Made in LA Program

Made in L.A.: Identity and Belonging in the City of Angels is a musical celebration of some of the voices and communities of Los Angeles. Music-making is an active way of telling history, of expressing histories and experiences of people to keep those perspectives and memories current and alive. In this way, the act of making music is a statement of solidarity and justice. The songs in this concert address concepts of identity, healing, community, and joy. The selection of pieces tonight reflects the diversity of the people of Los Angeles, drawing on a variety of musical traditions, perspectives, and languages as a witness to our diverse soundscape. Several of the composers featured in this concert are connected to Los Angeles: Roger Bourland taught music composition at UCLA, Sara Bareilles is a UCLA alum, Reena Esmail is the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Swan Family Artist in Residence, and Saunder Choi and Zanaida Stewart Robles call Los Angeles home. This concert’s celebration of Los Angeles’ musical community is rounded out with a collaboration with Aftershock, the a capella group from the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. Abby Gostein, “Da L’cha - Know This:” Composer Abby Gostein set this Hebrew text with English translation for an occasion of personal and communal significance; the subtitle of this piece reads: “A Parents’ blessing to Daniel Eli Gostein on the occasion of his becoming a Bar Mitzvah, August 11, 2012.” The pastoral imagery in the words by Reb Nachman of Bratzlav sing of the beauty and significance of everything in our world, that we all have our own song to sing and when we hear one another, we find the wisdom borne from community. Gostein illustrates this concept by layering voices in a constantly shifting musical texture – solo, duet, trio introducing the melody, which reaches fulfillment in a communal statement by all the voices in the choir. Abbie Betinis, “From Behind the Caravan: Songs of Hâfez” This multimovement work sets the Farsi poems of 14th century poet Hâfez. Composer Abbie Betinis writes: “Khwâja Hâfez-e Shirazi was a 14th century mystic poet from Shiraz, Persia (Iran). He wrote over 400 lyric poems, called ghazals, and his mastery of that form remains celebrated today. His writing is based on Sufism, a mystical tradition of Islam which focuses on the personal journey of becoming nearer the Beloved through love, beauty, and ridding one’s heart of material desires. Sufism is associated with many currents of Islam, including both the Sunni and Shi’a sects, and has been practiced since the ninth century, and perhaps much earlier. Rumi (13th c.) is another well-known Sufi mystic poet. I was particularly drawn to these four poems because of the elegant way they depict longing…longing for Truth, longing for Reason, longing for Kindness, Love, and – always – longing for the Beloved. I also found that many of Hâfez’s poems seem to have in common beautiful metaphors of transience: fire, breath, breeze. In setting these historic and culturally-iconic texts, I have desperately tried to remain true to the intonation of the language, and to Hâfez’s poetic instinct. Each poem unfortunately had to be shortened to create a concert piece, but I encourage singers to seek out the original poems to read in their entirety. I owe special thanks to my friend Behrooz Alavi for sharing with me his insights into Hâfez’s poetry, pronunciation, and rich performance practice. The music is not meant to be Persian, but is my own interpretation of an assortment of influences, including my recent love affair with Persian poetic meter and form, Middle Eastern musical systems and modes, but perhaps also distant memories of dancing barefoot at four years old, joyfully and tirelessly, with my Greek relatives to music that whirled feverishly around us, and – even with my arms held up to clutch their hands on either side – feeling completely free.” Roger Bourland, Alarcón Madrigals, “In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles” The Alarcón Madrigals are musical settings of texts by poet Francisco X. Alarcón by composer Roger Bourland. Alarcón was born in Los Angeles, and as a child he lived in both Mexico and the United States. Alarcón’s grandmother, who helped care for him and his six siblings as his parents worked in a cannery, sang songs to him that he later tried to transcribe, and when he would forget lines he would make up his own – setting him on his path to becoming a poet. “In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles” makes mention of his grandmother and her loving wisdom and comforting humor, and how she represents both family and national heritage. Bourland’s settings of these poems highlight the crisp imagery of the lines, dwelling on the themes of closeness and community. Reena Esmail, “TāReKiṬa” Los Angeles-based Composer Reena Esmail creates works that reflect her personal investment in connecting traditions from both Indian and Western classical music, and her mission of creating equitable musical communities. This piece is written in conventional Western choral format, and uses the melodic framework of a rāga of Indian classical music, the Jog. The syllables you hear are onomatopoeic sounds that imitate the sound of the Indian drum, the tabla. The effect is rhythmic, energetic, and joyful. Saunder Choi, “Our Streets, A Symphony Again” Composer Saunder Choi shares these notes on the composition and contemporary resonance of this piece: “Our Streets, a Symphony Again is a setting of the playful poem Too early to celebrate? by current West Hollywood poet laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace. The piece was commissioned by VOX Femina Los Angeles for their March 2023 concert – Made in LA: Identity and Belonging in the City of Angels – a concert that celebrates the city’s diversity. The poem was commissioned by West Hollywood as it began to reopen from COVID restrictions. It was written as a collaborative work that includes words and memories of its diverse residents answering the questions: What does “reopening” mean? What’s the same/different? How does history fit at that particular time and space? The text’s ability to capture the city’s history of harboring the LGBTQ+ community spoke to me as a gay immigrant who has found home in Los Angeles – a place where I am fully able to celebrate my different intersectionalities. Moreover, as someone who was holed up in LA for the entirety of the lockdown, the poem perfectly encapsulates the post-pandemic anticipation, excitement, and uncertainty that we all experienced.” Ivette Herryman, “Sigue” Contemporary Cuban composer Ivette Herryman sets a text by Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén (1902-1989) from his 1930 collection Motivos de Son, a collection of poetry inspired by the Afro-Cuban song form, the Son. The poems are playful and teasing, mostly telling stories about relationships between men and women. In “Sigue”, the poet warns a traveler not to tarry at the house of a “bad” woman. Herryman creates the scene and atmosphere with the piano; as she writes: “…the piano part unfolds a bass line that presents a steady rhythm throughout the piece. This pattern is a walking bass that develops characteristic Cuban rhythms of the Cuban genre: Son. The “bad” woman is portrayed by a gesture composed out of triplets that tends to stop the regular movement of the bass. After the triplets – the woman’s attempt to stop the traveler – the bass restarts the pace of its line, and the piece continues to move forward.” Zanaida Stewart Robles, “Intersectionality” For this multimovement work, commissioned by VOX Femina Los Angeles for the March 2023 concert, composer Zanaida Stewart Robles wrote the lyrics for the Prologue and Epilogue, and turned to the voices of three more women for “Bilingual” (Rhina P. Espaillat), “Lion” (Tina Chang), and “Ripe” (Amy Fogerson). The creators of this multimovement piece share these words on its significance and meaning: “This work employs the poetry of American women from different cultural backgrounds to tell a story of pain, power, and revelation often experienced by persons for whom the intersectionality of multiple socio-cultural identities is a life-long journey. Whether it’s race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, economic status, or sexual orientation, the struggle to confidently express one’s multiple socio-cultural identities without being damaged or diluted by society is ongoing. It’s about finding commonality, connection, and empathy from our similarities and differences. And it's about self-love.” Joan Szymko, “Quite Regularly Gay” In 1923, Gertrude Stein published her short essay “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene” in Vanity Fair – marking one of the first times that the word “gay” was used in publication to refer to same-sex relationships. Stein used the word gay over 100 times in the 2000-word work – deliberately working with a limited palette of words to highlight their change in meaning as the story goes on! Stein was influenced by fellow artists who regularly attended her salon: Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire, who were in a relationship. Joan Szymko highlights the humor of the repetition – being regularly gay - with strictly repetitive lines, voices in imitation of each other, in a patter song reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan. Robert Seeley, “I Come From Good People” This song comes from Naked Man, a cantata by Robert Seeley and Philip Littell that was commissioned by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus in 1996. While writing the libretto, Littell interviewed members of the Chorus about their life experiences, resulting in a personal and urgent work. “I Come From Good People” is about the importance of chosen family. Some come from “good people” but have traveled far; others have found their families in a new place, and this song is a call to those seeking a new family: “If you do not come from good people, come to us!” Sara Bareilles, “Brave” Singer-songwriters Sara Bareilles and Jack Antonoff wrote “Brave” for a friend who was in the process of coming out as gay. The anthemic chorus celebrates the courage of the individual - “Say what you wanna say, and let the words fall out, honestly, I wanna see you be brave” – while the verses suggest that one person being brave empowers others to do the same.