Inversion presents

From the Porch Swing

by Steven Sérpa

Inversion is a music organization that focuses primarily on new music and music by living composers. We create impactful art in the heart of Texas by harnessing the power of music to tell stories that matter, foster connection and healing, and amplify voices that need to be heard.

Katrina Saporsantos, Artistic Director and Conductor

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world premiere performance

From the Porch Swing

Text: Jeffery Beam | Music: Steven Sérpa

Program Note: From the Porch Swing is a choral song cycle on Jeffery Beam’s collection of poems Verdant, my fourth work on his poetry. It chronicles the end of a whirlwind, romantic affair, addressing the lust, desire, broken promises, false hopes involved. The protagonist moves through longing and nostalgia into grief and desperation until they come to realize their own worth compared to the “Fool’s Gold” of the relationship. Within themself, they find inherent value, peace, and the freedom of contentment.

This is my fourth work on Jeffery’s poetry, an artistic friendship I have valued for almost two decades. Jeffery grew up in North Carolina, in Appalachia, and he and his husband live there still. The region’s influence, its colloquial style, is felt throughout his poetry. Because of this, I am exploring Appalachian and old-time music styles as well as Sacred Harp and Shape-note Singing to build the musical material of From the Porch Swing. — Steven Sérpa

I want it to be evening
The sun just dropping
I want the porch to be pleasant with
tea cups and strange flowers
and dogs snoring under the table
Suddenly winter
Winter and winter and winter
How quickly the foxes
took to their dens
For you a candle
and an unlocked door
For me
For me
Winter and winter and winter
Winter and winter and winter again
For me
No letter warms me
No fire thaws me
No bed revives me
What sunrise warms you?
What kindling burns you?
What sleep renews you?
For you a candle
and an unlocked door
For me moonlight pooling under porch eaves
and the dark beguiling with
Fox wail owl weep
Winter come and gone
From you
One final letter
I don’t know where I am
Do not look for me
Spring and I
Glide in fragrance and color
Under pollen-stained greenery’s
Fresh beginnings
Winter’s past,
Vernal flowers appear
Warbling choirs enchant our ear,
Sweetly, pensive turtle dove
The voice of the Beloved sings!
Months of imagined letter and desiring none
Months of moon moorings
Months of dull anticipation
Why was your script so hurried so ragged?
Spring took its merry time
You should too
I longed for you as the willow longs for wind
shaking its branches willingly
You called me beggar
I begged only truth:
a garnet embedded and gleaming in pyrite stone
deeper than honesty deeper than proof
I longed for you as the willow longs for wind
Now as garnet I no longer long
For Fool’s Gold’s dull shine
Perfect
Free of other’s expectations even
my own

About the Composer

Steven Sérpa is an award-winning composer of opera, choral, symphonic, and chamber music. His works have been performed by ensembles including the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. He was recently selected by the American Composers Orchestra for their EarShot Emerging Composer Fellowship. Sérpa’s operas have been performed across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Thyrsis & Amaranth was praised as “truly beautiful… a magnificent little story jammed full of thought and feeling and meaning,” with “gorgeous music and wrenching lyrics.” these wings are meant to fly, written in response to the Pulse nightclub shooting, was premiered by Thompson Street Opera in Chicago and later performed in Toronto, Montréal, Hartford, Austin, and Mexico City.

Recent commissions include works for the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra, and Panoramic Voices. Sérpa’s vocal catalog reflects his engagement with living collaborators and social themes, including Canciónes de desamor with Mexican poet Cecilia M. Castillo, The Creatures: A Bestiary Retold based on poetry by Jeffery Beam, and And Loving for All, a cantata inspired by the writing of Mildred Loving. His dramatic oratorio james (book of ruth), premiered by Inversion Ensemble, explores HIV/AIDS stigma through scenes of love, grief, and chosen family. Both james and these wings were created in collaboration with playwright Zac Kline. His upcoming album, These Landscapes, will feature instrumental chamber music in collaboration with Density512.

In addition to composing, Steven is active producing and directing in the Austin new-music scene, as well as performing as countertenor and vocalist. He has co-directed Fast Forward Austin, Tetractys New Music, and Here Be Monsters, the annual indie-classical music festival showcasing innovative performances and newly commissioned works by Austin-based composers and ensembles. He can be heard performing in Texas Early Music Ensemble, Panoramic Voices, and Inversion Ensemble.
Steven is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a doctorate in composition. He holds master’s degrees in composition from the Hartt School of the University of Hartford and in early music performance from Longy School of Music. He earned bachelor’s degrees in vocal performance and music history at the University of Rhode Island. Steven has studied with composers Tom Cipullo in New York, Larry Alan Smith and Stephen Gryč at the Hartt School, and with Donald Grantham, Yevgeniy Sharlat, and Dan Welcher at the University of Texas.
Steven makes his home just east of Austin with his partner on their almost-eight-acre homestead, along with their rescue dogs, barn cats, vegetable gardens, and thousands of honeybees in their apiary.