Choir

text by A. J. Nolte and Elisabeth Mehl Greene

Premiered by Six Degree Singers

A collaboration with blind poet A. J. Nolte to imagine worlds of color in this eleven-movement work for choir and instruments. Each poetic reflection on color invents a culture and landscape, filled with the emotions and imagery of that color. These works became the lyrics for eleven movements for choir. Blue imagines the people of an island, lounging on docks under infinite skies, the lapping of water, and sunset dances on the beach.  The Yellow land is a sun-drenched savanna; its riders race its prairies, fearing neither the enemies nor lions they might find there. Red is a country filled with dragons and volcanoes, spice filling the air, its citizens turned veterans of the battle with a violent landscape. In the Green poem, there is a fruitful spring garden. In Orange, we find a burnt desert. Purple castles float in the air with winged carriages and the alchemy of heat and moisture in the clouds. Ten movements interpret the images, moods, and relationships of each color text, and the Palette movement concludes the work combining all the colors.

public domain text by Abigail Adams

Premiered by Howard Payne University Choir

The text is adapted from a letter by Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams, expressing both doubt and hope for the new country America.

“What shall I say of our political affairs? Shall I exclaim at measures, now impossible to remedy?”

text by Mitra Motlagh

Premiered by Six Degree Singers

With rich landscape imagery, Motlagh's poem, Token, explores the search for love near and far, and the role chance and destiny serve in the quest. Acapella voices convey the speaker's voice and its oceanic surroundings. 

"They find her fascinating. / Her beauty slowly enthralls them /
like a lake mirroring the sunset..."
© Mitra Motlagh

Token appears on Six Degree Singers' album, Six Degrees of Composers

text by Mitra Motlagh

Premiered by University of Maryland Femmes de Chanson 

Made of Iron follows society's systemic misunderstanding of women, and underestimation of their strength.

"Roaming in spring grass / on the green isles. /
Eyes so fierce in their storm / and so still in their silence..."
© Mitra Motlagh