Zanaida Stewart Robles

Do You Hear Her? Music for the Voices of Silenced Women
2018-03-24 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | St. John’s Cathedral, 514 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90007, United States
My piece “Lady in Blue” will receive its world premiere. – I was glad to give voice to poetry about one of the most painful experiences a woman can face. It is not an experience with which I am personally acquainted. But Ntozake Shange‘s words about abortion tapped a deep resonance within me. I was 16 years old when I first read these words. At the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts my friend and classmate Gloria Williams felt compelled to dance this poetry to life. She asked me to compose the music. The music came to me instantaneously, as if a desperate woman was singing this song right into my ear. The words, “and nobody came, cuz nobody knew” still strike me. The physical pain, the blood, the intense fear, the profound loneliness in a keeping such an unbearable secret: this is a trauma that maybe never heals. Like I said, it’s not an experience with which I am personally acquainted. But it resonates deeply for me, not just because I’m a woman, but because I’m a human being.

Worldstrides Choral Festival
2018-03-24 | CA
Harvard-Westlake Wolverine Men’s Chorus appears as part of the Worldstrides Choral Festival at Disneyland!

WDACDA Conference
2018-03-16 | Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E Green St, Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Zanaida will be part of the Composers Panel at the annual conference for the Western Division of the American Choral Directors Association.
Two sessions: 11:45am-12:45pm & 10:15pm-11:30pm

Put Your Guns Down: Reprise
2018-01-07 19:00 - 21:00 | First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, 540 S Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90020, United States
This is a free event put on by the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. Please feel free to show up, open seating. Ensemble website Church website

All These Words Mean Happy Kwanzaa
2017-12-31 11:00 - 12:00 | Unitarian Universalist Church of Santa Monica, 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, 90404, United States
Kwanzaa was created in 1966 to offer Black Americans an alternative to the consumerism (and lack of capital returning to Black communities) found at Christmas. Research for the holiday was partially provided by our Unitarian Universalist Association through a fund created to support Black Empowerment. Join Gregory C. Carrow-Boyd for a lively musical dialogue on the meaning of Kwanzaa in Unitarian Universalism and its significance to Black Unitarian Universalists. Church website

Christmas Eve Services
2017-12-24 18:00 - 22:00 | Unitarian Universalist Church of Santa Monica, 1260 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA, 90404, United States
UUSM welcomes all as we gather for candlelight services on Christmas Eve. At 6:00 pm, Music Director Dr. Zanaida Robles will conduct the adult choir. An additional service takes place at 8:00 pm.
Our traditional candlelight services will be led by our minister, Rev. Greg Ward, and the adult choir is led by Music Director Dr. Zanaida Robles. There will be stories, carols and music to draw us deeper into the truest meaning behind the original journey to Bethlehem. This moving service culminates in a candlelit singing of “Silent Night.”
Parking is provided at the UCLA structure for this special evening. Church website

Street Symphony: Project Messiah
2017-12-08 14:00 - 16:00 | Midnight Mission, 601 S San Pedro St, Los Angeles, CA, 90014, United States
Friday, December 8, 2017, 2pm
Initiated by a California Arts Council grant in 2015, the Messiah Project is an annual community sing-along celebration held at The Midnight Mission in Skid Row. This culminating yearly event is presented after a series of free community workshops held throughout Skid Row. The Messiah Project presents excerpts of Handel’s beloved Messiah alongside works commissioned for and created by members of the Skid Row community, with community members as soloists, choristers and participants alongside Street Symphony musicians from the LA Philharmonic, LA Master Chorale and Colburn School. Get more information and volunteer through the Street Symphony website!

Karitas Habundat
2017-12-01 19:30 | Emmanuel Lutheran Church, North Hollywood, 6020 Radford Avenue, North Hollywood, CA, 91606, United States
Dr. Robles makes her conducting debut with the Harvard-Westlake Upper School Chamber Singers, Jazz Singers, Bel Canto Women’s Chorus, and Wolverine Men’s Chorus. Hear ancient songs, familiar tunes and poignant words about the radiant love that surrounds us and waits to be born within us. The concert takes place at Immanuel Lutheran Church, North Hollywood. Church website

Scholarship Applications Accepted
2017-11-01 - 2017-12-01 | CA
Through Friday, December 1, 2017
The National Association of Negro Musicians is accepting applications for the GRGIII Alice Bugg Scholarship Showcase (ages 8-18; all instruments and voices) and the NANM National Scholarship: Local Preliminary Competition (ages 18-30; woodwinds, brass and percussion). For more information, contact Dr. Zanaida Robles or visit www.nanm.org
