Program
T’filah
Lara Auerbach
performed by Antonio Cevallos
Death and the Maiden, D.531 op. 7 no. 3 (pt 1)
Franz Schubert
arr. Nick Montopoli
Prelude for Strings
Julia Perry
arr. Roger Zahab
Sister Moon
Sting
arr. Camille Schiess
featuring Seth David Mitchell
Sophisticated Lady
Duke Ellington
arr. Nick Montopoli
Next Week’s Trees
Viet Cuong
The Reckoning
Hilá Plitmann
Death and the Maiden, D.531 op. 7 no. 3 (pt 2)
Franz Schubert
arr. Camille Schiess
Icnocuicatl
Lila Downs, traditional
arr. Camille Schiess
T’filah
Lara Auerbach
1973 - present
Lara Auerbach’s T’filah, a prayer for solo violin written in 1996 in response to the Holocaust, uses the vulnerable sound of the unaccompanied violin to express deep longing. Cantorial melodies and dance-like gestures move between lament and reflection. For Auerbach, prayer represents a dramatic union between the soul and the eternal forces connected to it, inviting us into the deeper questions carried within grief.
Death and the Maiden, D.531 op. 7 no. 3
Franz Schubert
1797 - 1828
Death and the Maiden is most popularly known as a string quartet, however it was originally conceived in 1817 as a song for voice and piano. It’s a very short song which follows a woman interacting with Death:
The Maiden:
Pass me by! Oh, pass me by!
Go, fierce man of bones!
I am still young! Go, dear,
And do not touch me.
And do not touch me.
Death:
Give me your hand, you beautiful and tender form!
I am a friend, and come not to punish.
Be of good cheer! I am not fierce,
Softly shall you sleep in my arms!
Prelude for Strings
Julia Perry
1924 - 1979
Originally titled Lament in 1946, this early work by Julia Perry was later revised as Prelude for Piano and arranged for strings by Roger Zahab after a rumored orchestral version could not be found. In this arrangement, you can hear Perry’s unique style as she expresses intensity through simple rhythms, spare textures, and subtle shifts in harmony. In our moon cycle, this piece marks the transition from darkness toward light, as the music ebbs and flows through expanding and contracting dynamics. By the end, we are left suspended, waiting for the first shimmer of moonlight to appear.
sister moon
Sting
1951 - present
From Sting’s 1987 album Nothing Like the Sun, written after the death of his mother, “Sister Moon” turns to the moon as a confidante. “Sister Moon will be my guide, in your blue shadows I will hide.” The song explores longing, instability, and the pull of unseen tides within us. In this program, the moon becomes intimate and personal, reminding us that loss and desire often move together through the same cycle.
Sophisticated Lady
Duke Ellington
1899 - 1974
Ellington’s now-famous tune was inspired directly by three of the Duke’s schoolteachers in Washington, DC: "They taught all winter and toured Europe in the summer. To me that spelled sophistication,” Ellington said of his mentors who inspired the original instrumental. Of the lyrics, added later by publisher Irving Mills, he added "wonderful—but not entirely fitted to my original conception.” In either case, both the tune and the song have become staples of the jazz repertoire for almost 100 years.
Next Week’s Trees
Viet Cuong
present
Next Week’s Trees is inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem Walking To Oak-Head Pond, And Thinking Of The Ponds I Will Visit In The Next Days And Weeks:
What is so utterly invisible
as tomorrow?
Not love,
not the wind,
not the inside of a stone.
Not anything.
And yet, how often I'm fooled-
I'm wading along
in the sunlight-
and I'm sure I can see the fields and the ponds shining
days ahead-
I can see the light spilling
like a shower of meteors
into next week's trees,
and I plan to be there soon-
and, so far, I am
just that lucky,
my legs splashing
over the edge of darkness,
my heart on fire.
I don't know where
such certainty comes from-
the brave flesh
or the theater of the mind-
Note from the composer: During the days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was deeply inspired by Oliver’s words—words that are a gentle reminder of the future’s uncertainty, the confident hope of the present, and the propulsive force of life that drives us through any doubt that a new day will arrive.
The Reckoning
Hilá Plitmann
present
Note from the composer: After giving birth to her son, my dear friend Julie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She managed to go into remission and give birth to a beautiful daughter as well, five years later. Julie departed from this world when Emma was two and half and Thomas around seven. I wrote ‘The Reckoning’ a short while after her initial diagnosis, a strange foreknowing; there was something so unspeakably heavy in the air, a tightness in the pit of our stomachs, a feeling that time was very limited between us. She didn’t have a daughter yet, but my heart was aching with the sorrow of children singing a song of farewell to their beloved mother. I’m so deeply grateful for Nick Montopoli’s ethereally haunting arrangement of the song for Austin Unconducted.
Icnocuicatl
Lila Downs / traditional
Icnocuicatl is a traditional song which is sung in Nahuatl - the indigenous language most closely associated with the Aztec empire and pre-colonial mesoamerica. Our version of the song is inspired by the Lila Downs interpretation from her 1999 album Tree of Life. Translation:
Tomorrow,
Tomorrow when I die
I dont want you to be sad.
To this place,
to this place I will return,
in the form of a hummingbird
Woman,
when you look to the sun,
smile fondly
There,
There I will be with our father,
Good light I will send you.
