The Chorale’s Voices of Joy and Thanksgiving features the music of three women whose achievements are truly impressive—Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939) was the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, Nurit Hirsch (b. 1942) has multiple honorary doctorates and lifetime achievement awards, and Libby Larsen (b. 1950) was the first woman to serve as a resident composer with a major orchestra.
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was born in Miami, Florida, and like Nurit Hirsch and Libby Larsen began her music education at a young age. By her high school graduation, she had studied piano, violin, and trumpet. After obtaining her Master’s Degree in Florida, she moved to New York, where she was one of the few women of her time who played in a major orchestra. She was with the American Symphony Orchestra for seven years under conductor Leopold Stokowski. Among her other firsts, she was the first woman to receive a doctorate in composition from the Juilliard School (1975) and the first person to hold the composer’s chair at Carnegie Hall (1995–99), where she organized the “Making Music” concert series that celebrated new music by living composers presented in an informal setting.
According to Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians [8th edition]:
There are not many composers in the modern world who possess the lucky combination of writing music of substance and at the same time exercising an immediate appeal to mixed audiences. Zwilich offers this happy combination of purely technical excellence and a distinct power of communication.
PBS produced a documentary of Zwilich’s Symphony #4 (“The Gardens”) which provides an intimate view of the composer and her work.
Zwilich’s Thanksgiving Song will open the Chorale’s November concert.
Nurit Hirsch
The second half of the Chorale’s November concert begins with a piece by Nurit Hirsch, an Israeli composer, arranger, and conductor with her own long list of awards and accomplishments. Born in Tel Aviv and initially educated in Israel, she also studied music in California and New York. She has written more than 1600 songs and composed soundtracks for more than 14 movies.
Hirsch’s Bashana Haba’ah is a classic Israeli song written at the request of Ehud Manor. He didn’t tell her that he had written the poem (that would become the song’s lyrics) about his younger brother, Yehuda Viner, who was killed in battle in 1968. Not knowing this enabled her to write an upbeat tune, making the song a classic Rosh Hashanah song rather than a memorial song—although in actuality it is both, a song of sadness and hope that next year, the new year, will be better.
Next Year (You will see)
Next year we’ll sit on the porch and count birds migrating,
children on vacation will play tag between the house and the fields.
Next year. You will see how good it will be next year.
Red grapes will ripen till the evening and will be served chilled to the table,
and languid wings will carry to the crossroads old newspapers and a cloud.
Next year. You will see how good it will be next year.
Next year we will spread our hands toward the radiant light;
a white heron like a light will spread her wings and within them the sun will rise.
Next year. You will see how good it will be next year.
John Leavitt’s arrangement of Hirsch’s Bashana Haba’ah:
Bashana Haba’ah with subtitles:
Libby Larsen
Libby Larsen (Elizabeth Brown Larsen) began her formal music training at the Carondelet Catholic School, the parish school of Christ the King and St. Thomas the Apostle in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Gregorian Chant dominated the musical environment at Carondelet. Its free-flowing rhythm, text, and melodic lines worked in tandem with musical instruction based on a moveable “do” in which syllables are assigned to scale degrees, with “do” always the first degree of the major scale.
Her training gave her expertise in composing without barlines. She fixes on a common meter once the natural flow of a line develops. Her Ringeltänze—sung by the Chorale in the second half of November’s concert—includes six individual pieces in which the rhythm of each composition’s text suffuses the music with chant-like eloquence.
Larsen’s more than 600 works span virtually every musical genre. She’s been a recipient of a Grammy Award for producing the Best Classical Vocal Performance for "The Art of Arlene Augér" and a recipient of the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America. She is a champion of American music and a highly regarded music philosopher and keynote speaker.
A video introduction to composer Libby Larsen:
A choral sample of the music of Libby Larsen:
Tickets will be available at the door, but at an increased price.
The online concert program booklet for Voices of Joy and Thanksgiving is now available on the Chorale’s homepage.
November’s “Spreading Joy”
Hallelujah
Before You Go
The Chorale is thrilled to announce this annual Fresh Fruit Fundraiser in partnership with Florida Indian River Groves. Now you can order Navel Oranges, River Red Grapefruit, and a variety of other citrus options harvested on the very same day they are shipped. And, every box purchased helps support the Heritage Chorale concert season. Order now for yourself or for gifts from the Heritage Chorale Online Shop.
Please share Choral Notes with other music lovers and email questions and comments to the Chorale at heritagechoralma@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!