Come join me in Lakewood this Sunday, November 16th for a special concert from Good Company: A Vocal Ensemble, who will be welcoming guest composer and conductor Marques L. A. Garrett to Cleveland as part of Good Company’s Contemporary Composers Series. Dr. Garrett will lead a masterclass at Gamble Auditorium on the campus of Baldwin Wallace University on the morning of Friday, Nov. 14th and then join Good Company on Sunday, November 16th for Sing Out, My Soul! – a concert featuring several of his compositions. The concert will be at 4:00 p.m. at Lakewood Presbyterian Church (14502 Detroit Road) in Lakewood. Many of you know that I direct Good Company, and several UUCC members and friends sing with the group as well, including Amy Collins, Lucy Carney, Leon Michaud, Anne and Steve Sanford, and Pam Schenk, and Holly Walker. Click here for more information about these events – I hope to see you there!
Music Notes – Sunday, November 16th:
This Sunday’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Centering Music: Haze – Hiromi Uehara
Special Music: Wake Up and Dream – Hiromi Uehara
Hiromi Uehara (b. 1979), often known simply as Hiromi, is a Grammy-winning Japanese composer and pianist. Her music is usually categorized as jazz, but her compositions are also highly influenced by classical, new age, and folk music. Hiromi attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where she was mentored by jazz legend Ahmad Jamal. She is a perennial favorite on DownBeat magazine’s Annual Critics and Readers Poll, and she has performed at the world’s finest jazz festivals, including Montreux, Umbria, North Sea, Newport, and Monterey (includes material from hiromiuehara.com). “Haze” is from Hiromi’s 2011 album Voice, the first of three albums she recorded as a trio project with Anthony Jackson (bass) and Simon Phillips (drums). “Wake Up and Dream” was released in 2016 on Hiromi’s tenth studio album Spark.
Song: Answering the Call of Love – Shelton
Jason Shelton is an award-winning composer, arranger, conductor, song and worship leader, workshop presenter, and coach. He served as the Associate Minister for Music at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, Tennessee from 1998-2017, and is now engaged in a music ministry at-large, focused on serving the musical resource needs of UU (and other liberal) congregations around the country (from jasonsheltonmusic.com). “Answering the Call of Love” (#1014) is one of many contributions Rev. Shelton has made to our Singing the Journey hymnbook.
Offertory Music: Songs Without Words, Book III, Op. 38, No. 2 in C Minor – Mendelssohn
Postlude: Songs Without Words, Book II, Op. 30, No. 2 in B flat Minor – Mendelssohn
German composer, pianist, and conductor Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847), more commonly known simply as Felix Mendelssohn, was one of the most important musicians of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn’s most famous works include the concert overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the oratorio Elijah, the melody for the Christmas carol “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”, and Songs Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte) for piano. Between 1829-1845, Mendelssohn composed 8 separate volumes of Songs Without Words, each containing six pieces for solo piano.
Song: There Is More Love Somewhere – African American Spiritual
#95 in Singing the Living Tradition, “There Is More Love Somewhere” is an African American Spiritual, possibly originating from the Georgia Sea Islands. As with many Spirituals, this song expresses a hope for a better world on the horizon. However, in contrast to some other songs from the Spiritual tradition, “There Is More Love Somewhere” makes no mention of actually reaching the figurative promised land. Instead, the lyrics (“I’m gonna keep on `til I find it”) express a sense of hope, but only through the lens of determination. As you sing along on Sunday, don’t forget that if the arc of the moral universe is to bend toward justice, it will take many determined souls pulling hard to make that happen.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director