Category: People in Music

Abundance with Grace

We’re all surviving to the best of our ability. But our abilities and resources differ depending on our circumstance, our history, or our environment. Sometimes a person’s burden is not so obvious, especially in festive settings. So in the midst of both abundance and scarcity, may we strive to pay attention and speak and act graciously with each other this Thanksgiving.

NUUC Christmas Concert – December 19

Enjoy selections from Magnificat by J.S. Bach, plus traditional sing-along favorites you won’t want to miss. Guaranteed to make you smile!

Compositions

Five performances in Colorado, Dec 6-21

Internationally acclaimed guitar virtuoso, composer, and Colorado native Aaron Larget-Caplan joins Kantorei in holiday performances featuring seasonal selections written for Guitar and Choir, including the world premiere of his own Cider Meditations. We will also feature works by composer and guitarist Jeffrey Van, whose compositions gained widespread recognition through his collaborations with the renowned Dale Warland Singers. Adding to the excitement of new musical discoveries, the concert will present the world premiere of a new work by composer Zanaida Robles, commissioned by Kantorei’s own Scott Horowitz and his wife, Leah Weinberg.

Join us as we combine traditional holiday spirit with contemporary compositions, offering audiences both seasonal favorites and the excitement of hearing new works performed for the first time.

Learn More

LA River Scenes – world premiere!

December 16 in Downtown LA

LA River Scenes blends melodies I made up in my childhood and young adult years with impressions from my recent experiences with the LA River Kayak Safari tour company. The LA River Kayak Safari journey begins with a bike ride along the LA river’s edge followed by an fascinating history lesson about the Elysian River Valley and finally an exciting kayak trip down the luscious river with baby rapids and deep pools of up to 10 feet. My piece reflects the love and pride I feel for my hometown and my excitement over discovering I can go kayaking near Dodger Stadium in summer.

Photo of Aron Kallay by Elisa Ferrari

Event Details

For Fun

HALLOWEEN MEMORIES
I decided to go ahead and carve my pumpkin even though it was several days after Halloween had passed. WORTH IT!! 
CHOCOLATE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY
I helped organize this year’s HW Professional Development Interdisciplinary Session “Chocolate Day!” From holding the huge alien fruit pods to tasting the difference between the bitter, slimy-yet-crunchy fresh fruit and the powdery, complex-flavored bean once the fruit was fermented and roasted; to exploring the intersections of history, art, science, and economics and finally tasting and packaging our work: making chocolate with the help of brilliant friends is fun!
I also did some research and found these two songs about chocolate that I’d never heard before:

Chocolate Sundae on a Saturday Night by Doris Day

Chocolate by Soul Patrol

Ollie and Archie, warming our hearts as they warm each other

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Hand with bright yellow nails touching the massive roots of a large old tree, looking upward into its branches.

(Very) Big Tree

Last week I had to get up early for a routine medical check-up in Glendora, not far from my home. Across the street from the medical office is a small park called Big Tree Bicentennial Park. It may be one of the smallest parks around, but it is home to one of the most enormous trees in the whole country! 

Majestic old tree with sprawling roots at Big Tree Bicentennial Park, featuring a commemorative plaque on a stone.

According to the City of Glendora’s website, “The ‘Big Tree’ was planted in the late 1880’s by Mr. Edgar J. Owens, one of Glendora’s early residents. The tree’s botanical name “Ficus Mactophylla” is commonly called Moreton Bay Fig and is named after the Moreton Bay Region of Australia where the species grows naturally.  The tree is known for its large buttress roots, helping it reach approximately 99 feet tall and 47 feet in diameter.”

Perplexity AI sources also say the tree’s extensive roots reportedly reach over 1,200 feet across the 15,000-square-foot park.

Big Tree Park in Glendora, California, with the historic tree and entrance sign visible in the foreground.
Historic plaque describing the Big Tree in Glendora, a Moreton Bay Fig planted in the late 1880s by Edgar J. Owens.

Several years ago, when I first drove by it, I had to stop the car and back up because I couldn’t believe my eyes. So this time, instead of just driving by, and since I had some extra time before work, I decided to park my car, get out, and touch its massive roots. It was so healing and spiritual, majestic and beautiful. If you’ve never seen it, I hope you get a chance to look up Big Tree Park in Glendora and check out this magnificent tree.

Conducting

On Sunday September 21, I had the enormous pleasure of conducting Bel Canto, my high school treble choir from Harvard-Westlake, as the featured guest artists at the Neighborhood UU Church Pasadena 10am service celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Francis Ellen Watkins Harper: an early Unitarian Universalist Black American writer, abolitionist, suffragist, poet, and teacher. Bel Canto sang The Crocuses by Joanna Mills and Songs for the People by Rosephanye Powell – two works featuring texts by Harper, who was born on November 24, 1825. I also conducted the Neighborhood Chorus on I Thank Thee by Demetrius Robinson with lyrics adapted from a letter Harper wrote to Harriet Beecher Stowe in appreciation of Stowe’s ground-breaking novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The entire service was an extraordinary blend of education, deep spirituality, transformative social justice work, and beautiful artistic expression. Here’s the service, which was live-streamed on Youtube:

Composition

Zanaida holding sheet music titled The Song of Significance by Zanaida Stewart Robles with text by Seth Godin, published by Hinshaw Music

The Song of Significance, the piece I wrote for the LA Master Chorale, is finally here! I jumped for joy when my printed copies arrived in the mail this week.

Open sheet music of The Song of Significance by Zanaida Stewart Robles with text by Seth Godin, showing score and composer biography.
Final page of sheet music for The Song of Significance by Zanaida Stewart Robles, published by Hinshaw Music and Hal Leonard
Learn More
Yummy crawfish boil with my Mommy
Celebrating the start of a new school year with my Harvard-Westlake friends

THREE STAGES OF OLLIE:

(Above…)
Boxed Ollie 
Ollie Disapproving of My Favorite Shoes
Ollie Demands Justice

Wishing you a spectacular fall!

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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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Coming home

What an extraordinary gift it was to conduct and record my music with the CSULB Bob Cole Chamber Choir this April.

They sang their faces off!

I couldn’t be more proud of my alma mater nor more grateful for Dr. Jonathan Talberg, my teacher, mentor, and lifelong friend.

Composition

Composer’s bliss

This is me in ecstasy, standing up to congratulate the Los Angeles Master Chorale after they world premiered my Song of Significance.  This work and this program were very personal to me, and I’m so privileged to be commissioned for this work and included on a concert with J.S. Bach and the terribly neglected Margaret Bonds.  It was all curated by artistic director Grant Gershon and pianist/radio host/champion for Black composers Lara Downes, and the whole concert was very inspiring.  The San Francisco Classical Voice seems to agree, with many good things to say about the program with a focus on the Bonds works, and a nice shout-out to Song of Significance for “masterful choral orchestration, romantic and lush“.  (I’ll take it!)

Read the full review

Conducting

Coming this weekend

The Harvard-Westlake choirs have returned from England wreathed in glory, and they’ll wrap up that victory with their annual spring concert this Saturday at the campus’ Rugby Auditorium.  I’ll be conducting my composition, “Can You See”, plus music from the musical “The Secret Garden”, and lots more.  Admission is free!

Singing

Soundcloud Song of the Month

From the Stone Age

Written and performed by Zanaida Stewart Robles


I had a chance to sit down at home this month and record a demo of my piece “From the Stone Age” for SSAA choir, piano, cello, and flute. Text is by Alice Corbin Henderson (pictured). More about Alice below.

Poet Alice Corbin Henderson (1881-1949) was known for her activism related to Indigenous rights and environmental conservation. This 8-minute musical setting of Henderson’s poetry tells the story of a stone once carved in the semblance of a god. Over time, its surfaces are smoothed by the elements to reveal a beautiful resilience. Gradually, it becomes more beautiful and less rigid until its original form is unrecognizable and irrelevant. With a soaring soprano solo and moderately challenging harmonies and counterpoint, this work for treble choir, piano, cello, and flute offers singers a chance to explore time, the cosmos, and transformation through the embodiment of a stone.

Listen and view the perusal score

For Fun

Performing at Gloucester Cathedral in England with the Harvard-Westlake choirs

Ollivander in glory
Ollie and Archie with a new favorite box
Ollie’s tooth 
“What?”

Happy spring, everyone!

This post was originally released as one of Zanaida’s monthly newsletters, April 25 2024

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Do-over!

I wrote a reflection a couple weeks ago for the ACDA Western Region Conference session on worship in music. Sadly, ten minutes before I was supposed to offer this reflection, I dropped and broke the phone I was using. When it came time for me to speak, I just invited the audience into a moment of silent reflection on unity through choral music. Everything worked out fine, and my phone has since been replaced. But here’s some of what I would have said to the audience had my phone not been broken:
 

“20th century Black American operatic bass and civil rights activist Paul Robeson once said: 

‘I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of despair and fear. My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail.’

Songs of freedom and joy, songs of hope and courage, songs of wisdom, songs of rage, love, loss, and sacrifice – these are songs we all sing. Singing by oneself – whether in the shower or as a soloist in a studio or on a stage – can be healthy and powerful. But singing in a choral ensemble takes a special kind of vulnerability, courage, and selflessness. That’s why choral music is so powerful; our choral work together is sacred. Whether in houses of worship, in classrooms, on concert stages, in studios, in train stations, on street corners, or in parking garages, we amplify our power to inspire positive change when we sing music TOGETHER, thereby bringing meaning to our lives, and fostering the unity we long for.”

Conducting

UK, here we come…

The Harvard-Westlake Choirs embark on an 8-day performance and heritage tour of England! With stops in London, Cambridge, Gloucester, and Bath, this spring break trip is sure to be memorable! Here’s a link to our Brandenburg Festival concert:

Brandenburg’s concert announcement

Composition

World premiere coming in April

Just 12 days until the world premiere of my piece “The Song of Significance” at Walt Disney Concert Hall, performed by the Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles Master Chorale. 

I Believe:
The music of Bach, Bonds and Robles

Grant Gershon, conductor
Lara Downes, piano
Chloé Vaught, soprano
Jamal Moore, bass

Get tickets and full details

Singing

Easter is almost here!

Arvis Strickling-Jones, entrepreneur

Easter Sunday, March 31, is Gospel Sunday at Neighborhood UU Church in Pasadena, CA. Come hear my solo on “Gonna Have a Good Time” by Arvis Strickling-Jones! 

Directions to the church

Soundcloud Song of the Month

By The Waters of Babylon

by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

sung by the California Coleridge-Taylor Singers
Dr. Zanaida Stewart Robles, conductor
James Walker, organist

This haunting response to Psalm 137 is described by one music blog in evocative terms:  “Coleridge-Taylor’s writing for choir is superb; he excels at creating rich, thick textures and also thinner textures that don’t sound weak or unsupported. The general tone of this work is yearning, which is just what the Psalm is about — the yearning of the Jewish people while they were in Babylonian exile, yearning for Jerusalem. It’s a beautiful, poignant work.”

Listen on Soundcloud

For Fun

A sweet parent gave me flowers after our lunchtime choir tour preview concert at Harvard-Westlake! 🥹
Can’t wait to go to England!

Here are some escalator selfies at Walt Disney Concert Hall just before my promotional interview with Artistic Director Grant Gershon. The world premiere is coming up on April 6 & 7!

Archie… being Archie

Happy spring, everyone!

View the original March 2024 newsletter here

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