Who is She?
/Who is she? Yes, the lady with mild eyes. She carries some stone tablets and a torch in her hands. What’s her name?
Years ago, in the first year of my master’s degree at The Juilliard School, I met a brilliant artist and, most importantly, a great human being. He is the award-winning baritone Gregory Feldmann. I remember—during those pre-COVID times—that I used to sit at the student’s lounge of the school with Greg and talk for hours. From the inevitable (which is music, of course) to the most serious and often uncomfortable topics. We spoke of issues like religion, race, politics, philosophy, you name it, we talked about it and even debated it. That lead to our first collaboration, Alabaster Thread, an art song that treated the topic of discrimination and being an ally. It was a success mainly because of Greg’s and his pianist Nathaniel LaNasa’s caliber as musicians. Nathaniel took my music and gave it life in a way that I believe no other pianist could have. He has definitely been another blessing of a musician in my journey at Juilliard.
Time went by, and with it, all the events that we all know happened and keep happening. The police-made murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and many more; Black Lives Matter protests, Donald Trump’s impeachment, thousands of children separated from their parents at USA’s south border, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, the presidential election with Trump’s refusal to concede and commence the peaceful transfer of powers with the support of some key members of the Republican Party. On top of this, COVID-19 exploded and with it the avoidable deaths of a quarter of a million people. Of course, it disproportionally affected minorities in the USA, not only health-wise but also financially. Before Joe Biden, the new president-elect is sworn in in January of 2021, the current political climate and divide are abysmal. Tensions are so high they feel they could break into violence at any time.
All of these events clearly demand a review of what the American experience is in our time. We all know it is not so different from what it was before. All of the terrible things that are happening are symptoms of ignored and unaddressed systemic issues. However, the visibility these problems show against the knowledge we have today clearly ask for, at least, an honest reaction and vigorous attempts to fix these issues.
As we usually do, Greg and I have been talking about these problems since we met. We both share a strong feeling of powerlessness. We are musicians; maybe we can’t change the government or convince those who might harbor hate in their hearts. The best we can try to do is to educate those who live by archaic tenets that belittle the value of selected human lives. We can try to do this through music, the tool we both handle the best!
The New Colossus
BY EMMA LAZARUS
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
From all of these things emerged, Greg’s, Nathaniel’s, and I new collaboration, Mother of Exiles. They asked me to compose a new art song using Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus. When they asked me to do this, I honestly felt small and felt chills go down my spine. Lazarus’s poem is a titan in USA’s literature history. For the sake of anything divine, part of the poem is chiseled in the Statue of Liberty! I was “shooketh.” At the same time, I thought it was an excellent opportunity to offer a reinterpretation of the poem.
In the poem, Lazarus compares the Statue of Liberty with the Colossus of Rhodes. The latter stood as a symbol of might and superiority. In contrast, the former was a symbol of welcome, opportunity, and the so-called “American Dream.” Today we can see what such iconic statue represented to Lazarus and how her vision of it withstood the passage of time.
That was the point of view I took to compose my new art song—or maybe monologue or scena as it is incredibly dramatic—for Greg and Nathaniel. I took the opportunity to pour my heart into it. To take, as a minority in this country, Lazarus’s massively powerful words and, with equal intension and commitment, show a side of the experience that otherwise could still be kept silent.
We do art… Music. Some might say that art is a commodity that only some can afford and consumed by the elite. I say the contrary! We do art! Art is our sword, our blanket, our offerings, our care, our megaphone, our cry, our gratitude, our conversation. Music is our protest in an unlikely field, an emergence as citizens asking for equality, being allies, and celebrating when those things are achieved! Is our way to build, nourish, and protect our communities! So, Greg, Nathaniel, and I took our armors, and soon we will share with you Mother of Exiles, a strong but heartfelt art song that we believe needs to be heard today. We just hope for ears to be open for that dialogue.