Off to Italia!

The Harvard-Westlake Upper School Choirs and I are on tour in Italy from March 22 – April 1. We have 7 performances over 10 days, plus visits to the Accademia in Florence, the Roman Aqueduct in Spoleto, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, and more! Check out our performance schedule:

VENICE

Sunday, March 24 at noon
Church service at Basilica San Marco

Monday, March 25, mid-morning
School Exchange Concert
Mestre High School

TUSCANY

Tuesday, March 26 in the evening
Camigliano
Shared Concert with the Coro Giacomo Puccini

FLORENCE

Wednesday, March 27 at 7pm
Chiesa San Phillipo Neri
Formal Evening Concert

UMBRIA

Thursday, March 28 at 2:30pm
Basilica of San Francesco, Upper Basilica
Informal Concert

SPOLETO

Friday March, 29, late morning
13th Century Duomo
Duomo Portico
Informal Concert

ROME

Sunday, March 31 at 10:30am
St. Paul’s Within the Walls
American Episcopal Church
Service Participation and Concert

March 25, 2019 Zanaida 0

Part of a world

As we have just finished celebrating the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and since Black History Month is right around the corner, here is a quote I shared with my Unitarian Universalist siblings at our recent UU MLK Choir Festival held at Pasadena’s Neighborhood Church. It’s a passage from Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates:

“In other words, I was part of a world. And looking out, I had friends who too were part of other worlds – the world of Jews or New Yorkers, the world of Southerners or gay men, of immigrants, of Californians, of Native Americans, or a combination of any of these, worlds stitched into worlds like tapestry. And though I knew I could never, myself, be a native of any of these worlds, I knew that nothing so essentialist as race stood between us. I had read too much by then. And my eyes – my beautiful, precious eyes – were were growing stronger each day. And I saw that what divided me from the world was not anything intrinsic to us but the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named us matters more than anything we could ever actually do. In America, the injury is not in being born with darker skin, with fuller lips, with a broader nose, but in everything that happens after.”

January 25, 2019 Zanaida 0

Finding home

On Saturday, April 28 at 7:30pm, I will direct a spring choral concert with the Harvard-Westlake Choirs entitled “I Will Arise.” Joined by composer, singer-songwriter, and folk music expert Shawn Kirchner, we explore the musical intersections between Scotch-Irish, Appalachian, and Black American cultures as we consider what it means to find home within ourselves when circumstances drive us far away from the physical homes we know and love. We learn what enables us to rise and redefine what the word “home” can mean and where home can exist. And we discover what binds us together in our search for that home, that longed-for place of simple beauty and peace and timelessness that frees us from despair, loss, and pain. We consider the colorful poetry of 19th century Irish poet William Butler Yeats as he describes his desire to go to such a place:

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

– “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats

April 26, 2018 Zanaida 0

The Lifting of Voices

I was moved to tears when, last weekend, mezzo-soprano Brittany Logan sang the sh*t out of my arrangement of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing!” She sang it during a choral concert presented by the Bob Cole University Choir and Chamber Choir called “We Can Mend the Sky: Choral Music for Social Justice.” Conducted by my former teacher Jonathan Talberg, the Chamber Choir did a splendid job of supporting Brittany as she wailed with depth and fervor and exquisite vocalism — the perfect voice for my piece. Brittany told me that for her, a young Black American female college student, singing THIS SONG with THIS CHOIR meant the world to her. Tears were streaming from both our eyes as I hugged and hugged her. It meant the world to me, too.

I attended Saturday night’s concert with added pep in my step over having been elected President of the George Robert Garner III Branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) the week prior, on October 14. I am so proud to be connected with a centuries-old Black American musical legacy through NANM. And I am filled with honor, humility, and hope as I imagine how I might serve as one of the living links between NANM and music institutions and educators that are finding ways to not only “include” Black Americans, but to give Black Americans a safe space where they can lift their voices and truly be seen and heard in ways that validate their humanity without tokenizing their identity.

I know I’ve said this before: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a hymn that connects us to our roots, honors the present, and points toward the future. The poetry is epic and sophisticated. It speaks to our common struggle with brutality and injustice. And mostly, it speaks to the value of EVERY collective human voice that has ever been imprisoned, demoralized, persecuted, and/or murdered. Anyone and everyone can and should sing this song. But for me, and for many Black Americans, this song is our pride and joy. It means more than words can say for this song to be sung to life by our prestigious local music institutions, especially when Black Americans take the lead.

There are lots of great arrangements of “Lift Every Voice” out there. If you are a choral conductor, please consider performing mine. It is published by E.B. Marks Music and distributed by Hal Leonard. For details, go to to https://www.halleonard.com/product/viewproduct.action?itemid=139863.

October 25, 2017 Zanaida 1

It’s my birthday!

It’s May 25th. Happy Birthday to me!

I’m celebrating by compiling a top 10 list of my favorite musical artists, as of this day in my life:

Bruno Mars

His live performances are actually even better than his recordings!

Steve Reich

I just performed his Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ and Drumming with the Jacaranda group in Santa Monica. Reich’s deep knowledge of Ghanaian drum music permeates his works. I feel connected to my core, to something primal when I sing them and hear them.

This list is subject to change.

May 25, 2017 Zanaida 0