Liederabend LXXI: This is the place - Voices of Exile and Exodus
This is the place: Voices of Exile and Exodus
By mid-2022 waves of political violence and climate catastrophes forcibly displaced more than 100 million people—the largest number in recorded history. -- The New York Times
The current unfolding crisis in the Ukraine is only one of many violent upheavals throwing communities into dislocation in our own times. Syria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, the Gaza Strip, are all too-familiar reminders of homelands destroyed, residents turned into refugees: These are the places you would rather not know about.
This Liederabend explores displacement through the voices of travelers, immigrants and refugees across the ages: the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt, an expat in Paris, a Romantic wanderer, a Jewish person fleeing Nazi Germany, an African-American estranged in his own country, a Chinese immigrant feeling homesick, a Japanese-Canadian forced into an internment camp. Where can I find shelter? is a question posed by every text on tonight’s program, texts of rupture and transformation which cut across lines of culture, race, and history.
Tonight's program was curated and coached by Tanya Blaich with additional coaching by Cameron Stowe.
The Liederabend—literally, "evening of song"—dates back to the 1800s, when musicians and lovers of music would gather at someone's home, and one or more singers and a pianist would perform the songs of composers of the day. In the field of classical music, these songs are referred to as "art songs," and the German art songs are called "Lieder." In Germany, the great age of song came in the 19th century. German and Austrian composers had written music for voice with keyboard before this time, but it was with the flowering of German literature in the Classical and Romantic eras that composers found high inspiration in great poetry, sparking the genre known as the "Lied."
The tradition of the art song composition continues today, with composers from all corners of the world setting poetry in many languages, scored for voice and piano. The NEC Liederabend series presents songs in a variety of languages—not only German—dating from the 19th century up to the present day.
This is an in-person event with a private stream available to the NEC community here: https://necmusic.edu/live
"Whither must I wander?"
Ralph Vaughan Williams | Whither must I wander?
Suowei Wu, tenor
Doris Wang, piano
Hugo Wolf | Heimweh
Dongyang Li, soprano
Tristan Leung, piano
"This is the place you would rather not know about"
Tania León | Notes towards a poem that can never be written (from Atwood Songs)
Mara Riley, soprano
Sandy Li, piano
Stefania Turkewich | Time Passes
Suowei Wu, tenor
Doris Wang, piano
Paul Hindemith | Rast auf der Flucht nach Ägypten (from Das Marienleben)
Mara Riley, soprano
Sandy Li, piano"The refugee's third rule: possess nothing"
Hanns Eisler | Auf der Flucht
Anneke Stern, mezzo-soprano
Tristan Leung, piano
Hanns Eisler | Die Flucht
Anneke Stern, mezzo-soprano
Tristan Leung, piano
Norbert Glanzberg | Ein Koffer spricht
Shiyu Zhu, soprano
Shalun Li, piano
Marc Blitzstein | Displaced
Anneke Stern, mezzo-soprano
Tristan Leung, piano
Ian Cusson | Bird Song (from Where there's a wall)
Henri Dutilleux | Chanson de la deportée
Sydney Pexton, soprano
Shalun Li, piano
Elisabeth Lutyens | Refugee Blues
Mara Riley, soprano
Sandy Li, piano"In the midst of thousands, and yet a perfect stranger"
Moses Hogan | Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Jake Heggie | These Strangers (from These Strangers)
Jake Heggie | In the Midst of Thousands (from These Strangers)
Alexis Reese, soprano
Doris Wang, piano"I once had a beautiful homeland"
Rafael Guastavino | Pampamapa
Melissa Pereyra, soprano
Shalun Li, piano
Hanns Eisler | Über die Dauer des Exils I
Mara Riley, soprano
Sandy Li, piano
Chen Yi | Bright Moonlight
Ruth Crawford Seeger | Chinaman, Laundryman
Shiyu Zhuo, soprano
Shalun LI, piano
Wilhelm Killmayer | Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland
Suowei Wu, tenor
Doris Wang, piano"A place for us"
Leonard Bernstein | Somewhere
Dongyang Li, soprano
Tristan Leung, piano
Ned Rorem | Early in the morning
Melissa Pereyra, soprano
Shalun Li, piano
Ernest Bacon | One Thought Ever at the Fore
All singers
Shalun Li, piano