TWC Announces Re-Broadcast of ‘Resilience’ Digital Choral Experience Artists and Musical Program
The Washington Chorus (TWC) originally premiered the program ‘Resilience’ on June 11, 2021. Don’t miss your chance to view the re-broadcast between now and February 28, 2022!
The full ‘Resilience’ program line-up – featuring The Washington Chorus, EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble, poet Samiya Bashir, pianist Lara Downes, and many more collaborators, with digital filmmaking and art by Camilla Tassi – and additional information on the program, are below.
The Washington Chorus is especially grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for their support of this program. Additional thanks to supporters of the TWC Resilience Fund, which helps to underwrite this and other initiatives, and to the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs program, and the U.S. Commission of Fine Art.
Dr. Eugene Rogers, Artistic Director
presents
RESILIENCE
A digital choral experience
Original world premiere: Friday, June 11, 2021
Streaming on-demand through February 28, 2021
Musical program
Here’s the Thing, Julian Wachner, text by Samiya Bashir
Serenade to Music, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Troubled Water, Margaret Bonds
Freedom’s Plow, Rollo Dilworth, text by Langston Hughes
Featuring
The Washington Chorus (Eugene Rogers, Artistic Director)
EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble
Pianists Lara Downes and Rollo Dilworth
Narrator Shannon Finney and Poet Samiya Bashir
Producers
Arts Laureate
Camilla Tassi Music Design
DG Productions
Just a Theory Press
OneSample Media
Video Team & Credits
Mikayla Johnson, illustrations Freedom’s Plow
Stan Mathabane, actor Serenade to Music
John Horzen, assistant video editor
Camilla Tassi, video designer
Filmed at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Washington, DC, and multiple locations in the City of New Haven, CT.
EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble
Jackie Cano, soprano 1
Nicole Joseph, soprano 2
Lianna Wimberly Williams, alto 1
Mari Valverde, alto 2
Matthew Valverde, tenor 1
LaVonté Heard, tenor 2
Rod Kelly Hines, bass 1
Alan Williams, bass 2
Instrumentalists
Akemi Takayama, violin 1 & solo violin
Marlisa Woods, violin 2
William Neri, viola
Titilayo Ayangade, cello
Samuel Suggs, double bass
Tiffany Lloyd, electric bass
Rollo Dilworth, piano
Lara Downes, piano
Wei-Han Wu, piano
Don Johns, percussion
Robert Schroyer, percussion
Ralph Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music Soloists
Sopranos
Dana Boyle
Amelia Kelly
Jane Recker
Altos
Natalia Kojanova
Elizabeth Solem
Tenors
Bradley L. Cullen
David Miranda
Basses
David Gradin
Lloyd Randolph
Marco Santos
The Washington Chorus
Soprano I
Tiara Abraham
Dana Boyle
Jill Campbell
Lisa Chensvold
Charlene Cobb
Laura Gross
Amelia Kelly•
Catherine Law
Kaelyn Lowmaster
Chloe Malouf
Kara Morrissey
Beng Choo Ng
Raquel Perez-Arroyo
Jane Recker
Amy Rosander
Deborah Sternberg^
Jessica Wabler*
Soprano II
Cynthia Nikas Berecz
Kristen Blackman
Rebekah Bridges
Lois Cecsarini*
Alison Cooper
Deepa Dhume Datta
Chantal Davis
Mary Dohrmann
Stacie Eirich
Mimi Kuester
Nancy Ortmeyer Kuhn♫
Meghan McCabe
Kathy Peery
Meghan Rohrer
Alto I
Katie Acton
Paula Albertson
Alison Combes
Sheri Economou
Christie Garton
Isabel Gross
Sandra Hoffmann
Claudia Hrvatin
Natalia Kojanova^
Leslie Lewis*
Laura Lilly
Flora Lindsay-Herrera
Esha Maheshwari
Julia Moore
Sarah Morgan
Bethany Bray Patterson•
Katherine Schneider
Elizabeth Solem
Constance Soves
Alexis Stark
Karen Toth
Alto II
Mary Amorosino
Latricia Brown•
Marie Colturi
Anna Doorenbos
Carol A. Farris*
Kelly J. Heatwole
Joanne Kelly
Jessica Lichtenfeld
Mary Lovejoy
Regan MacNay
Catherine Pruett
Rebecca Schneider
Tenor I
Bradley L. Cullen
Bryan Ijames
James Leathers•
David Miranda^
Nicholas Music^
Arthur Paterson
Rob Porter
Luke Wilson
Tenor II
Peter C.R. Clunie
Joseph Ferrari
Kirby Knight*•
Michael Morris
Nicholas Moy
Sam Zhao
Bass I
Thomas Augustin•
David Cook*
Benjamin Gitterman
Paul Lee
Timothy Murphy
Marco Santos
Thomas Sumner
Stephen Swartzbaugh•
Bass II
Andy Gallant*
Conor Kelly
William Kincaid
Michael Mason
Lloyd Randolph
Craig Ruskin
Ralph Shafer
Jacob Surzyn^
Ben Wallis
*section leader
^pro core
•chorus council
♫chorus president
Resilience: Digital Choral Experience texts
Verse 1 from Langston Hughes’ Freedom’s Plow:
When a man starts out with nothing,
When a man starts out with his hands
Empty, but clean,
When a man starts to build a world,
He starts first with himself
And the faith that is in his heart-
The strength there,
The will there to build.
First in the heart is the dream-
Then the mind starts seeking a way.
His eyes look out on the world,
On the great wooded world,
On the rich soil of the world,
On the rivers of the world.
HERE’S THE THING
Words by Samiya Bashir
Featuring Members of EXIGENCE
Lyrics:
HERE’S THE THING: things fall apart.
I am not saying I’m a prophet but
I know the meaning of a moment like ours. Burning. I’m almost sure
I’m here. Transformed. Torn apart.
Alone. I burn.
I listen for the wind.
Pressed by time. Six feet back.
I find the me who’s tall as a gum tree, the me with copper hair.
I am an opening. A milepost. Surviving.
Eyes open, heart full of doubt.
I strike my fireballs and burn.
Sort of dreaming.
I am volcano. I am oil-slicked river.
Stripped of skin.
I am fluent in the press of time.
Voice raw and syrup stripped.
Thriving. No sound stays innocent.
A footpath. A corridor.
A clearing and yes the bushes burn like skyfire.
And still I decide to survive. I claim every sunrise.
Everyday
Average
Numbness of the
End of the world
(stupid – boring – hmmmm – uhhh (breath))
If there is intelligent life where is it?
HERE’S THE THING:
I’m not supposed to talk about this
HERE’S THE THING:
(no sound is innocent)
Though it may seem simple enough
I feel so raw these days
Stripped of Skin
Blind as a sewer rat
Skulking in the dark
Raw as a baby rat – mother rat –
rich rat – breadline rat – poor rat – hungry rat – full rat – sewer rat
MATTER OF FACT:
I was sort of sleeping and then I was on fire
She was sort of sleeping and then she was on fire
I burned
I mean – sleeping and then we were on fire Burned
Thriving
I’m a volcano
no sound is innocent
I skulk away a little more each day
I’m burning – ARE YOU LISTENING?
IAM: melting
looking at you
listening for you
can you hear me
first I’m in a dream
and then
can you see me
I’m on fire – how do we survive
Sure! Blame the apocalypse!
This having a body how do I survive this
We are river – We are fire
And then we are torn apart
I am fluent in Fire
Thriving.
Burned into brick road.
I am fluent
In fire
In indigo miseries
In the absence of heat
In how time presses a body
Fluent in the need to dance.
I am an opening. A milepost. A sign.
Triumphant.
I scream but words burn like skyfire.
Here’s the thing I’m not supposed to say
I decide to survive.
I claim every sunrise.
SERENADE TO MUSIC
Ralph Vaughan Williams
This text is taken from Act V, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Look, how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There's not the smallest orb that thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn:
With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,
And draw her home with music.
I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
The reason is, your spirits are attentive:
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted... Music! hark!
It is your music of the house.
Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.
Silence bestows that virtue on it.
How many things by season season'd are.
To their right praise and true perfection!
Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion,
And would not be awak'd.
(Soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.)
Verse 4 from Langston Hughes’ Freedom’s Plow
With billowing sails the galleons came
Bringing men and dreams, women and dreams.
In little bands together,
Heart reaching out to heart,
Hand reaching out to hand,
They began to build our land.
Some were free hands
Seeking a greater freedom,
Some were indentured hands
Hoping to find their freedom,
Some were slave hands
Guarding in their hearts the seed of freedom,
But the word was there always:
Freedom.
TROUBLED WATER
Margaret Bonds
Based on the spiritual “Wade in the Water”
Lara Downes, piano
Final verse from Langston Hughes’ Freedom’s Plow
A long time ago,
An enslaved people heading toward freedom
Made up a song:
Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On!
The plow plowed a new furrow
Across the field of history.
Into that furrow the freedom seed was dropped.
From that seed a tree grew, is growing, will ever grow.
That tree is for everybody,
For all America, for all the world.
May its branches spread and shelter grow
Until all races and all peoples know its shade.
KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW! HOLD ON!