Springtime Sonder
A Virtual Program to Benefit the Center for Food Equity in Medicine
YUAN-QING YU + KENNETH OLSEN + WINSTON CHOI
Compositions
The Solitude of Stars from Postcards from Wyoming
Stacy Garrop (b. 1969)
Fiery Red from Piano Trio
Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)
Five Negro Melodies for Piano Trio, Op.59
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
They Will Not Lend Me a Child
My Lord Delivered Daniel
Samuel Coleridge Taylor (1875–1912)
Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas
(The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)
1-Verano Porteño (Buenos Aires Summer)
2-Otoño Porteño (Buenos Aires Autumn)
3-Invierno Porteño (Buenos Aires Winter)
4-Primavera Porteña (Buenos Aires Spring)
Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992)
About the Program
Civitas Ensemble chose the following musical selections for its Springtime Sonder program to narrate the universal emotional journey during these trying times. After a year of separation from our friends, loved ones, and any sense of normalcy, we want to acknowledge the isolation, reflection, anger, and hope that we have all experienced.
Stacy Garrop’s The Solitude of Stars depicts the vast emptiness of the night sky over a still, hushed landscape. The unsettling stillness of this beautiful work reflects the loneliness and introspection that followed the sudden lockdown, while Jennifer Higdon’s Fiery Red offers a cathartic release of the frustration and distress caused by tragic loss, suffering, and uncertainty.
With this anguish, we plea for healing. A collection of African-American spirituals set by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor gives us a chance to repair, reconnect, and revitalize our belief in our own resilience.
The program ends with Astor Piazzolla’s tango-inspired take on The Four Seasons, which reminds us that winter becomes spring. Once again, we are filled with hope and we dance to our collectiveness.