Executive artistic director and principal oboist Alecia Lawyer, guest conductor Alastair Willis and Shepherd School of Music composer Anthony Brandt, talk about Saturday’s final River Oaks Chamber Orchestra concert of the season, which includes the world premiere of Brandt’s orchestral song Maternity – Women’s Voices Through the Ages.
Archives for April 2012
You are here because of me…
The libretto of “Maternity” begins with the narrator singing to her child “You are here because of me.” The narrator then begins to reflect back on her maternal line, paying homage to twenty-one mothers, stretching far back in time. The music is organized as a theme and variations on a lullaby, introduced under the opening…
Founding Mothers: An ode to my matriarchs
From Anthony Brandt, composer of Maternity: Today, the federal government published the census data from 1940, enabling us to trace our parents and grandparents at a crucial moment in US history. Where were they? What were they doing? It is that curiosity about our heritage that animates in the libretto of “Maternity.” The text is…