Harold Meltzer's monumental yet intimate You Are Who I Love, a collaboration with poet Aracelis Girmay, captures the undocumented immigrant experience in the United States in words and music that are both poignant and timely.
You are who I love, sighing in your sleep
You, playing drums in the procession,
feeding the chickens and humming as you hem the skirt,
you sharpening the pencil,
you writing the poem about the loneliness of the astronaut
Harold has created a sound world for these words that is magical, dramatic, and ever new. In fact, he’s written for every percussion instrument we can imagine (a bike pump!). Voices and instruments are constantly in dialogue; they fuse, clash, dance, parry, and meld into a rich, ever-evolving texture of love.
Also on the program, music for voices and percussion:
works of Sarah Rimkus and Ēriks Ešenvalds.
You Are Who I Love was commissioned for The Crossing
by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting.
This concert is made possible
through the extraordinary generosity of Carol Westfall
and an Anonymous donor.
