Hey friends–thank you for all the sweet emails about the Carnegie Hall debut! It was thrilling! Beyond thrilling! And I realize I didn’t give much backstory–so here it is, (I am quoting myself from Facebook last week, plus adding what the conductor wrote):
How do you get to Carnegie Hall??? You have a very talented, respected composer recreate one of your poems into a song that will be sung by the National Festival Chorus! I am thrilled to say that the amazing Jeff Nytch premiered a new piece using one of my poems a week last night–and so much of my family was there! When Jeff told me about it almost a year ago, I told him I would go to see it. “You know it will only last about three minutes, right?” he said. And I said, “Yeah,” but … the bigger story is that when I was 15, my dad took me to NYC and one of his clients, knowing I played piano, got dad and me tickets to go see Vladimir Ashkenazy at Carnegie Hall ON THE STAGE. We sat on the stage as he performed. And when it was done and I was fully star struck, my dad leaned over to me and said, “Roxanne, this is only the first time you will be on stage in Carnegie Hall.” Though I won’t be on stage, the poem will–and that is quite close enough for me.
So celebrated conductor Elizabeth Swanson led about 120 people in singing “Our Birthright” last night–and it was euphoric. A moment I hope to remember forever. I was utterly flayed open. Here’s what Elizabeth wrote today in her own FB post about it: Another 14-er mountaintop experience was performing the world premiere of my dear colleague Jeff Nytch’s composition, “Our Birthright.” It is a profound setting of a profound text and was a profound joy to have had the opportunity to peel back and discover the many layers and nuances within this composition with such willing singers. It was also an honor to have Jeffrey as well as the esteemed poet, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, in the audience. Their presence and words during rehearsal helped myself and the singers grow even more deeply with the music.
There is not a public recording–there will be an archival recording, but Carnegie Hall is pretty restrictive about how it is shared. BUT it will be performed again in Boulder in April, I hear, so maybe there is a shareable recording that comes from that???
Thank you for all the celebration–it was sooooo worth the trip to New York for three minutes of ecstasy. I so felt my dad, and for that matter, my son there. And I was accompanied by my daughter, husband, mom, niece, grand nephew, nephew’s wife, and grad school bestie. It was an amazing feeling of intimacy and support. Thanks for all your kind words!!! I will post the recording if ever I can!