I believe that art can serve us in a variety of ways: we can escape into fantastic worlds; we can laugh, smile, and breathe together; we can gain perspective and empathy. Cycles of Resistance expands our perspective. The music and texts lead us on a journey through a series of resistance movements from around the globe over the last 120 years; they are exquisite, powerful, and inspiring–some are tragic. To quote James Baldwin, “Everybody’s hurt. What is important…what drives you, torments you, is that you must find some way of using this to connect you with everyone else alive…You must understand that your pain is trivial except insofar as you can use it to connect with other people’s pain.” He continues to say that when we use this foundational truth to connect to other people, we all are able to heal. We are stronger when we are united and we make better choices when we see the world around us with clarity.

Cycles of Resistance began as a longing for my artist community during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. I created a call for proposals for art songs and cycles using texts, themes, or speeches from activists or movements that inspired the composers. After sifting through many incredible proposals, I commissioned six new works and co-commissioned another two. In this album, I’ve also included two former commissions and two songs submitted by a composer who’s previous work aligned with our theme of humanity, resistance, and hope.

These 24 songs represent diverse perspectives and languages not yet common in the classical canon: Mandarin, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Czech in addition to English, chronicling examples of human resilience: Chinese feminist poetry from the early 1900s; a Dutch sonnet on love conquering all evils; the unity of young Czech girls imprisoned in Room 28 at Theresienstadt Internment Camp; a reminder that all humans are part of the disability community at some point in their lives; maternal hesitation, clarity, and urgency in the Flint, Michigan water crisis; harrowing tales of the Turkish Femicide; Prayers of Peace from the traditions of Islam and Hinduism; & inspiring speeches by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and activist Valarie Kaur.

These compositions for soprano and piano were written between 2018 and 2022. Some works also incorporate vocoder, looper pedal, modular synthesizer, and fixed media. Setting the poetry, speeches, and mantras are composers Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Sophie Xuefei Zhang, Anthony R. Green, Michael Wiener, Molly Joyce, Lauren McCall, Jason Cady, Özden Gülsün, and Myron Silberstein. From intimate moments of vocal and piano restraint, lush harmonic textures and sweeping coloratura melodies to looped vocal layering, vocoded harmonic expansion, and techno-inspired synth tracks, this album celebrates the extensive range of soundscapes possible in contemporary classical music.

This album begins with Darkness of the Womb, my first commission which inspired my interest in setting speeches to music. Valarie Kaur’s 2016 speech “Breathe and Push” captivated me with the poetic nature and delivery in which Kaur discusses her family’s immigration story, their history of activism, and a response of hope and action in the face of the darkness of today’s world. Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s setting begins with a simple ostinato figure, almost as a traveling Bard might begin a tale, and moves into lush piano and vocal figures, punctuated by whispered cadences. As Kaur remembers the long line of ancestors who have resisted persecution, Nourbakhsh adds the use of vocoder to represent the voices of our ancestral wisdom.

The album then journeys back to the beginning of the 20th Century in China, where Chinese revolutionary and feminist Qiu Jin (1875-1907) fought with sword and pen for the establishment of a republic as well as equality and education of women. Chinese-born Canadian composer, Sophie Xuefei Zhang set “Qiū Hǎi Táng” (Autumn Begonia) with simple melodic lines inspired by Mandarin tone inflection to convey strength and determination. In “Mǎn Jiāng Hóng” (A River of Blossoms), Zhang uses harmonic gestures to echo the note bending timbre of the guqin, as the poetry oscillates between the joy of a spring celebration and the inner struggle for acceptance.

From China, we journey to the Netherlands, between the World Wars. Henriëtte Roland Holst (1869–1952), poet and socialist leader, was deeply involved in resistance publications and efforts helping Indonesian immigrants in the Netherlands. After speaking at a large Soviet gathering, she published a book challenging the militant direction she witnessed within the communist movement, which contained the poem “De Zachte Krachten zullen zeker winnen” (The Soft Powers will win in the end). Composer and social justice artist, Anthony R. Green explores this quiet and profound text with a wide range of colors and textures in both the soprano and piano writing. Green utilizes whispers and hand friction percussion as the text mentions the “soft powers” growing and ever-present, “like the sound of the ocean in a shell.” The vocal line soars as the poem hopes for “all of nature and celestial bodies” to move towards “all encompassing love,” finally settling in the comfort that surely good will prevail.

Human resilience is a powerful force for growth and progression found even in the depths of atrocity. From the Girls of Room 28, Therisienstadt, we see this is still true. “We shall drive every evil away…won’t go home until we have succeeded…clasp our hands together and sing this anthem from home.” This chant and anthem was created as a means of ritual and support for the children who passed through Room 28 between 1943-1945. In commemoration and celebration of the community, art, and culture created between these these young people, composer Michael Wiener arranged their Czech folk melody and anthem text to include harmonies, sound clusters, and melodies of fellow Theresienstadt prisoner and composer, Viktor Ullmann as well as a Hebrew folk song, the Slovak national anthem, and a Lutheran chorale. Together with prepared piano elements, looper pedal, and ad libitum layering of piano and voice, this work takes the listener on a journey through the multi-cultural and multi-generational community of Theresienstadt.

The Beauty of Disability by Molly Joyce honors the work and words of Judith Heumann (1947-2023) and reminds us “disability is a family that you can join at any point in your life.” The vocal line begins determined and inviting but develops into an inspirational power, weaving together text from an interview between Joyce and Heumann with contributions from writer Marco Grosse. The piano anchors the ensemble with undulating cells upon which sparkling figures emerge, eventually driving into urgent textures to support the text’s call to action, “won’t you come join at any time?”

Living Water is a three-movement work for solo soprano, piano, and electronics. Composer Lauren McCall created ethereal backing tracks in Max/MSP using a machine learning model and data from the Flint Water Blood Lead Level Testing Results. The three songs move through the emotions of not knowing what and who to trust into the solidarity and catharsis of community organizing. McCall’s lyrical writing is comforting and a contemplative accompaniment to the almost folksong storytelling. “River Flow” begins with a shimmering electronic track and flowing vocal line as the crisis develops. The electronic shimmer becomes a stagnant and haunting pulse as a mother questions what is safe for her child in “She doesn’t trust the water” supported by descending figures in the voice and piano. “Living Water” urges us onward in text and music inspire action and community organizing.

Another beacon of activism and sensibility, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been continuously celebrated for speaking up to defend those she represents as well as setting an example for how to respond to bullying, harassment, and the sexism she has experienced as a congresswoman. Her words are deliberate in exposing a wider perspective of how this behavior affects everyone. AOC Takes the Floor is a set of two songs composed by Jason Cady, a constituent of AOC’s 14th District and was co-commissioned by me and Lisamarie Eldredge. The first song, “I Could Not Allow That to Stand” uses the text from AOC’s response to Florida Representative Ted Yoho’s verbal harassment on the steps of The Capitol. In her response, she admits that she wasn’t “waiting for an apology, but what I do have issue with is using women—our wives and daughters—as shields and excuses for poor behavior.” Cady sets the vocal line carefully following AOC’s speech patterns, sometimes delivered more like recitative and other times moving towards sweeping melodic lines which make use of Lydian and Pelog scales. The overall form is inspired by the modulation structure of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. The text from second song, “What is So Hard About Saying that This is Wrong” is taken from Ocasio-Cortez’s response to Representative Paul Gosar’s tweet of a violent Anime video depicting him murdering AOC. Here, she calls out the danger of claiming humor as an excuse, “this is not about me…but it is about what we are willing to accept.” She addresses the nihilism that develops when leaders don’t hold themselves to the gravity of their position and reminds her colleagues, “Our work here matters. Our example matters. There is meaning in our service.” Developing musical ideas presented in the first song, Cady incorporates motivic gestures in the piano and modular synthesizer replacing the fourth of the Lydian scale with the raised sixth of the Dorian. The vocal line follows similar speech patterns but often cadences with sweeping quintuplet runs.

AOC’s leadership gives women worldwide an example of how to stand up for themselves and each other. While we have come a long way, there is still much to do. Turkey, which led the European Union in 2011 to address issues of domestic violence with its Istanbul Convention, has now become the only country to withdraw from the effort, caving to pressures from religious and conservative lobbying. Protestors and organizers are demanding criminal consequences for acts of domestic violence; murders that go completely unpunished because law enforcement views them as a matter of the home. Turkey is not alone in the rates of domestic violence and the United Nations released a global report in 2020 stating that every 11 minutes, a

woman is murdered by a family member or intimate partner. Al kan kuşak is a song cycle composed by Özden Gülsün with libretto by Didem Gülçin Erdem which addresses the Turkish Femicide weaving together three tales of domestic violence with supportive cheers and chanting of protesters. The work opens with an ominous taunt in the piano and the admission that the community has “known women who had to wait for dark to escape” and the familiarity of broken tools, homes, and mothers. Much of the soprano line oscillates from wailing melodic phrases to restrained and whispered tones as the text recognizes the pain and paralysis of the affected women with vocoder reverberating such experiences. The tales of Zeynep, Ayşe, and Fatma each expand on a dirge in the piano while the vocal line explores who these women were before their lives were cut short by beating, stoning, or being thrown from the 40th floor of a building. The music and text brilliantly balances the tragedy with moments of discovery where real-life protest recordings are inserted into the texture, eventually leading to the fifth movement where a young woman questions her treatment and joins the movement. Again, vocoder is used to represent the collective protesting voices quoting cheers and listing names of victims, a practice inspired by the online tracker: anitsayac.com.

Human resilience is a common thread throughout the album leading to the final work, Prayers for Peace by Myron Silberstein. Purposefully saved for the end, these two song settings of an Islamic greeting and a Vedic meditation are a grounding force for contemplation and presence. News cycles, schedules, and the commotion of daily life too often create a sense of numbness to deep processing; a compartmentalization of our human responses to tragedy and outrage. When we are numb, it is easy to forget or prioritize other thoughts, but we miss out on the community and creativity we gain from collaborating with each other. “As-salāmu ‘alaykum” is a daily greeting of “peace, mercy, and blessings” to one another. The piano begins with quiet descending figures to realize the contemplative harmonic progression while the soprano explores the greeting in arched melodies, eventually expanding into an evocation of Allah’s blessings over ascending arpeggios in the piano. “Śānti-Pāțha” begins with a melismatic “om,” the sacred mantra of consciousness and the divine over grounded piano harmonic gestures. The text inspires both the voice and piano writing into an expansive and more urgent recognition of peace outward to the heavens, around us on the planet, and even to peace itself; finally surrendering to ask for peace returning to the speaker. Silberstein closes with a return to that melismatic invocation of “om” and a repeated mantra of “Śānti” (peace).

Remembering James Baldwin’s comment on pain, it is not the hurting or dwelling that matters but the way we use that to fuel our ability to connect to each other’s experiences and walk onwards together. In researching and realizing this album, I have collected many resources for how to get involved in the movements highlighted here. Please visit chelseahollow.com/cyclesLP to learn more.