Borderlines east – west
Orchestra Without Borders
Luca Antonucci, conductor
PROGRAM
Medley of Afghan Songs – Arson Fahim
Nafahat Hijaz – Mahdi al-Mahdi
Hannah Shanefield, soprano
Caravan – Juan Tizol
Four Afro-Cuban Poems – Odaline de la Martinez
Pathos Mio – Michael Rosen
Michael Rosen, saxophone
Jonathan Fagan, piano
– Intermission –
Fantasia in the Chiesa
Jonathan Fagan, piano
Sonata da Chiesa – Adolphus Hailstork
Exultate
O Magnum Mysterium
Adoro
Jubilate
Agnus Dei
Dona Nobis Pacem
Exultate (reprise)
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
Medley of Afghan Songs: Originally written for chamber ensemble and transcribed for strings, the Medley of Afghan Songs introduces Western audiences to several popular Afghan melodies, many of which were composed or popularized by Abdul Rahim Sarban (1930-1993), a key figure in Afghan musical history known simply as Sarban. Sarban’s music combined aspects of traditional Afghan music with musical elements from jazz and French popular music from the middle of the 20th century. Several of the melodies in this collection share a lilting waltz-like quality with the golden age songs of the French “belle chanson” tradition.
They are, in order, Baz Ba Golshan (Come back to the beautiful garden), Ay Sarban (Oh, camel-driver), Ay Shakh Gul (Oh, flowering branch), En Gham Be Haya (Audacious sorrow), and Shad Kon Jan Man (“Give me a little bit of happiness”). (Luca Antonucci)
Arson Fahim is a pianist, composer and conductor from Afghanistan. In 2021, only two weeks before the Taliban took control and once again banned music, Arson arrived in the US and started his studies at the Longy School of Music where he was awarded a scholarship. Arson believes in the power of music to bring social change and considers music a vital weapon against fundamentalists and radicals who try to silence it. His music is inspired by the tragedies in Afghanistan and beyond. His compositions are a way for him to protest and raise his voice for justice through music. Arson hopes to help young, underprivileged Afghans discover music and help them change their lives through learning music.
Nafahat Hijaz (‘Hijaz’ Wafts): As the title suggests, Hijaz Wafts illustrates the gentle breeze accompanying the Arabic maqqam (mode) Hijaz, named after the Hijaz region in the Arabian Peninsula. Inspired by the pleasant gentle breeze, cooling the bodies and soothing the souls in the flaming atmosphere, this tune flows like a soft wind and varies in speed through its different tempos, Adagio and Allegro. This mode is packed with emotions as it displays sorrow and longing. It has long been chosen by musicians to compose melodies for poems about lovers’ yearning for each other. When performed by a soloist, the Hijaz mode can produce these emotions of longing and yearning, embedded in the nature of the authentic scale that has shone brightly among Arabic and oriental scales. (Mahdi Al-Mahdi)
Born in Damascus, Mahdi AlMahdi is a violinist, violist, composer, music arranger and orchestra conductor known for his work on Baroque and Classical music as well as Arabic traditional music.
Caravan is a jazz composition by Juan Tizol, a prominent trombonist in Duke Ellington’s band during their residency at Harlem’s Cotton Club. The melody of Caravan lies in the same Hijaz mode as the theme in Nafahat Hijaz, but the harmonies underneath are rooted in the big-band style. Meant to evoke an exotic sound that would captivate the primarily white audience, Caravan is still a core composition in the standard Jazz canon. (Jonathan Fagan)
Four Afro Cuban Poems is based on four poems taken from Nicolas Guillen’s Motivos de Son (1930.) The work was strongly influenced by his meeting that year with the African American poet Langston Hughes. Motivos de son is written in Afro-Cuban dialect, and most of the poems deal with relationships between men and women.
Búcate Plata is sassy and with an attitude. “Búcate plata,” (go find money,) a woman tells her lover – she has nothing to eat and is down to rice and crackers. She tells him that if things don’t get better, she’s leaving. Her man has new shoes and a beautiful watch. No way!
Tú No Sabe Inglé: A woman playfully teases Victor Manuel about his English; an American woman is looking for him, but despite his preening, he can’t even say “yes;” his English is down to “strike one” and “one, two, three.” She warns him not to fall in love with the American woman, because he doesn’t speak English.
Sigue is a short poem where a man warns another to keep walking, not to stop and talk to a certain woman. “She’s no good, no good”.
Mi Chiquita: Mi Chiquita means “my little woman.” It’s joyful and looks at the Afro Cuban Culture from a 1930s-man point of view. “My little woman is so wonderful I wouldn’t trade her for another one. She does the laundry, irons, sews and How she cooks!! When they invite her to dance or to dinner, she always comes to get me. She calls me Mi Santo (my saint). I’ll never leave you, she says. Come and get me so we can enjoy each other.” (Odaline de la Martinez)
Nicolás Guillén (10 July 1903 – 17 July 1989) was a Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer who is considered by many to be the “national poet” of Cuba. Born in Camagüey, he studied law at the University of Havana, but abandoned a legal career to work as a poet and journalist. Guillén is probably the best-known representative of the “poesía negra” (“black poetry”), which tried to create a synthesis between black and white cultural elements. It was not until the 1930s that Guillén’s poetry was acknowledged by many critics as the most influential of those Latin American poets who dealt with African themes and re-created African song and dance rhythms in literary form. Guillen made his mark internationally with the publication of his first collection, Motivos de son (1930). It was inspired by the living conditions of Afro-Cubans and popular son music. The work consists of eight short poems using the everyday language of the Afro Cubans. (Notes from the publisher)
Pathos Mio is a recent composition by saxophonist Michael Rosen, who frequently blends jazz, classical and folk influences in both his playing and writing. Inspired by the mood of the Greek phrase “my pathos,” this tune features lilting melodies over slowly descending bass lines. (Jonathan Fagan)
Fantasia in the Chiesa is Jonathan Fagan’s reharmonization of one of the themes from Hailstork’s Sonata da Chiesa. With a few alternative chords and a folk-like rhythmic accompaniment, the melody takes a contemporary jazz aesthetic while retaining the grounded quality of the original. (Jonathan Fagan)
Sonata da Chiesa
Adolphus Hailstork was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in Albany, singing in his youth in the choir of the Episcopalian cathedral, which became a formative experience. He was one of the many American students of the legendary Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, in 1963, and would eventually get his doctorate from Michigan State University. He also studied composition with David Diamond and Vittorio Giannini. Hailstork’s first big break came while he was teaching at Youngstown State University in Ohio: his Celebration!, commissioned in anticipation of the American Bicentennial, was conducted by Paul Freeman in 1975 at the Black Music Symposium in Minneapolis. The piece was a success and led to further performances and commissions. Hailstork went on to teach at Norfolk State University, and, beginning in 2000, at Old Dominion University in the Tidewater, Virginia, area, where he was also choral director at the Unitarian Church of Norfolk.
As a composer Hailstork is postmodern, pluralistic, and above all pragmatic. He has written much for orchestra, also for amateur choruses, and a surprisingly large amount of organ music. Much of his music refers to spirituals and African American subject matter, but not exclusively. His style is fluid, ranging from a boisterous modernism to a delicate atonality, to devoutly reverent tonal counterpoint. Sonata da Chiesa illustrates mostly the last mode. The 17th-century term “sonata da chiesa” denoted instrumental chamber music suitable for religious meditation; Hailstork has expanded on the concept to give us an orchestral analogue to a choral Mass. The piece’s seven sections, played without pause, have titles taken from liturgical music: Exultate, O Magnum Mysterium, Adoro, Jubilate, Agnus Dei, Dona Nobis Pacem, Exultate (reprise). The Exultate is a vigorous chorale verging on ecstasy. O Magnum Mysterium is in quieter counterpoint, quite chromatic, yet without abandoning a sense of tonality. Adoro is like a slow dance, with an insistent melody introduced in the viola solo, and in fact the entire work gains color from frequent solos for the first-chair players. The Jubilate is more energetic and highly syncopated with changing meters. The Agnus Dei, the emotional center of the work, is a soft chorale in a minor key, limned by gestures of melodic filigree. Dona Nobis Pacem, a chantlike chorale often in 5/4 meter, gradually crescendos to a final statement of the opening Exultate. (Kyle Gann, The Orchestra Now)
told us that none of the teachers had contracted the virus, but he said, “Cases in our area are increasing every day.”
CWB is funding one of Sekelela’s teachers, Eunice Nachimata, for a three-year program to get her teacher’s license. The pandemic paused her schooling, but the program was recently reopened online. We have provided Ms. Nachimata with a new smart phone and internet access so she is able to continue her education online. She is the third teacher we have sponsored.
When the award-winning and internationally known 
Michelle LaCourse has appeared as soloist and chamber musician on four continents, and has released two highly acclaimed CDs of works (all world premiere recordings) for viola and piano. She was formerly a member of the Lehigh Quartet, the Delphic String Trio, and the Aeolian Trio, and has performed at numerous festivals such as Aspen, Bowdoin, Skaneateles, Musicorda, the Heifetz Institute, Campos do Jordão (Brazil), and Positano (Italy) and in major musical centers around the world. She currently teaches viola and chairs the String Department at Boston University’s School of Music. 
Soprano Deborah Selig’s voice has been described as “radiant,” “beautifully rich,” “capable of any emotional nuance,” and “impressively nimble.” She performs repertoire spanning music from the baroque to contemporary in opera, oratorio and art song. She has degrees from University of Michigan and Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and she serves on the voice faculties of Wellesley College, Brown University, and the summer Boston University Tanglewood Institute. 
Boston-based mezzo-soprano Britt Brown has performed with Boston Midsummer Opera, Boston Opera Collaborative, MetroWest Opera, the Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, Guerilla Opera and the Boston Pops. She premiered several pieces with Juventas New Music Ensemble. Britt is a graduate of Stetson University and the Boston Conservatory and continues to teach and perform locally as a sought-after new and sacred music singer. 
Praised for his fine musicality, “glowing intensity,” and “clarion tone,” Gregory Zavracky maintains an active performance schedule on concert and opera stages, including Boston Lyric Opera, American Repertory Theater, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Saratoga, Opera in the Heights, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Utah Symphony. His compositions include several song cycles, three operas, and a number of choral and chamber works. He has a DMA in voice performance from Boston University, and teaches at the University of Connecticut, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Brown University. 
Baritone Ryne Cherry is an opera, oratorio, and ensemble singer based in Boston. He has premiered numerous new works. In the summer of 2017, Ryne enjoyed his second season as a vocal fellow at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home. “Baritone Ryne Cherry has a voice of real beauty and his velvety tone was well-suited for Pietro’s legato passages.” (Examiner.com) 
Anne Watson Born is the Music Director of the Nashoba Valley Chorale. She is also the Director of Music Ministry at the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton. She is the Board chair of the Music Leadership Certification Committee for the Unitarian Universalist Association. She has been a faculty member at Roxbury Community College and at Bristol Community College. Ms. Watson Born holds a M.M. degree from New England Conservatory. 
But without contacts at the university to help open doors, or the means to finance post-graduate education, Chisala’s chances to realize her dream are limited. Next year in the graduation ceremonies CWB leads at the schools it supports I hope that Chisala will tell Dick that she has succeeded, that she has found a way to the university. The world needs more young women like Chisala to be successful.
