True Concord Voices & Orchestra wraps up its 20th anniversary season this weekend with soprano Nicole Cabell.

When she made her debut with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in 2022, soprano Nicole Cabell performed her first ever Samuel Barber β€œKnoxville: Summer of 1915.”

For her encore two years later, she’s bringing us another new work in her repertoire, B.E. Boykin’s Maya Angelou-inspired song cycle β€œMoments in Sonder.”

β€œThe Boykin is new for me,” Cabell said during a phone call from her Rochester, New York, home last weekend, recalling how she heard it for the first time in a virtual concert during the pandemic. β€œI thought this is the most gorgeous music.”

Selections from β€œMoments in Sonder” are on the second half of her Close-Up recital with True Concord Voices & Orchestra on Tuesday, April 9, at the University of Arizona’s Holsclaw Hall, 1017 N. Olive Road.

Before she gets there, however, Cabell will join True Concord for a trio of performances this weekend of Poulenc’s magnificent β€œGloria,” the centerpiece of the ensemble’s season finale β€œGloria & Bernstein.”

Both concerts close out the 2024 Tucson Desert Song Festival.

β€œGloria” has been a staple of Cabell’s repertoire since the early days of her career. Her first performance of it came a year or so after she won the 2005 BBC Singer of the World in Cardiff competition.

Cabell

β€œIt’s such a great piece of music,” she said.

On the surface, β€œGloria” sounds like it’s difficult for the voice because β€œthe line can be a little bit dissonant, it can be a little strange,” Cabell explained.

β€œIt sails up into a high part of the voice. The tessitura can be challenging, but, because I’ve sung it so long, I feel really comfy with it,” she said. β€œWhen I first started singing it, I just loved the music but it was a bit of a technical challenge. Fortunately, along with wrinkles and gray hair, you get more settled in your technique in the years. So for me, at this point, it feels really settled in my voice. I love singing it.”

Cabell said a highlight for her in the Poulenc is hearing the orchestra behind her and the voices of the choir singing the text based on the Gloria of the ordinary mass.

β€œThe Poulenc is one of my favorite pieces of music, so I’m very excited,” she said.

In the concert’s second half, True Concord Music Director Eric Holtan programmed Leonard Bernstein’s Overture and β€œMake Our Garden Grow” from his musical β€œCandide” and β€œChichester Psalms,” featuring the professional solo debut of Holtan’s 12-year-old son Kristian.

Kristian, who has been studying piano since he was 5 and sang for four years with the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus touring ensemble, will sing the boy soprano role in the second movement.

β€œSince he was really little he could match pitch and he had a good sense of rhythm,” Holtan said of his son, who also plays club basketball. β€œHe’s kind of a natural musician.”

Kristian Holtan

The 20-minute work is sung in Hebrew; Bernstein used the original Hebrew texts from the Book of Psalms, drawing on Psalms 100 and 108, 2 and 23 and 131 and 133.

For Tuesday’s 7 p.m. recital, Cabell put together a diverse program that includes works by Spanish composer Fernando Obradors, Frenchman Ravel, Czech composer DvorΓ‘k and a trio of Americans: Leonard Bernstein, Boykin and Ricky Ian Gordon.

β€œI’ve always gravitated toward an all-English language second half,” she said, highlighting Boykin’s β€œMoments in Sonder” that was inspired by the works of poet Maya Angelou.

Boykin composed the 14-song cycle in 2020 when the country was dealing with racial strife in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. Classical music was especially shaken by the realization that it had not done enough to support and empower Black classical artists and composers.

She also included Bernstein’s β€œI Hate Music,” a song cycle sung from the perspective of a 10-year old girl, that he wrote in 1942, and works influenced by folk music including Ravel’s β€œFive Greek Folk Songs” and DvorΓ‘k’s β€œGypsy Songs.”

β€œI always have gravitated towards the accessibility of this kind of (folk) melody,” she said. β€œThey work well with my voice and they are interesting for the audience. The audience seems to respond well to those sets.”

The DvorΓ‘k includes the composer’s popular β€œSongs My Mother Taught Me.”

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True Concord Voices & Orchestra Music Director Eric Holtan gives a pre-concert talk about Poulenc's 'Gloria' featuring soprano Nicole Cabell and Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms." 

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Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch