What the Heart Desires

Raised in Berkeley, CA, Robert Lee Owens (1925 – 2017) had simultaneous careers as a concert pianist, vocal accompanist, composer, and stage and television actor; and for most of his adult life, he was an American expatriate in Europe, principally in Munich, Germany, where he lived for more than 50 years. Owens began composing art songs after meeting the poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967), who gifted him a copy of his collection, Fields of Wonder, suggesting he “see what he could do” with the poems. Both Havana Dreams and Heart are from his song cycle, Heart on the Wall, one of many song cycles Owens composed using Hughes’ poetry.

The first prominent Black composer in America, Henry Thacker Burleigh (1866 – 1949), composed a distinguished catalog of songs which were quite popular with singers in the earlier part of this century, including the tenor John McCormack, who often featured Burleigh’s songs in recital. As a student at the National Conservatory in New York City, Burleigh came into contact with Antonin Dvořák. Through his work with Burleigh, Dvořák came to believe that it was in the music of African American spirituals where the true American sound would be found. A prolific composer, with an output of well over 200 compositions, Burleigh was one of the most important American composers of the first half of the 20th century. Burleigh’s short cycle, Passionale, consists of four songs (two of which feature on today’s program), with poetry by James Weldon Johnson (1871 – 1938). The song Among the Fuchsias is taken from Burleigh’s collection of settings of the poetry of Laurence Hope, which was the pen name of Violet Nicolson (1865 –1904), an English poet who spent most of her life in colonial India.

American composer Howard Swanson (1907 – 1978) came to prominence through his art songs, which were championed by singers such as the contralto Marian Anderson, soprano Leontyne Price, tenor George Shirley, and bass William Warfield. Through performances of these vocal works, Swanson’s music was introduced to the conductor Dmitri Mitropoulos, who gave the composer a premiere at the New York Philharmonic, leading to the first of many international awards and commissions for Swanson. Born in Atlanta, Swanson studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music as well as pursued post-graduate studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, where he would live for many years both before and after World War II. I Will Lie Down in Autumn, is one of his final songs, and is a setting of the poetry of American poet May Swenson (1913 – 1989).

Born to parents of African-American and Creek Indian heritage, Zenobia Powell Perry (1908-2004) negotiated a varied and untraditional musical education. Despite discouragement from her father, Perry pursued a music education as a pianist, largely thanks to the insistence of her mother. After completing her undergraduate studies in piano, Perry was permitted by her father to attend the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where she studied education. While at Tuskegee, after gaining notice for her choral arrangements, Perry was encouraged to begin composing music of her own. Perry went on to pursue a masters degree in education in Colorado, and was supported in her studies by Eleanor Roosevelt, who was keen to support her educational vision. It would not be until 1950 that Perry would fully devote herself to composition, a decision that would lead to an output of works for choir, orchestra, and solo piano; chamber pieces; an opera; and many art songs. Alien and Pastourelle are taken from one of her most frequently performed song cycles, Threnody, a collection of musical settings of the poetry of Donald Jeffrey Hayes.

Chen Yi (born in 1953) is an innovative and prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries. Born in China, she survived hard labor and separation from her family during the Cultural Revolution of 1966. At the age of 17, she returned to her home city of Guangzhou and served as concertmaster and composer with the Beijing Opera Troupe, and it was then that her fascination with traditional Chinese music and Western classical music theory began. Dr. Chen is the recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001 and has been commissioned by many organizations and previously was the composer-in-residence with Chanticleer. The first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, she currently serves on the composition faculty of the University of Missouri–Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music. Bright Moonlight is a setting of a text Chen wrote in English, following a structure borrowed from ancient Chinese poetry.

Born and raised in the Bay Area and now based in Chicago, composer Stacy Garrop (b. 1969) represents a continuation of a long tradition of Chicagoan women composers that includes not only Florence Price, but also Margaret Bonds, Shulamit Ran, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Augusta Read Thomas. Premiered in 2006, Garrop’s In Eleanor’s Words draws on excerpts of Eleanor Roosevelt’s syndicated newspaper column, My Day, which ran from 1935 through 1962. The cycle affords the chance to revisit some of the musings of one of America’s most progressive women leaders. Over the course of the work, we hear snippets of Roosevelt’s thoughts on systemic oppression of people of color and the poor, and in the final song of the cycle, What Can One Woman Do?, her pleas for pacifism and her beliefs about the importance of the participation of the individual in our democracy – all statements that remain sadly relevant nearly a century hence.

Mohammed Fairouz (b. 1985) is one of the most frequently performed, commissioned, and recorded composers working today. Fairouz’s large-scale works engage major geopolitical and philosophical themes with a cosmopolitan outlook that reflects his transatlantic upbringing and extensive travels. His catalog encompasses virtually every genre, including opera, symphonies, vocal and choral settings, chamber and solo works. Fairouz’ After the Revels, is a setting of a translation of the poet Ibn Shuhayd (992 – 1034) from the early 11th century. Fairouz writes that his intention in setting the text was “in celebration of love as a gay composer” and describes the song as being “one of my most sensual songs describing the sexual act as a celebration of being human and alive.”

Born in New York City, Taiwanese-American composer Justine F. Chen (b. 1975) draws inspiration from animation, film, theater, classical Indian dance and music, ballet, and contemporary dance. She studied violin and composition at the pre-college division of The Juilliard School, where she also completed her Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral studies in violin and composition. Also a dancer, she trained at the School of American Ballet and performed in various productions with New York City Ballet at the New York State Theater. She has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and commissions, including prizes from BMI and ASCAP. Chen’s Whilst Alexis Lay Press’d is a setting of a text taken from John Dryden’s (1631 – 1700) play, the Restoration comedy Marriage-à-la-mode.

Of Métis (Georgian Bay Métis Community) and French Canadian descent, Ian Cusson’s (b. 1981) work explores the Canadian Indigenous experience, including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures. He studied composition with Jake Heggie and Samuel Dolin and piano with James Anagnoson at the Glenn Gould School. Cusson was an inaugural Carrefour Composer in Residence with the National Arts Centre Orchestra from 2017-2019. He is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers. Cusson’s song Where There’s A Wall is taken from his song cycle of the same name, which premiered in 2018. The song is a setting of a poem by the Canadian poet Joy Kogawa (b. 1935), who was interned with her family at the Japanese-Canadian internment camp in Slocan, British Columbia during World War II.

Florence B. Price (1887 – 1953) made history as the first black woman in history to have a symphony performed by a major symphony orchestra when the Chicago Symphony and Frederick Stock performed her Symphony No. 1 in e minor in 1933. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price moved North to Chicago following a torrent of racial violence following the lynching of an African-American man in Little Rock. She remained a resident of Chicago for the majority of her adult life. A fixture on the city’s classical music scene, Price was a prolific composer who composed roughly 300 pieces in a wide range of genres, from symphonic works to popular songs. Price’s Sympathy is a setting of a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 – 1906), one of the first Black American writers of influence. The poem has inspired many, including Maya Angelou, who used an excerpt as the title of her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Errollyn Wallen, CBE (b. 1958), a Belize-born British citizen, is a prolific composer who has written numerous chamber and orchestral works, multiple operas, and scores of songs. Her Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra was the first piece composed by a black woman to be performed at the BBC Proms in 1998, 103 years after the festival’s founding. A free-spirited composer, Wallen’s music draws on influences of many genres, including the avant-garde edges of classical music as well as popular song. Wallen’s Daedalus is the composer’s imagining of the title character’s take on his own story in Greek mythology. The father of Icarus, who ignored his warnings and flew too close to the sun, Wallen also references an earlier aspect of Daedalus’ mythical biography: his murder of his nephew and apprectice, Perdix, for fear that he would outshine him.

Often referred to as the "Dean of Black Women Composers," Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989) was an American composer and professor of music in the twentieth century. Moore was originally trained as a classical pianist, but developed a compositional output of mostly vocal music—the genre she most preferred as a result of her musical upbringing, which was filled with African American spirituals, the music that inspired much of her work. In her youth, Moore experienced the full effect of the Jim Crow era. On looking back at her life, she later stated: “One of the most evil effects of racism in my time was the limits it placed upon the aspirations of blacks, so that though I have been ‘making up’ and creating music all my life, in my childhood or even in college I would not have thought of calling myself a composer or aspiring to be one....all liberation is connected… as long as any segment of the society is oppressed… the whole society must suffer.” Moore’s incredible talent for vocal writing is on display with the two songs on this evening’s program: Lyric for Truelove musically sets a poem by Midwestern poet Florence Hynes Willette (1901 – 1982), and I Want to Die While You Love Me is a setting of African-American poet and playwright, Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880 – 1966).

American composer Viet Cuong (b. 1990) has been commissioned and performed internationally by ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Eighth Blackbird, PRISM Quartet, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, among many others. He enjoys exploring the unexpected and whimsical and is often drawn to projects where he can make peculiar combinations and sounds feel enchanting or oddly satisfying. Currently the California Symphony’s Young American Composer-in-Residence, the orchestra recently premiered his new piece Next Week’s Trees, the first of three new orchestral works that he and the symphony will develop together over the course of his three year residency. Premiered in 2018, O Do Not Love Too Long is Cuong’s musical take on William Butler Yeats’ (1865 – 1939) poem about the fickleness of love.

A pioneer in popular music, Maria Grever (1885 – 1951) was the first Mexican woman to become a successful international composer. Born in Léon, Guanajuato, Mexico, Grever lived in Mexico City before moving with her family to Seville in 1891 at the age of six. Following studies in France with Claude Debussy and Franz Lenhard, she moved back to Mexico and continued her musical studies in 1900. Following her marriage to American oil executive, Leo A. Grever, she became a U.S. citizen and moved to New York City, where she launched her compositional career. Jurame was her first big, international hit, putting her on the map. Over the course of her career, she composed hundreds of popular tunes, writing for giant stars ranging from Esther Williams to Enrico Caruso, as well as for Hollywood studios like Paramount and 20th Century Fox. Speaking of how she wanted to share Mexico’s music with the rest of the world, Grever said: “There is such a cultural richness in Mexican Music (its Hispanic and indigenous origins and how they mix)...It is my wish and yearning to present the native rhythms and tunes (of Mexico) from a real perspective, but with the necessary flexibility to appeal to the universal audience."

Current Merola Artist, baritone Laureano Quant (b. 1993), is also a composer, having completed his undergraduate studies in composition at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, and it is thrilling to be able to present his song Ahora hablo de gaitas on this program. For this song, Quant sets to music a poem by the Colombian poet, Jorge Artel (1909 – 1994).

The composers featured on today's program are but a sampling of the many diverse voices that have been making valuable contributions to the classical vocal repertoire for roughly the last 150 years of music history, spanning from the late 19th century through today. It is an impossible task to distill the vast body of work by women and composers of color down into a single 70-minute program. Making decisions about which songs to include on this program was difficult as there were so many precious gems from which to choose, and due to the limits of time, many a masterpiece of song had to be left to be sung another day. As our art form emerges into a new chapter in a post-pandemic world, it is our greatest hope that recitals like this one become the new normal, and that great works hidden in the shadows of history see fresh light and that newer works by living composers can continue to take root and flourish, allowing both to take their rightful place in a new, more inclusive canon. Then, perhaps, songs truly can be for all, allowing music to live up to its universal potential.