Text: Malay | Music: Tracy Wong

Solo: Amy Harris, soprano

Malaysian  choral conductor, music educator, composer, vocalist, and pianist Tracy Wong drew inspiration from the almost-extinct Malay shadow puppet theatre Wayang Kulit Kelantan for her virtuosic piece Singkap Siaga. Wong remembers learning to create these puppets in school in Malaysia. The artform itself is a profound reminder of how light and shadow equal in beauty, despite the shadow or darkness having negative connotations. With both present in life, there is balance. The piece relies 95% on vocables like gong, dak, ding, dong, tsak, tsng, employing voices to become instruments reminiscent of the traditional instruments employed in traditional Southeast Asian Gamelan ensembles: metallophones and metal plates, gongs, chimes, mallets, etc. The remaining 5% text of Singkap (to open) Siaga (ever ready) signifies the openness, quickness, and readiness to adapt. The rhythmic elements of the piece are inspired by the music accompanying the “battle between shadow and light” (where no one wins), and together with body percussion, make for an exciting, fiery piece.     

Singkap (open)
Siaga (ever ready)

Text & Music: Kyle Pederson

Kyle Pederson is a Minneapolis-based composer, lyricist, pianist, and educator whose lyrics and music invite the singers and audience, through music, to be transformative agents of hope, grace, and compassion in the world. Through this piece, Pederson hones in on the very human desire to overcome hardship by inviting the singers and audiences to consider how singular and communal voices and actions can create positive change–to let kindness and unity transform darkness into light.  

What if instead of more violence, 
we let our weapons fall silent? 
No more revenge or retribution; 
no more war or persecution. 
It could be beautiful.

What if instead of our judgement, 
we soften our hearts that have hardened? 
Instead of certainty and pride
we love and sacrifice. 
It could be beautiful. 

Can we see the other as our sister or a brother?
Can we sing the darkness to light
sounding chords of compassion and grace? 
Set the swords of judgement aside, 
let mercy’s eyes see the other human face.

Text: Rabindranath Tagore | Music: Scott Aucoin

In “Light, my light”, American conductor, performer, and composer of choral music Scott AuCoin wanted to write a piece focusing on hope and joy, as the world was finally coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and thought that “light” would best capture these feelings. He decided to make use of the celebrated poem of the same name by Bengali poet, novelist, composer, painter, and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, Song 57 in his Nobel Prize-winning collection Gitanjali. The poem honors light as a divine, world-filling, and intimate force that brings joy, love, and spiritual awakening. This piece won the Frost Choral Composition Competition at the University of Miami. 

Light, my light, 
the world-filling light, 
the eye-kissing light, 
heart-sweetening light!
Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the center of my life; 
the light strikes, my darling, 
the chords of my love; 
the sky opens, the wind runs wild, 
laughter passes over the earth.

The butterflies spread their sails
on the sea of light. 
Lilies and jasmines surge up
on the crest on the waves of light. 

The light is shattered into gold
on every cloud, my darling, 
and it scatters gems in profusion. 

Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling, 
and gladness without measure. 
The heaven’s river has drowned its banks
and the flood of joy is abroad.