Program
The Blue Bird
Soloist | Stephanie Sue Curtice
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sügismaastikud
I. On hilissuvi
II. Üle taeva jooksevad pilved
III. Kahvatu valgus
IV. Valusalt punased lehed
V. Tuul kõnnumaa kohal
VI. Külm sügisöö
VII. Kanarbik
Veljo Tormis
Bar xizam
Soloists | Hannah Bein, Thespina Christulides, Rich Williams
Abbie Betinis
Animal Crackers
The Panther
The Cow
The Firefly
The Eel
The Canary
Eric Whitacre
INTERMISSION
Darkness Starts
Guitar | Sean McMasters
Andrew Maxfield
Sacred Place
I. Opening Prayer
II. Amidah
III. Shema
IV. Mi Shebeirach
V. Kaddish
VI. Closing Prayer
Soloists | Olivia Cuccaro, Jeff Gross, Samuel Sartore, Briana York
Strings | Kathleen Melucci, cello; Jennifer Madge, violin
Alex Berko
Text and Translations
The Blue Bird
Mary E. Coleridge
The lake lay blue below the hill
O'er it, as I looked, there flew
Across the waters, cold and still
A bird whose wings were palest blue
The sky above was blue at last
The sky beneath me blue in blue
A moment, ere the bird had passed
It caught his image as he flew
Autumn Landscapes
Veljo Tormis
I. On hilissuvi
Ja lõhnab angervaks ja tulilill ja ohakas
On hilissuvi, on hilissuvi
Ja pihlapuus on marjakobar,
Ja männikus on kanarbik.
Ja seda suve ei tule enam, ei tule enam seda suve.
I. It Is Late Summer
The fragrant meadow-sweet and buttercup and thistledown.
It’s late summer, it’s late summer.
And berries ripe on rowan branches,
And heather in the pine tree grove.
And this same summer will ne’er return here,
will ne’er return here, this same summer.
II. Üle taeva jooksevad pilved
Üle taeva jooksevad pilved
vihmajärgse hommiku lillad pilved
See on järvelt lõõtsuv tuul,
see on kartulivagude muld,
millest su käed külmetavad.
Oo
II. Clouds Are Racing
Over heavens, clouds are fast racing,
Morning clouds now lavender after rainfall.
This is a wind from the lakeside, blown,
this is the soil of the potato's low field,
chilling your hands, chilling, chilling.
Oh.
III. Kahvatu valgus
Kahvatu valgus sügismaastike kohal.
Valgeid tutte ohakad külvavad tuulde.
Kahvatu valgus... Alt ribadeks rebitud taeva
taeva pikad ja porised teed.
III. Pale Light
Colorless sun rays over autumnal regions.
Whitish tassels of thistledown scattering windwards.
Colorless sun rays ’neath heavens in tatters, riven,
lengthy and muddy, the roads.
IV. Valusalt punased lehed
Valusalt punased lehed teel
poriseks sõtkutud teel
Imetlen neid ma ja tallan
poriseks sõtkutud lehti teel
Valusalt punasel teel
IV. Painfully Red Are the Leaves
Painfully red are the leaves on the way.
Muddied and trodden way.
Marveling, awed, I am trampling
muddied and trodden this leafy way.
Painfully red-strewn away.
V. Tuul kõnnumaa kohal
Tuul kõnnumaa kohal
Tuul
koolnukollase kõnnumaa kohal
Teekäänul kõhinal naeris paar surnud puud
kõhinal naeris, kõhinal
V. Wind Over the Barrens
Wind over the barrens.
Ooh.
Corpse-like yellowish over the barrens.
Road bending, rattling laughter, some lifeless trees.
Rattling laughter, rattling.
VI. Külm sügisöö
Külm sügisöö kuu
nagu kummaline münt läigatas merre
Külm sügisöö kuu
Külm
VI. Cold Autumn Night
Cold autumn night moon,
like an atypical coin glittering seaward.
Cold autumn night moon.
Cold
VII. Kanarbik
Kurb lilla kanarbik meeletult lõõskab
päikese viimane virvendus silmis.
Muidu kõik on kui ikka, need samad on nurmed,
need samad on teed,
ainult nende peal põleb,
põleb, põleb, põleb,
maailma suurune leek.
VII. Heather
Sad purple heather bell frantically blazes,
capturing aftermost flickering sunlight.
And all else is as ever, as ever the meadows,
as ever the roads,
only over them burning, burning, burning, burning,
flaring a planet aflame.
Bar Xizam
Shirazi
Mozde-ye vasle to ku
Mozde-ye vasle to ku
Kaz sare jan bar xizam
Kaz sare jan bar xizam
Be valoye to
Be valoye to
Abr-e hedayat beresan boroni
Pistar zanke, cho
Zemiyon xiram
Raqs konan, dast feshon
Jano, jano jahon
Waiting, where is the harmony of your voice,
so that, free from the desires of this life, I might rise?
But out of this worldly cage, I shall rise.
I am a dove from paradise.
I will rise in your devotion.
O Lord, from the cloud of your grace,
let your rain fall over and over.
Like a handful of dust, let me rise.
With dancing feet, with clapping hands,
life and the world...
Animal Crackers
Ogden Nash
The Panther
The panther is like a leopard
Except it hasn’t been peppered
If you behold a panther crouch
Prepare to say Ouch
Better yet, if called by a panther
Don’t anther
The Cow
The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other milk
The Firefly
The firefly’s flame Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a person’s posterior
The Eel
I don’t mind eels
Except as meals.
And the way they feels.
The Canary
The song of canaries
Never varies.
And when they’re molting
They’re pretty revolting.
Darkness Starts
Christian Winn
A shadow in the shape of a house slides out of a house
and loses its shape on the lawn.
Trees seek each other as the wind within them dies.
Darkness starts inside of things
but keeps on going when the things are gone.
Barefoot careless in the farthest parts of the yard
children become their cries.
Sacred Place
Alex Berko
I. Opening Prayer
In the dusk of the river, the wind
gone, the leaves grow still—
The beautiful poise of lightness,
The heavy world pushing toward it.
—Wendell Berry
II. Amidah
“How softly these mountain rocks are adorned, and how fine and reassuring the company they keep – their brows in the sky, their feet set in groves and gay emerald meadows, a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against their adamantine bosses, while birds bees butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music – things frail and fleeting and types of permanence meeting here and blending as if into this glorious mountain temple Nature had gathered her choicest treasures, whether great or small to draw her lovers into close confiding communion with her.”
—John Muir
III. Shema
The earth says have a place, be what that place requires; hear the sound the birds imply and see as deep as ridges go behind each other.
The earth says every summer have a ranch that’s minimum: one tree, one well, a landscape that proclaims a universe - sermon of the hills, hallelujah mountain, highway guided by the way the world is tilted, reduplication of mirage, flat evening: a kind of ritual for the wavering.
The earth says where you live wear the kind of color that your life is and by listening with the same bowed head that sings draw all things into one song, join the sparrow on the lawn, and row that easy way, the rage without met by the wings within that guide you anywhere the wind blows. Listening, I think that’s what the earth says.
—William Stafford
IV. Mi Shebeirach
May the source of strength
Who blessed the ones before us
Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing
And let us say Amen
Bless those in need of healing with r'fuah sh'leimah
The renewal of body, the renewal of spirit
And let us say Amen
—Old Testament
V. Kaddish
“Let my thoughts come to you, when I am gone, like the afterglow of sunset at the margin of starry silence.”
—Rabindranath Tagore
VI. Closing Prayer
In the dusk of the river, the wind
gone, the leaves grow still—
The beautiful poise of lightness,
The heavy world pushing toward it.
Our Singers
Kelsey Armstrong, Hannah Bein, Kaitlyn Breen, Tom Brown, Morgan Carpenter-Panuski, Madilyn Carothers, Thespina Christulides, Shaun Cloonan, Chelsea Cockburn, Stephanie Sue Curtice, Evan Cuccaro, Olivia Cuccaro, Cynthia Dougherty, Liz Elek, Mike Everhart, Ellen Fast, Douglas Florey, Abby George, Ronni Getz, Liz Groch, Jeff Gross, Nathan Hart, Jenna Keeling, Todd Kuczawa, David Lloyd, Collin McCormick, Sean McMasters, Andrew Roberts, Samuel Sartore, Keenan Seditz, Rebecca Showalter, Lauren Smith-Lemesh, Emilee Spozarski, Cameron Stahl, Jocelyn Stahl, Nicole Stefonek-Weiss, Emily Tiberi, Becki Toth, Jarrod West, Rich Williams, Briana York