanaida Stewart Robles

Ah, memories of the pandemic! I smiled as I recently listened to some of the first recordings I ever posted. I was particularly tickled with the recording of the Duruflé “Pie Jesu” I made with my dear friend and collaborator Wells Leng. I kinda love what we came up with.

Listen to Duruflé Pie Jesu by Zanaida Stewart Robles on #SoundCloud

For Fun

I recently came across this old flyer – what a blast from the past! In the summer of 2011 during my USC days, I collaborated with my friend Seth Houston to conduct a bunch of new music, including Dale Trumbore’s “Sing to the Lord,” the recording of which occasionally gets played on Sunday mornings during Brian Lauritzen’s “A Joyful Noise” program on Classical California KUSC 91.5FM. 

Summer vibes at home

A tale of 2 kitties

Ollie visiting the Ivory Tower as we watched “The Never Ending Story”

After I specifically forbade Archie from stepping on my pillow, getting cat hair all over it.

Please check out my website, which now lives at a very easy-to-remember address!

zanaida.com

(For those of you reading this from the blog, you’re already here! Both zanaida.com and zanaidarobles.com will now get you to the good stuff. Thanks for visiting!)

Originally published via Mailchimp — view the newsletter here

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