KMFA 89.5 CLASSICAL OFFBEAT SERIES PRESENTED BY ESTES AUDIOLOGY PRESENTS

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2024 AT 7:00 PM AND SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 AT 4:00 PM
DRAYLEN MASON MUSIC STUDIO AT KMFA 89.5 CLASSICAL

Inversion Ensemble is a professional choir that exists to make the music of living composers accessible to all audiences. Inversion’s focus is to commission and perform new works by local musicians, as well as U.S. composers and beyond. We incorporate modern visual art, dance, and poetry, creating comprehensive performance experiences. Every concert includes a partnership with a nonprofit that reflects our core values – ecology, LGBTQIA+ rights, social justice, and mental health awareness.

Trevor F. Shaw, Artistic Director
Katrina Saporsantos, Managing Director and Da Capo Conductor
Adrienne Inglis, Artist and Community Relations
Carol Brown, Production Manager

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Fire, Water, and the Air We Breathe

Trevor Shaw, conductor
Jordan Walsh, percussion
Benjamin Dia, piano

Program

* indicates world premiere performance
+ indicates compositions commissioned by Inversion for this concert
full Program PDF here

Words by Walt Whitman | Music by Trevor F. Shaw (ASCAP)

A CLEAR MIDNIGHT (2007)

  • THIS is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
    Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, 


    Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best,
    Night, sleep, death and the stars.  


    Program note: Walt Whitman’s poem from “Leaves of Grass” is ostensibly an epitaph. There’s no denying death as one of its prominent themes. However, there’s so much more barely beneath the surface of the text. In this choral setting of “A Clear Midnight”, I sought to sonically capture the human spirit breaking free from all that binds it - sorrow, societal convention, oppression, elitism, etc. To me, what has always been the beauty of Whitman’s body of work is the brilliant mastery of language delivered in a form which can be comprehended by all who read or hear it. This piece is harmonically thick, and was my first composition to end on my “signature” sharp-eleven chord. I felt that this description of death required a brightness and insistent optimism that a standard triad couldn’t deliver.

  • I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

    And what I assume you shall assume,

    For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.


    I loafe and invite my soul,

    I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.


    My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air,

    Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,

    I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,

    Hoping to cease not till death.


    Creeds and schools in abeyance,

    Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,

    I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,

    Nature without check with original energy.

Words by Kim Stafford | Music by Adrienne Inglis (ASCAP)
solo: Katrina Saporsantos

HOPE SPLITS DESPAIR*+ (2024)

  • As genesis requires earth dark and void, 

    on all dead trees from here to horizon 

    charcoal jewels glisten and wood bones gleam. 

    You learn loss to earn birth. 

    Where fire grubbed in dirt to bare each root's grip on rock, 

    you learn true embrace. 

    Green disguise gone, 

    trunks surrender their secret structures— 

    rise, reach, bow, splay, lean. 

    You learn to dance in place, tethered to tragedy. 

    Creatures without names hid seeds they won't find. 

    Birds carried berries from afar to bless black earth. 

    You learn how by generosity's essence hope splits despair 

    to make life tomorrow hatch from death today.

    At cleft or fissure, small leaves ache forth, each bud heroic. 

    Forest gloom long gone, sunlight crawls eagerly everywhere 

    to caress, heal, seek to reveal life lore from scratch.


    Program note: Commissioned by Inversion Ensemble, Hope Splits Despair sets Kim Stafford’s extraordinary poem “Lessons from the Burn” to music for mixed chorus, percussion, marimba, and nature soundtrack. From utter destruction and devastation by wildfire, a forest bravely begins to recover. Both the dramatically burnt tree trunks and the regrowth of new buds evokes a sense of joyful movement and dance. The music likewise takes the audience from apocalyptic despair to exuberant toe-tapping hope when life bursts forth from the wreckage. The nature soundtrack played from a few places in the hall provides the listeners with a sense of immersion in the ravaged and then rebuilding ecosystem.

A MAN SAID TO THE UNIVERSE*+ (2024)

Words by Stephen Crane | Music by Marjorie Halloran (ASCAP)

  • A man said to the universe:

    "Sir, I exist!"

    "However," replied the universe,

    "The fact has not created in me

    A sense of obligation."


    Program note: When considering the concepts of being human and existentialism, it is tempting to think of ourselves as the main character in our own movie or video game, with everyone else being a non-playable character. We are the one whose perspective matters the most to ourselves, after all! This setting of A Man Said to the Universe overuses repetition and minimalist harmonic structure in order to call attention to the swirling, echoing thoughts in our heads: Who am I? Do I choose my own path? What would the world be like if I did not exist? Do I even really matter, or am I just a blip on the infinite radar of time and space? The idea that we can declare our own importance and still matter very little in the grand scheme of the universe is humbling, humorous, and hurtful all at once, and the musicians (as well as the audience) will hopefully feel similarly drained after a performance of the piece.

Words by Sara Teasdale | Music by Suzette Emberton (ASCAP)

I KNOW THE STARS*+ (2024)

  • I know the stars by their names

    Aldebaran, Altair,

    And I know the path they take

    Up heaven's broad blue stair

    I know the secrets of men

    By the look of their eyes,

    Their gray thoughts, their strange thoughts

    Have made me sad and wise.

    But your eyes are dark to me

    Though they seem to call and call --

    I cannot tell if you love me

    Or do not love me at all.

    I know many things,

    But the years come and go,

    I shall die not knowing

    The thing I long to know.


    Program note: In "I know the stars" Sara Teasdale ponders the irony of possessing knowledge of far-away celestial objects while being unable to decipher close-at-hand human emotions. Like much of her other poetry, this poem relies heavily on imagery from science and nature; however, the mood is more personal and centered on emotional uncertainty and turmoil. Perhaps understanding human nature and truly connecting with the emotions of others and ourselves really is more difficult than rocket science.

LANGUAGE OF THE EARTH*+ (2024)

Inspired by poetry by Trevor F. Shaw | Music by Juhi Bansal
soli: Carol Brown, Katrina Saporsantos, Guillermo Delgado, Christa Tumlinson, and Julia Sterner-Holden

Juhi Bansal is an award-winning composer, conductor and teacher. Originally from India and Hong Kong, her music draws upon elements as disparate as Hindustani music, the spectralists, progressive metal, musical theatre and choral traditions to create deeply expressive, evocative sound-worlds. Spanning every genre of acoustic concert music to multimedia to film, her music is always driven by storytelling, with a particular focus on stories of strong women, wilderness, and celebrating cultural and ideological diversity.

Recent projects include Love, Loss and Exile, a song cycle on poetry by Afghan women commissioned by Songfest; Songs from the deep, a new orchestral work inspired by humpback whale songs commissioned by the Oregon Mozart Players; Waves of Change, a digital operatic short on womanhood, identity and clash of cultures inspired by the story of the Bangladesh Girls Surf Club. Working across orchestra, choral music, opera, chamber music, art song and electronics, recent seasons have included commissions from the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Virginia Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Beth Morrison Projects, Choral Arts initiative, New York Virtuoso Singers and more. Her music has been featured on several Grammy nominated albums, and is regularly performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

  • Program note: If the earth could speak, what would it say?

    Language of the Earth grew out of conversations with Trevor Shaw about our relationship as humans with the earth around us. As Trevor spoke and wrote about the way our societies exploit and destroy natural resources, about the unintended consequences of our carelessness with the environments in which we live, I began to imagine what the earth would say in response, if it had a voice we could hear. Fragments from Trevor’s poetry inspired each movement.


    War...hate shining brighter than the sun

    Storm...purging us with volatile weather

    Echoes...nothing remains but tranquility

    An extremely theatrical work exploring the extremes of vocal and choral expression, the piece is perhaps best seen as a hope we might never forget how tightly entwined we are with the roots, trees, soil, water, and life around us.

INTERMISSION

ASK ME WHY from “THE BOY AND THE HERON” (2023)

Music by Joe Hisaishi
Benjamin Dia, piano

  • Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films are often considered among the greatest of all time. His creative storytelling, three-dimensional characters, and brilliantly colored visuals have made a lasting impression on multiple generations of viewers. Composer Joe Hisaishi’s music is so integral to Miyazaki’s films that the melodies become veritable characters in the stories. A renowned pianist, Hisaishi consistently performs on his own soundtracks, and highlights his piano at the emotional peaks of stories. The 2023 Miyazaki animated film The Boy and the Heron (Titled Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka - “How Do You Live” in Japan) tells the story of a boy dealing with grief and loss who escapes into a fantastical world, while asking profound questions of human purpose, the nature of the soul, and the legacy we leave behind when we die. Joe Hisaishi’s score is sweeping, haunting, and gorgeous. He is an unabashed sentimentalist, combining Romanticism with jazz and pop harmonies, and this is more apparent than ever in the theme from The Boy and the Heron – Ask Me Why. It is one of his simplest creations, so vulnerable that it would be embarrassingly revelatory of the composer’s self if it was not done with such confident sincerity.

  • Shall earth no more inspire thee,

    Thou lonely dreamer now?

    Since passion may not fire thee

    Shall Nature cease to bow?


    Thy mind is ever moving

    In regions dark to thee;

    Recall its useless roving—

    Come back and dwell with me.


    I know my mountain breezes

    Enchant and soothe thee still—

    I know my sunshine pleases

    Despite thy wayward will.


    When day with evening blending

    Sinks from the summer sky,

    I’ve seen thy spirit bending

    In fond idolatry.


    I’ve watched thee every hour;

    I know my mighty sway,

    I know my magic power

    To drive thy griefs away.

    Few hearts to mortals given

    On earth so wildly pine;

    Yet none would ask a heaven

    More like this earth than thine.


    Then let my winds caress thee;

    Thy comrade let me be—

    Since nought beside can bless thee,

    Return and dwell with me.

Words and Music by Florence B. Price

RESIGNATION (UNDATED)

  • My life is a pathway of sorrow

    I’ve struggled and toiled in the sun

    with hope that the dawn of tomorrow

    would break on a work that is done


    My master has pointed the way,

    he taught me in prayer to say:

    “Lord, give us this day and our daily bread”

    I hunger, yet I shall be fed


    My feet, they are wounded and dragging

    My body is tortured with pain

    My heart, it is shattered and flagging

    What matter, if Heaven I gain


    Of happiness once I have tasted

    ’Twas only an instant it paused

    tho’ brief was the hour that I wasted

    Forever the woe that it caused


    I’m tired and want to go home

    My mother and sister are there;

    They’re waiting for me to come 

    where mansions are bright and fair.


    Program note: Although Florence Price died over seventy years ago, she ought to be viewed in the same light through which we see modern composers. Not only was she innovative, but her instrumental music has also developed over time into the quintessential sound of symphonic Americana. The contemporary renewed Enthusiasm for Florence Price has allowed us to reassess her legacy and to rightfully place her in the same echelon of composers such as Johannes Brahms and Duke Ellington. Her choral music is far less radical than her symphonies, but as a collection, is no less compelling. Resignation has the feel and harmony of a traditional spiritual, but lyrically and musically, it was her original creation. We know few details about her process of writing it, but we can hearher point starkly. In this concert focused on what it means to be human, it is fitting to take a moment to acknowledge the unique Black experience, particularly in America. Through that prism, and through Price’s expressions, we hear pain and hope, exhaustion and bold determination. Seldom is music more poignant or more gripping.

CHRONODYSPHORIA*+ (2024)

Words and Music by Carol Brown

  • time

    is my enemy

              fleeting, flying, freezing

    slipping away

    yet ever-present

    sun rises, moon rises

    beautiful if you can see it

              rising, setting, turning 


                                                                                              seconds, minutes, hours


                                                                                                                                      tick tock

                                                                                    shame creeps up my spine

                                                                                                                                      tick tock

                                                                                    failure creeps up my spine

                                                                                                                  is it an illusion

                                                                                              or is it just my mind


    what is time?


    a system designed to keep us moving forward

              expanding, contracting

                        leading us from chaos


    time is a construct

    a fabric of the universe

    that binds humanity to a path

              that i struggle to follow


                                                                                              i am always fighting time


                                                                                                                  minutes to hours

                                                                                    awake when the world is asleep

                                                                                                                  hours to minutes

                                                                                    asleep when the world is awake


                                                                                                                  time is my enemy

    Program note: The imagined title "chronodysphoria," sets the stage for exploring the idea of time agnosia (or time blindness) through a neurodivergent lens. I wanted to speak to the anxiety, shame, and frustration that often accompany this experience, highlighting the paralysis that can occur when one’s perception of time passing doesn’t always align with the world around them.

  • Gather out of star-dust

    Earth-dust,

    Cloud-dust,

    And splinters of hail,

    One handful of dream-dust

    Not for sale.

Words by Riley E. Craig | Music by Abigail Lewis (ASCAP)

UNLOST* (2024)

  • These tears that sting my eyes

    They blind me like sunshine

    Everything is perfect but I must go

    Oh forest

    I need freedom to grow

    Forest I’ve spent my life planting

    I fear that the season is ending

    The creases of change often come with the frost

    Oh heart

    Help me find unlost

    Crimson rivers flow from the past

    The future lies ahead unknown and vast

    The stars, they go on and never cease to be ending

    Oh flowers

    Please don’t you forget me

    You’re not losing our warmth

    You’re meeting great distance

    Love grows where you follow 

    As gold in your footprints

    So run from this forest

    And know as we part

    The flowers may forget your face

    But they will remember your heart


    Program note: “Unlost” is a poem about leaving a familiar place, and the fear that comes along with that; we ask: "will I be forgotten?" Going beyond your limits is never a comfortable feeling, but it's a necessary one. Without pushing our comfort zones, we can never become better. Without experimentation, we would never advance. “Unlost” is acknowledgement of the fear of the unknown, and comfort to the lost. Leaving your forest is daunting, but those who you have touched will never forget you.

Words by Percy Shelley | Music by Erik Meyer

OZYMANDIAS (2022)

  • I met a traveller from an antique land,

    Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

    Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

    Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

    And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

    The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

    And on the pedestal, these words appear:

    My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

    Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

    Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

    The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

    Program note: Ozymandias is “(a) setting of Percy Shelley’s famous poem that comments on humankind’s hubris. The piano paints a setting of an empty, dry desert, while the choir describes the now-forgotten king who thought himself ruler of all when he lived.” – Erik Meyer

Words and Music by Don MacDonald
soli: Erin Yousef, James Tecuatl-Lee, Rebecca Stidolph and Carol Brown

CHASING VISIONS (arr. 2019)

  • A choral arrangement of the song. From the album "Carried" by Don Macdonald 

    People often wonder 

    why I look so tired 

    I’ve been chasing old sweet memories 

    memories of you scattered and few 

    I’m chasing them most of the time. 


    Clouds are now invading 

    memories once sky blue 

    midnight visions once in colour 

    now black and white and fading from sight 

    I’m chasing them most of the time. 


    Sometimes I’m lucky here in the night 

    I see your brown eyes as my memory takes flight 

    carried away in visions of yesterday 

    and I’m with you one more time.


    Program note: Chasing Visions explores the nature of grief after a partner passes on. Death is an

    inevitable part of being human, or even being a part of the universe. So much of

    existence is a mix of pain and joy. Composer Don Macdonald reminds us with this

    simply lilting, folk-like song that it is during times of most profound sorrow that we have

    our fondest moments of appreciation for the people who have enriched our lives.

  • Forever – is composed of Nows –

    ‘Tis not a different time –

    Except for Infiniteness –

    And Latitude of Home –


    From this – experienced Here –

    Remove the Dates – to These –

    Let Months dissolve in further Months –

    And Years – exhale in Years –


    Without Debate – or Pause –

    Or Celebrated Days –

    No different Our Years would be

    From Anno Dominies –

Words adapted from “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman | Music by Trevor F. Shaw (ASCAP)

THE COMMON AIR* (2024)

  • These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me,

    If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing,

    If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,

    If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing.


    This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is,

    This the common air that bathes the globe.

    Program note: Walt Whitman is my favorite poet. His language is grounded but beautiful, introspective - yet aspirational. The Common Air takes its title from the seventeenth section of Whitman's Song of Myself, a work which addresses the human condition and how recognizing the humanity in each other makes us stronger. It reminds us that we are all of the same earth, breathing the same air. My composition weaves through various keys while keeping an optimistic tone, enhanced by the brightness of the glockenspiel. The voices have moments of unison, as well as division into eight parts, ending together in a unison line, to symbolize that our differences are to be celebrated, and don't have to prevent us from working together. I wrote an exuberant piano part to bring about eruptive joy at the peaks of the music.

Inversion Cares

Learn about our Inversion Cares partner Treefolks, Central Texas’ only nonprofit dedicated to community forestry and has spearheaded efforts to protect and expand Austin’s urban tree canopy for over thirty years. Since 1989, we have planted 3 million trees, distributed over 175,000 trees to local residents, engaged over 24,000 volunteers, and educated children and adults about planting, protecting, and sustaining trees. What started as a small group of Austinites planting trees together has grown into a multifaceted organization tackling climate change regionally while increasing equitable canopy cover.

Personnel

INVERSION SINGERS

SOPRANO

Carol Brown
Christa Tumlinson
Erin Yousef
Julia Sterner-Holden

ALTO

Adrienne Inglis
Katrina Saporsantos
Rebecca Stidolph
Wravan Godsoe

TENOR

Guillermo Delgado
James Tecuatl-Lee
Jonathan Riemer
Nathaniel Fomby

BASS

Daniel Robertson
Evan Blaché
Gregory Hilliard
Steven Young

INVERSION

STAFF

Trevor F. Shaw, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Katrina Saporsantos, Managing Director and Da Capo Director
Adrienne Inglis, Artist and Community Relations
Carol Brown, Production Manager
Catherine Spainhour, Grant Writer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jonathan Riemer, president
Lissa Anderson, secretary
Kim Vitray, treasurer
Ann Hume Wilson
Guillermo Delgado
Kathy Leighton
Meredith Ware Morrow

DONORS

Many thanks to our individual, business, and sustaining donors going into our seventh season! For a current list of donors, visit the donation page on our website.

Many Thanks to

Stacey Hoyt — Director of Events
Kenken Gorder — Event Production Coordinator + Projections
Sadie Langenkamp — Natalie George Productions, Lighting Design
Guillermo Delgado — Pre-Performance Interview
Jess Griggs — Offbeat Frontiers
Jack Kloecker — Videography
Mackenzie Coleman & Uma Dietzel — KMFA Events Interns,  Photography
Andrew DiRemiggo Stoltz. & Jeffrey Blair — Audio Engineers
Felix Rolon — MOD
Andrea Hardemon — MOD/Bartender
Soozie Selfridge and Emily Bellone — Sales & Marketing

THANKS FOR COMING!