Vocal Arts Ensemble: Hear My Voice

Featuring Thomas Tallis: Spem in alium; James MacMillan: Cantos Sagrados; Reena Esmail: She will transform you

Every voice deserves to be heard. In the music of this concert by the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham, one can hear the voices of people who are overlooked and oppressed as well as voices of those who embody determination and hope. MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados is an anguished choral drama depicting the brutality suffered by the “disappeared” Latin American political prisoners and indigenous people, told through the words of Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman and others. Indian-American composer Reena Esmail’s She will transform you, written in a modified raga style, offers a mother’s prayer that her daughter would be able to bridge the divide between the culture of her heritage and that of her new homeland. Cecilia McDowall’s Standing as I do before God presents the final words of Edith Cavell, a World War I nurse wrongfully convicted of treason and executed by a German firing squad, as she reflects on the limitations of patriotism and expresses hope for an end to hatred. In Thomas Tallis’ colossal Spem in alium, 40 individual voices can be heard, each sustaining its own unique musical line, coming together to offer a united prayer of hope for all people.