August 10, 2025 marked the 3rd annual Zanaida Stewart Robles Singers Choral Intensive culminating performance during the 10am service at Neighborhood UU Church. Our performance of selection from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana was one of my favorite church performances of all time! Here’s a link to the video – it’ll make you smile! Also, Felicity’s solo on “Dulcissime” toward the end of the service is just beautiful!
Composition
Photo: Marielle Hayes Photography
I’m so happy to have finished arranging Veni Sancte Spiritus for SSAA voices. Many thanks to Eric Tuan and the Piedmont East Bay Childrens Chorus commisdioning this work. They will premiere it on their “Making History” Concert on Saturday, March 21, 2026 in Berkeley, CA. The SSAA version of Veni Sancte Spiritus will be published in summer 2026.
My teacher and mentor Dr. Cristian Grases (pictured above left), chair of the Department of Choral and Sacred Music at USC, will play the cuatro with me as I conduct a performance of “Gloria” and “Sanctus” from Misa Criolla by Ariel Ramirez (above right) in celebration of Ingathering at Neighborhood UU Church on Sunday, September 7 at 10am. I am thrilled for our community to be blessed by Dr. Grases’s expertise in the field of Latin American choral music.
Not familiar with the cuatro? A lovely example of this guitar-like Venezuelan instrument is pictured above, as held by Smithsonian Music.
For Fun
Summer Vibes
LA Master Chorale Artistic Director Grant Gershon imparting Carmina Burana wisdom to the ZSR Singers
Being able to cue up my own music on Spotify in my car is a dream come true!
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+
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
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
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)
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.
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!
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!
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.
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
