January, 2024 | Zanaida Stewart Robles

Here’s a cool poem that sends a little shiver down my spine, even with the weird California winter.

To a Snowflake

What heart could have thought you?—
Past our devisal
(O filigree petal!)
Fashioned so purely,
Fragilely, surely,
From what Paradisal
Imagineless metal,
Too costly for cost?
Who hammered you, wrought you,
From argentine vapour?—
“God was my shaper.
Passing surmisal,
He hammered, He wrought me,
From curled silver vapour,
To lust of His mind;—
Thou could’st not have thought me!
So purely, so palely,
Tinily, surely,
Mightily, frailly,
Insculped and embossed,
With His hammer of wind,
And His graver of frost.

– Francis Thompson
This poem is in the public domain

Composition

World premiere coming in April

My LA Master Chorale commission is finished and submitted! It’s about 9 minutes long and scored for a cappella double mixed chorus. It’s designed for a big choir that can lock some crunchy harmonies and still wail like crazy. LAMC is going to SLAY this piece!

Here’s how to get tickets to the premiere performance on April 6 and 7 in Downtown LA:

I Believe:
The music of Bach, Bonds and Robles

Get tickets and full details

Conducting

Celebrating Dr. King

On Sunday, January 21, we enjoyed ourselves at the 2024 Unitarian Universalist Choral Celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Forest Lawn Glendale. I conducted “Love is” by Tesfa Wondemagegnehu, along with the hymn version of “We Shall Overcome.” Here’s a photo of my colleague John Bergquist conducting our combined choir piece “Show Us How to Love” by Mark Miller. I also took a selfie with my friend and fellow composer/conductor/singer Saunder Choi, and here are some views of the crowd.