Essential Voices USA: Celebrating the American Spirit

Sono Luminus proudly presents Celebrating the American Spirit, performed by Essential Voices USA and directed by Judith Clurman, which reconfigures musical expressions of nationhood. EVUSA comes together with guest soloists and instrumentalists, including singers Kelli O’Hara and Ron Raines, and composer-arranger Larry Hochman. There is even a new lyric by Sheldon Harnick, the famed lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof. From beginning to end, EVUSA delivers imaginatively conceived performances that articulate new visions of community and civic responsibility in the 21st century.

At the core of the CD is “Sing Out Mr. President”, a series of sixteen newly commissioned works set to quotations by U.S. presidents stretching from George Washington to Barack Obama. Judith Clurman initiated this inventive project in response to 9/11, after she conducted the Juilliard Choral Union in a wrenching memorial concert at a firehouse in New York City. She felt a need to contribute creative responses to the tragedy, and she commissioned a cross-generational group of composers to set presidential texts. Her purpose was at once educational and artistic. Clurman observes, “I wanted a project where high school kids could learn music by living composers at the same time as they studied a president.” The composers involved in the project represent a refreshingly flexible range of aesthetic orientations, stretching from Broadway to the concert hall. Some wrote canons, others ranged freely. The list of composers is a who’s-who of modern composers including Nico Muhly, Samuel Adler, Paul Moravec, and many more.

The musical aphorisms of “Sing Out Mr. President” form a kind of American songbook for the 21st-century: a re-imagining of patriotic expression, couched in thought-provoking newly composed sound-bites. The pieces consistently convey respect for the nation and its ideals, yet they deliver no rubber stamp on traditional tropes of national ambition.

Surrounding “Sing Out Mr. President” is a combination of recently composed works and well-known tunes that are newly arranged by Larry Hochman, providing up-to-date perspectives on national chestnuts. Diverse voices take center stage, starting with Laurie Hochman, who at age eight wrote a melody for “The Pledge of Allegiance,” which was gorgeously arranged by her father. Another female then steps forth: Emma Lazarus, a Jewish American of the late 19th century, who wrote the sonnet “The New Colossus” that graces the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Lazarus’s sonnet has been set here by composer David Ludwig. A new lyric by Sheldon Harnick graces “Reason to be Thankful,” composed by Larry Hochman. There are recent compositions by Stephan Paulus, Jennifer Higdon, and Marc Shaiman, as well as works by Leonard Bernstein and Irving Berlin. Hochman contributes paired instrumental arrangements of “America the Beautiful” and “America” that portray the U.S. as both “positive” and “troubled,” as he puts it. The CD culminates with the patriotic anthem “God Bless America,” which has been completely reconceived. Rather than strutting national power, which is the norm with this tune, the version sung here by Broadway star Kelli O’Hara is wistful and ruminative, and the result is more a supplication than an assertion of global primacy.