Weekend pick: With a California premiere, Fresno Master Chorale offers the theme of resilience
By Donald Munro
For Anna Hamre, music director of the Fresno Master Chorale, the title of Tim Takach’s new composition was perfect.
Pictured above: Zoe Cohen, Cameron Clarno and Jayson Camaquin in a concert for the Fresno Master Chorale. Photo: Kendal Day
The Takach work is titled “We Are Phoenix,” and it sets the tone not only for Sunday’s 2:30 p.m. concert at Shaghoian Hall – but also the rest of the ensemble’s season, whose theme is “Still We Rise.” The message is resilience. It’s meant for the tumultuous times through which we are living.
“It’s the idea of of the phoenix and that life comes back after disasters,” Hamre says of the Takach piece. “Whether it be humans coming back after personal relationships, or nature after disasters, it’s all about life coming back. And we thought that was a very interesting thing to explore.”
“We Are Phoenix,” which is receiving its California premiere in Fresno, is joined on the program by two other pieces: Santiago Veros’ “I Will Dream With You”; and Jake Runestad’s “Into the Light.”
Here’s a rundown on the concert:
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The co-commission: the Fresno Master Chorale – the biggest of several choral ensembles under the umbrella of the Fresno Community Chorus – joined with other choirs around the world in a consortium to co-commission the Takach piece. In a sense, the choirs financed the writing of the piece sight (and sound) unseen and unheard. With Takach’s reputation as a contemporary choral composer, the Fresno group’s board decided to make the investment a couple of years ago. Now the piece is being premiered in various locations. In fact, Takach sent an email to Hamre noting that he is conducting the premiere of the piece in Singapore this weekend, and the piece is also being premiered this weekend in Washington, D.C.
Takach’s musical style: Hamre describes it as contemporary, but very reserved. She used an interesting metaphor when relating the composition style to her singers: “I described it to the choir as written by a fellow who probably sits at the fire during the long winters thinking about things. It’s very contemplative and reserved. It’s a contemporary, harmonic language that is not flashy, but pretty esoteric, definitely intellectual.”
Words matter: This is the kind of piece in which the text is extremely important. Hamre says you have to look at every little phrase and figure out where you’re going with it and how you’re going to balance it with the whole work to communicate the nuance of the text. There can be a fine line between choral singing, opera, and musical theater, and in this case, there is definitely some character development that the singers put into the piece.
For dog lovers: The second piece on the program, titled “I Will Dream With You,” is by a young South American composer, Santiago Veros. It’s the story of the composer’s loss after his faithful dog died of old age. “By the end of it, you’re not sure who’s talking,” Hamre says. “Is it the person who lost the dog, or the dog who is talking? And you know, the message is, I will see you again. It’s lovely.”
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Focus on light: The final piece on the program, Jake Runstedt’s “Into the Light,” is exuberant, Hamre says. “It pulls us all together with the theme of love and kindness.”
Gorgeous music: Certainly, the text of all these pieces has a part to play in the impact. “But, you know, sound moves us in a way that nothing else does. There’s a moment in ‘Into the Light’ that is just drop dead gorgeous. The text is, ‘I shed my words on the earth as the tree sheds its leaves and let my thoughts unspoken flower to kindness.’ What a lovely idea. And it’s first spoken by a choir, but then part by part comes in, singing those lines, and they just go over and over and build, build, build, cascade, as if you’re spreading kindness to the whole world.”
Focus on organizations:The Fresno Master Chorale invited Fresno area organizations to the concert to showcase their programs. They will have displays set up outside the auditorium. The organizations include Breaking the Chains Central California Adaptive Sports Center, Central Valley IAF, Safe Families, Halo Cafe, League of Women Voters, Poverello House, Resiliency Center, Soroptimist of Fresno International and Bridge Project – Phoenix Project.
A note about resilience: In the hyper-partisan world in which were living, it’s possible for any music with a point of view to be considered political. But that is not Hamre’s intention this season. “I am very careful this year about the music I choose and the point I’m trying to make, and that is, we are going after the positive. We’re drawing connections among all people. We are going we are going to promote love and acceptance. We’re going to focus on the things that make us one.”
