This is a holy time. It is heralded by Mardi Gras, the Tuesday of revelry and indulgence before Ash Wednesday, a day of solemnity and spiritual focus. This is when many Christians around the world begin observing the season of Lent (the 40 days and nights before Easter) by taking on a beneficial challenge or abstaining from certain comforts in order to fortify themselves mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Like a New Year’s resolution, Lenten disciplines can be very hard to keep. As a Christian, the time to which I look forward most is Easter: the resurrection; the end of 40 days and nights of wandering in the wilderness — a joyful and much anticipated day of rebirth. With the promise of Easter far off in the distance, it’s a little easier to commit to maintaining a Lenten discipline.
I feel like my Lenten experience started months ago, when I embarked on the final push toward conducting Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast at Carnegie Hall this coming March. And now, with the actual season of Lent upon us, taking on the enormous task of organizing this historic performance feels even more significant. Sometimes I feel like I’m under attack. Sometimes I feel alone and lost. I feel worn, starved, and stretched beyond my limits. Sometimes I feel like I can’t go on. But the promise of salvation and rebirth linger in the distance. Like the old Negro spiritual says, “I gotta keep my hand on the plow and Hold On!”
And then, oh what a happy Easter this will be! I’ll be singing “The Strife is O’er,” “Welcome Happy Morning,” Lo, the Day of Days is Here,” and so much “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!” I’ll be singing and shouting and feasting and drumming, giving thanks to God for such an amazing day! Liturgically, there may be 40 days of Lenten hell, but there are 50 days of Easter bliss. Since my Lent seems to have lasted for months and months, you’d better believe that my Easter is about to last for years to come!
Composition
Come hear my new work, “Intersectionality”, with VOX Femina, in a couple of weeks:
Made in LA Identity and Belonging in the City of Angels Saturday, March 11 at 7PM First Congregational Church of Los Angeles
Join us as we celebrate the many cultures and communities that define our “City of Angels!” Explore the unique soundscape created by the diverse communities of Los Angeles and enjoy music in English, Spanish, Hebrew, and Farsi, honoring the ecclecitc populations of the city. Featuring new works by LA-based composers Zanaida Stewart Robles, and Saunder Choi, plus a collaboration with GMCLA a cappella group Aftershock!
Conducting
March includes some very fun music during the 11:30am service at Neighborhood Church:
3/5 — Music by Joni Mitchell and Eliza Gilkyson
3/12 — Music by Ludwig van Beethoven and Buryl Red
3/19 — Works by Palestrina and Coleridge-Taylor
HIAWATHA’S WEDDING FEAST @ IN LA AND AT CARNEGIE HALL
3/24, 7:30pm @ Emmanuel Lutheran Church in North Hollywood
3/28, 8pm @ Carnegie Hall, NYC
Singing
This past weekend at Neighborhood Church, I was thrilled to sing “Dear Husband” from Songs of the Slave by Kirke Mechem and Dream Variation by Margaret Bonds.
For Fun
Memories of Valentine’s DayStudents admiring Dr. Robles’s new coat
I wasn’t quite sure what to share with you this month, as there’s just so much going on! I’ve been working through recordings and videos from this summer, and I’ll be sharing those on social media. (Are you following me?)
I’m waiting on copyright confirmation for five soon-to-be published works, and so excited about launching that cluster of new pieces. But with a new school year, a new “season” starting at church, and so many exciting projects coming up, I might need a minute, so this newsletter is a big “stay tuned”. Here’s a big piece:
Save the date!
Busy and Happy
There’s lots going on right now. Several performances, residencies, and projects are on the horizon. I’ll keep you posted. In the mean time check out this amazing wild guava tree that spontaneously sprung in out yard. The fruit is REALLY sweet and fragrant. I feel blessed that this special tree chose our home as a growing place.
I’m also reading a lot, so there seem to be stacks of books everywhere!
Ollie’s Corner
Ollivander does the laundry!
Ollie has his very own technique for household chores, but we’re always grateful for his adorable attempts to “help”:
The gorgeous environment at Yosemite’s ECCO Retreat Center made this conference even more special. Meeting friends, hearing music and sharing these beautiful surroundings together made it far more than just work!
Not my picture, but isn’t Yosemite gorgeous?
Conducting
On August 12, we performed The Sacred Choral Music of Coleridge-Taylor and Robles. I discovered that conducting my own compositions can be thrilling (not just scary!). I couldn’t have been more pleased with the evening. (Photo by Adon Alonzo)
Conducting “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” on Sunday August 14 with my Neighborhood Church summer choir and with Katie Eames at the piano was definitely a summer highlight for me. I loved having 3 teenagers in the group!; my own daughter and two Harvard-Westlake students sang with us. It was transformative to perform this work in the context of a church service intended to confront cultural appropriation and center the voices of Native American culture bearers. We look forward to bringing this kind of depth to our performance at Carnegie Hall in March 2023. (Photo by Yolanda Mitchell West)
Composition
Now that this year’s Coleridge-Taylor Celebration has ended, I turn my attention to the four composition commissions I’ve been neglecting over the past two weeks! Thank goodness the deadlines are spread apart over the next six months. Of the four projects, the two multi-movement pieces on which I’m working right now are particularly challenging.
Y’all need to pray for me.
For Fun
A visit the the Broad Museum for the Murakami exhibit was well worth the time spent sitting in traffic on a Thursday night. Plus, I got to go to the sound bath performance that was part of the exhibit on the 2nd floor of the museum – so refreshing, so resonant, so cool!
Ollie’s corner
Ollie’s official headshot for August, and Ollie diving into his new job, guarding the clean laundry:
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Celebration Features Performances of Sacred Choral Music and Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast
Led by Artistic Director Dr. Zanaida Robles
Friday, August 12, 7 p.m. “Sacred Choral Music of Coleridge-Taylor and Robles” Tickets available here
Sunday, August 14, 10 a.m. Music Sunday! Church Service performance featuring Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast Free, no tickets required at Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church, Pasadena
(Los Angeles, CA) July 12, 2022 – The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Celebration, held in honor of the composer’s 147th birthday, will feature two special performances showcasing the Black-English composer’s sacred choral music, and his masterpiece Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. Curated and conducted by Artistic Director Dr. Zanaida Robles, “Sacred Choral Music of Coleridge-Taylor and Robles” will take place Friday, August 12 at 7 p.m.; “Music Sunday! Church Service featuring Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” will take place Sunday, August 14 at 10 a.m. Both events will be held at the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena.
The “Sacred Choral Music of Coleridge-Taylor and Robles” program features a cross section of sacred works, including two settings of Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Coleridge-Taylor and Robles, and Robles’ Ecstatic Expectancy with percussionist Dave Tull, which blends classical choral music with rock improvisation.
“Music Sunday! Church Service featuring Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” includes music by Native American composers set alongside Coleridge-Taylor’s multi-cultural fusion of Native American legend, classic American poetry, and English late-Romantic music. The text for Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast comes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1885 poem, The Song of Hiawatha. While there is much to criticize about his blatant appropriation and flagrant alteration of several aspects of Native American culture, Longfellow made what he believed was a genuine attempt to honor indigenous heritage by writing his epic poem based on Henry Schoolcraft’s transcription of the orally transmitted stories told by Schoolcraft’s Ojibway wife, Jane. Despite its inaccuracies and problematic nature, Longfellow’s alluring yet misguided work helped to dramatically increase national awareness and preservation of Native American culture. The history of the Hiawatha legend and its storytellers is complex, and performing Coleridge-Taylor’s musical setting of a small portion of this story is an opportunity to clarify and correct the narrative by centering the stories, artistry, and experiences of indigenous Americans.
“Researching the life and work of Coleridge-Taylor has been an eye-opening experience ever since I first discovered his music as an undergraduate student in vocal performance,” said Robles. “It is a privilege and joy to present this celebration, which is part of a larger commitment to expand the choral canon and uplift underrepresented voices, including Indigienous artists and composers.”
The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Celebration is the first of several stops on the road to Carnegie Hall, where the Harvard-Westlake Choirs and Orchestra from Southern California will perform Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, conducted by Robles, and presented by National Concerts. The work was last performed at Carnegie Hall in 1915 as part of a “Concert of Negro Music” conducted by renowned conductor/composer J. Rosamund Johnson (the same who composed “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”).
Coleridge-Taylor’s most celebrated work, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast is a shining example of his command of musical form, texture, harmony, and orchestration, which resulted in overnight fame and respect among colleagues that few men of color could have hoped to enjoy in the early twentieth century. Because of his incredible success in a field dominated by white males at a time when racism in America was peaking, Coleridge-Taylor’s influence on Black artists and intellectuals was powerful and far-reaching. It is regrettable that such a monumental work declined into virtual obscurity after Coleridge-Taylor’s death at the young age of 37 in 1912. But these performances shine light on this important work by a composer who still inspires the American musical community, just as he did a century ago.
AT A GLANCE:
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Celebration Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church 301 N Orange Grove Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91103
Friday, August 12, 7 p.m. “Sacred Choral Music of Coleridge-Taylor and Robles” Coleridge-Taylor Singers Zanaida Robles, conductor James Walker, organ Wells Leng, piano Dave Tull, percussion Tickets available here ($20)
Sunday, August 14, 10 a.m. “Music Sunday! Church Service performance featuring Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast“ Coleridge-Taylor Celebration Chorus Zanaida Robles, conductor Kathryn Eames, piano FREE, no tickets required
Dr. Zanaida Stewart Robles is an award-winning American composer, conductor, vocalist, and teacher. She is a fierce advocate for diversity and inclusion in music education and performance. Authentic interpersonal connection and relationship-building are core principles of her teaching and performance methods. She is in demand as a composer, vocalist, clinician and adjudicator for competitions, festivals, and conferences related to choral and solo vocal music. Zanaida’s original music has been performed by professional ensembles, community choirs, educational institutions, churches, and individuals world wide. Her works are published by Stewart Robles Music, Music Spoke, E.B. Marks Music, Pavane Publishing, and Stainer and Bell. Her compositional style can be described as energized, soulful, contrapuntal, harmonically colorful, rhythmically driven, heavily modal, occasionally with African elements and touches of progressive rock. Zanaida holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the USC Thornton School of Music, a Master of Music degree from CSU Northridge, a Bachelor of Music degree from CSU Long Beach, and she is a graduate of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Zanaida was born, raised, and educated in Southern California on the occupied lands of the Gabrielino Tongva people.
A nationally-recognized conductor and concert organist, James Walker entertains and enlightens audiences throughout the United States, and his solo recitals are broadcast on National Public Radio. Winner of the prestigious Ruth and Clarence Mader National Organ-Playing Competition in 1986, he is a featured soloist at Bach festivals and regional and national music conventions. In addition to solo and chamber music recitals as pianist and organist, James maintains an active teaching schedule as well as guest conductor and collaborative artist appearances for special events, and interim organist and/or interim choirmaster and consulting for churches. Mr. Walker was Artistic Director of the 2014 Los Angeles Bach Festival and was College Organist and Instructor of Organ at Occidental College in Los Angeles from 1981 to 2004. James holds both undergraduate and Master of Music degrees from the University of Southern California School of Music. He studied organ with Marcia Hannah Farmer, Ladd Thomas and Cherry Rhodes. His conducting coaches have been Thomas Somerville, Leo Nestor, James Vail, William Schaefer, and with Helmuth Rilling as a masterclass conductor at Oregon Bach Festival.
Wells Leng is a performer/composer/improviser based in Los Angeles. Having graduated from USC with a BM in Composition and a BA in Piano Performance and CalArts with an MFA in the Performer-Composer program, they have studied composition with Donald Crockett, Brian Head, Andrew Norman, Frank Ticheli, Andrew McIntosh, and Nicholas Deyoe; piano with Antoinette Perry and Vicki Ray; cello with Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick. As both a performer and composer, Wells has collaborated with many other artists all over the world. An active member of the LA taiko community, they have worked closely with prominent artists such as San Jose Taiko, Kris Bergstrom, Isaku Kageyama, Shoji Kameda, as well as other musicians specializing in Japanese music; Kozue Matsumoto and Rachel Rudich. Wells is part of House on Fire Trio, stickytack, and Quartet Friends. Aside from playing taiko, cello, and piano, they are also an amateur player of several other instruments. Wells is currently the collaborative keyboardist at Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church.
Dave Tull has long been known as one of the world’s finest jazz drummers and has also built a reputation as a premiere jazz singer and songwriter. Dave Tull’s latest release, “Texting and Driving” was the #2 most requested new album of 2018 on SiriusXM Real Jazz, and was featured by NPR’s Susan Stamberg on Weekend Edition. Singing from the drums, Dave brings to the stage a rare combination of joyous songwriting, world-class jazz singing and drumming. Think “Frishberg meets Gershwin”. Dave’s songs have been called both “laugh out loud funny” and inspiring of “soul searching and introspection”, propelling “Texting and Driving” to #5 on the Billboard Jazz Chart, and #3 on the Billboard Comedy Chart in the same week, and 23 weeks on the JazzWeek chart! Dave’s celebrated first CD, “I Just Want To Get Paid”, continues to get regular airplay many years after its release.
Dr. Kathryn Eames earned her DMA in Piano Performance at the University of Southern California, studying with Bernadene Blaha. She enjoys an active performing career as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and orchestral keyboardist. Dr. Eames is a devoted advocate of new music, and is a member of the contemporary ensemble Helix Collective. The group’s 2018 album L.A, Stories commissioned works involving spoken word about various aspects of life in Los Angeles. Kathryn is also the principal pianist of the Fresno Philharmonic. Other collaborations include pop-up concerts with New Opera West and working as a Teaching Artist for the LA Opera school outreach program. Her recordings have been featured on KUSC 91.5’s Thornton Center Stage. Dr. Eames is on the faculty of the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, where she teaches piano and music theory.
