Tucson choir finally premieres choral symphony

True Concord Voices & Orchestra set out to make a statement when it commissioned Jocelyn Hagen to write a choral symphony centered on women.

They succeeded.

Hagen’s “Here I Am” unapologetically reaffirms women’s rightful place in society.

They earned it.

They deserve it.

And they will fight for it.

That was Hagen’s message, compassionately yet powerfully delivered through the words of 46 historical women figures, from Susan B. Anthony and Frida Kahlo to Kamala Harris and Toni Morrison. 

Hagen curated texts that went as far back as 2200 BC (Sumerian priestess and poet Enheduanna) and as recent as 2014 (Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who won a Nobel Peace Prize at age 17) to create a statement that speaks to women of all races, religions and generations today and for generations to come.

But the message, delivered against Hagen's emotional soundscape of soaring strings, a sobering harp and brass and woodwinds, also speaks to men. Hagen reminds them in no uncertain terms that women will not be silent. 

True Concord performed the world premiere of "Here I Am" before a nearly full house at the Catalina Foothills High School Auditorium on Saturday, Jan. 28, one of three performances over the weekend. It was a world premiere that the ensemble, under the baton of founder and Music Director Eric Holtan, had been waiting for since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live performances. The ensemble had to reschedule a second time after the pandemic flared up again last January.

The wait was worth it as the chamber orchestra, led by Concertmaster Benjamin Nisbet, and the choir, comprised of vocalists from around the country, many of them who have sung with True Concord for most of its 19 seasons, brought a sense of quiet urgency and import to “Here I Am.”

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Hagen set a big chunk of the texts as spoken word, dramatically recited by women in the choir and two girls from the Tucson Girls Chorus as paintings of the women and their words were projected on a giant screen above the stage.

Other texts were sung by the choir and guest soloist, soprano Susanna Phillips. Hagen arranged the music and the tone of the texts to grow from anger and defiance early on to determination and resolve in the finale, which featured Phillips joining voices with the True Concord choir and the Girls Chorus.

Girls Chorus Artistic and Executive Director Marcela Molina led the girls from the balcony and when they sang, Phillips looked up and smiled in amazement at the goosebumps-inducing sound coming from those young voices.

The girls repaid the compliment when Phillips hit an impossibly high note in the finale that hung in the air as an exclamation point to Hagen’s statement.

At the end of the performance, the audience gave Hagen a resounding standing ovation.

“Here I Am” was part of a program that opened with André Thomas’s setting of Langston Hughes’ 1941 poem “I Dream A World,” which envisions a world where skin color is not a deterrent of justice or tolerance. That message was needed now more than ever, longtime chorus tenor Paul John Rudoi told the audience afterwards, recounting the horror of the just released video of the Jan. 7 deadly beating of Tyre Nichols, a Black man, by four Black Memphis, Tennessee, police officers. The officers were charged this week with murder.

Saturday’s concert also included True Concord vocalist Emily Lau’s tender ode to immigrants “I’ve been ‘buked – O Danny boy,” which fuses Hong Kong native Lau’s own immigration story with the Irish ballad about Irish immigrants in the U.S.; and the world premiere of “I, Lover,” composed by Marybeth Kurnat, winner of True Concord’s Stephen Paulus Emerging Composers Competition.

Phillips also soloed with the orchestra on Mozart’s exuberant “Exsultate, jubilate,” which showcased her stunning vocal range and gorgeous coloratura.