Category: Composing

Choir performance in a church sanctuary: conductor on podium as audience applauds; singers in red stoles under a pipe organ.

August 2025 Newsletter

ZSR Singers

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

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.

Learn More About PEBCC

Conducting

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!
Cats = love

Hope your summer is wrapping up beautifully!

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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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A person sitting on a bench in a forest clearing, looking out at the bright sky through tall trees.

Mindfulness

I learned a new way to think about mindfulness from watching a German dark comedy series on Netflix this month. Mindfulness is when what’s happening in your mind matches whats happening with your body. 

I guess the opposite of being mindful is being mindless.

Also, the opposite of multi-tasking is single-tasking. It takes mindfulness to do a single task. So then, what if multi-tasking is a form of mindlessness.

I’ve noticed how much happier and less anxious I am when I’m successfully exercising mindfulness and single-tasking. My brain feels less like a sieve. I have a better chance of remembering all the names of the singers in my choir when I practice mindfulness (I’m frequently embarrassed by blanking out on the names of students and adults I’ve known for years!). 

It’s a struggle. 

How easily distracted I am.
And how stubborn I am about feeling the need to multi-task. 

I don’t need to do it all, and I don’t need to do it (whatever “it” is) right now.

Sometimes, “now” is the time I take to do just one thing with my whole mind and body. I’m trying to create that “now” every day.

Surgery update:  Success!

Thank you all so much for your warm wishes and support as I recovered from abdominal surgery. My surgeon says I should still avoid heavy lifting for a couple more weeks, but I got the green light to ride roller coasters. See you on Ghost Rider at Knott’s Berry Farm!

Conducting

Summer is on its way.
Get ready to sing 
Carmina Burana with me!

Harvard-Westlake Spring Choral Concert

Composition

The Summit is Nigh
Now Available!
Here’s a sample:

For Fun

Practicing mindfulness while on a spontaneous walk through the lovely CalTech campus

Curled up in the bed with Archie on my feet

What’s on your mind?

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Merry Christmas!

May you be joyful. May you be at peace. May you be in the company of loved ones. May you celebrate all 12 days, if you feel like it. May you celebrate Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Year’s, and all times in which we experience love, awe, and gratitude. May you be amazed and inspired today and in the days to come.

Surgery update

It got postponed. Bad news: I had a mental and emotional breakdown over this whole snafu and will have to wait for god-knows-how-long before I can have my surgery.

Good news: I’m intact and above ground for Christmas and New Year’s! 

Composition

My new album “Ecstatic Expectancy” is now available on all major streaming platforms. Many thanks to everyone who met up with me and purchased physical CDs at our album release events. Want more CDs? Visit me in person on Sundays at Neighborhood UU Church in Pasadena right after the 10am service. And stay tuned for more meet-ups!

Conducting

Come watch me conduct my original Christmas carol “Now the Rejoicing” for choir, piano, and organ at 8pm on Christmas Eve at Neighborhood UU Church in Pasadena.

For Fun

On Thursday December 19, the Harvard-Westlake Jazz Singers performed at Homeboy Industries for the morning meeting with Father Greg Boyle!

(Event photo by Danny Moloshok of Moloshok Photography)

The ETM-LA Gala on December 6 was incredible! I’m so honored to have received their “Shining Star Award” as an educator. The Harvard-Westlake Jazz Singers performed exquisitely with pop star SYML and award-winning film and television composer Blake Neely. The video below is the short film that was shown at the gala:

Goat yoga for the holidays…

…and…more Christmas antics!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Originally published as Zanaida’s December 2024 email letter – Click here to read online

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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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