Description:

AA Triptych of American Voices: A Cantata of the People is a kaleidoscope onprevailing themes of American political discourse, from the purview of an immigrantcomposer. It's a musical narrative told from the prisms of 3 greatpoems - Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, LangstonHughes' As I Grew Older, and Michael Castro's We Need to Talk. The musical lingua is deliberately diverse, drawing from a variety ofcultural influences. Imagery abounds - of Native American Pow-Wows, Jazz, early African plainsongs, and chants shared on Appalachian Mountains - all woven on a sonic tapestry that is immediately American, but in a broad sense,universal. The 30-minute work, scored for mixed chorus, counter-tenor and tenor soloists,and orchestra, was commissioned by Coro Allegro of Boston, MA. andpremiered March 24, 2019 at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, MA.