Album: Cycles of Resistance
Artist: Chelsea Hollow
Record Label: Aerocade Music
Catalog No.: AM015
UPC: 198015288596
Release date: April 21, 2023
Format: Digital and CD
Digital booklet: download here

Buy/Stream:
Bandcamp | Apple Music | Tidal | Spotify

CREDITS

Chelsea Hollow, soprano
Taylor Chan, piano

Producer, program notes: Chelsea Hollow
Recording/mixing Engineer: Alberto Hernandez
Recording Engineer: Heidi Trefethen (tracks 6, 7, 10-13, 23, 24)
Mastering Engineer: Jett Galindo
Cover Photos: Veronique Kherian 
Graphic Design: Meerenai Shim

Copyright 2023 Chelsea Hollow and Aerocade Music.

Cycles of Resistance

by Chelsea Hollow

I believe that art can serve us in a variety of ways: we can escape into fantastic worlds; we can laugh, smile, and breathe together; we can gain perspective and empathy.

Cycles of Resistance expands our perspective. The music and texts lead us on a journey through a series of resistance movements from around the globe over the last 120 years; they are exquisite, powerful, and inspiring–some are tragic. To quote James Baldwin, “Everybody’s hurt. What is important…what drives you, torments you, is that you must find some way of using this to connect you with everyone else alive…You must understand that your pain is trivial except insofar as you can use it to connect with other people’s pain.” He continues to say that when we use this foundational truth to connect to other people, we all are able to heal. We are stronger when we are united and we make better choices when we see the world around us with clarity.

Cycles of Resistance began as a longing for my artist community during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. I created a call for proposals for art songs and cycles using texts, themes, or speeches from activists or movements that inspired the composers. After sifting through many incredible proposals, I commissioned six new works and co-commissioned another two. In this album, I’ve also included two former commissions and two songs submitted by a composer who’s previous work aligned with our theme of humanity, resistance, and hope.

These 24 songs represent diverse perspectives and languages not yet common in the classical canon: Mandarin, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Czech in addition to English, chronicling examples of human resilience: Chinese feminist poetry from the early 1900s; a Dutch sonnet on love conquering all evils; the unity of young Czech girls imprisoned in Room 28 at Theresienstadt Internment Camp; a reminder that all humans are part of the disability community at some point in their lives; maternal hesitation, clarity, and urgency in the Flint, Michigan water crisis; harrowing tales of the Turkish Femicide; Prayers of Peace from the traditions of Islam and Hinduism; & inspiring speeches by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and activist Valarie Kaur.

These compositions for soprano and piano were written between 2018 and 2022. Some works also incorporate vocoder, looper pedal, modular synthesizer, and fixed media. Setting the poetry, speeches, and mantras are composers Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Sophie Xuefei Zhang, Anthony R. Green, Michael Wiener, Molly Joyce, Lauren McCall, Jason Cady, Özden Gülsün, and Myron Silberstein. From intimate moments of vocal and piano restraint, lush harmonic textures and sweeping coloratura melodies to looped vocal layering, vocoded harmonic expansion, and techno-inspired synth tracks, this album celebrates the extensive range of soundscapes possible in contemporary classical music.

TRACK LISTING

        Darkness of the Womb
        [Niloufar Nourbakhsh/Valarie Kaur]
1.          On Christmas Eve
2.          In the aftermath of September 11th
3.          And then my son was born
4.          In America today
5.          The mother in me asks

         Two Poems by Qiu Jin
        [Sophie X. Zhang/Qiu Jin]
6.          Autumn Begonia (Qiū Hǎi Táng)
7.          River of Blossoms (Mǎn Jiāng Hóng)

8.     Zachte Krachten
[Anthony R. Green/Henriëtte Roland Holst]

9.     Maagal
        [Michael Wiener/The Girls of Room 28]

10.   The Beauty of Disability
        [Molly Joyce/Marco Grosse/Judith Heumann]

        Living Water
        [Lauren McCall]
11.       I. River flow
12.       II. She doesn't trust the water
13.       III. Living Water

        AOC Takes the Floor
        [Jason Cady/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]
14.       1. "I Could Not Allow That To Stand"
15.       2. "What is So Hard About Saying that This is Wrong?"

        Al Kan Kuşak
        [Özden Gülsün/Didem Gülçin Erdem]
16.       I. Kadınlar (The Women)
17.       II. Ben, Zeynep (I am Zeynep)
18.       III. Bir Dünya Kadındır (The World is a Woman)
19.       IV. Ben, Ayşe (I am Ayşe)
20.       V. Ben de bir kadının boşluğundan doğdum (I Was Born out of a Woman's Void)
21.       VI. Ben, Fatma (I am Fatma)
22.      VII. Başka Kadınlar (Other Women)

        Prayers for Peace
        [Myron Silberstein]
23.       I. As-salāmu ‘alaykum (Islamic Salutation)
24.       III. Śānti-Pāțha (Vedic Meditation)

Download the digital booklet for song texts and translations.

PROGRAM NOTES

This album begins with Darkness of the Womb, my first commission which inspired my interest in setting speeches to music. Valarie Kaur’s 2016 speech “Breathe and Push” captivated me with the poetic nature and delivery in which Kaur discusses her family’s immigration story, their history of activism, and a response of hope and action in the face of the darkness of today’s world. Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s setting begins with a simple ostinato figure, almost as a traveling Bard might begin a tale, and moves into lush piano and vocal figures, punctuated by whispered cadences. As Kaur remembers the long line of ancestors who have resisted persecution, Nourbakhsh adds the use of vocoder to represent the voices of our ancestral wisdom.

The album then journeys back to the beginning of the 20th Century in China, where Chinese revolutionary and feminist Qiu Jin (1875-1907) fought with sword and pen for the establishment of a republic as well as equality and education of women. Chinese-born Canadian composer, Sophie Xuefei Zhang set “Qiū Hǎi Táng” (Autumn Begonia) with simple melodic lines inspired by Mandarin tone inflection to convey strength and determination. In “Mǎn Jiāng Hóng” (A River of Blossoms), Zhang uses harmonic gestures to echo the note bending timbre of the guqin, as the poetry oscillates between the joy of a spring celebration and the inner struggle for acceptance.

From China, we journey to the Netherlands, between the World Wars. Henriëtte Roland Holst (1869–1952), poet and socialist leader, was deeply involved in resistance publications and efforts helping Indonesian immigrants in the Netherlands. After speaking at a large Soviet gathering, she published a book challenging the militant direction she witnessed within the communist movement, which contained the poem “De Zachte Krachten zullen zeker winnen” (The Soft Powers will win in the end). Composer and social justice artist, Anthony R. Green explores this quiet and profound text with a wide range of colors and textures in both the soprano and piano writing. Green utilizes whispers and hand friction percussion as the text mentions the “soft powers” growing and ever-present, “like the sound of the ocean in a shell.” The vocal line soars as the poem hopes for “all of nature and celestial bodies” to move towards “all encompassing love,” finally settling in the comfort that surely good will prevail.

Human resilience is a powerful force for growth and progression found even in the depths of atrocity. From the Girls of Room 28, Therisienstadt, we see this is still true. “We shall drive every evil away…won’t go home until we have succeeded…clasp our hands together and sing this anthem from home.” This chant and anthem was created as a means of ritual and support for the children who passed through Room 28 between 1943-1945. In commemoration and celebration of the community, art, and culture created between these these young people, composer Michael Wiener arranged their Czech folk melody and anthem text to include harmonies, sound clusters, and melodies of fellow Theresienstadt prisoner and composer, Viktor Ullmann as well as a Hebrew folk song, the Slovak national anthem, and a Lutheran chorale. Together with prepared piano elements, looper pedal, and ad libitum layering of piano and voice, this work takes the listener on a journey through the multi-cultural and multi-generational community of Theresienstadt.

The Beauty of Disability by Molly Joyce honors the work and words of Judith Heumann (1947-2023) and reminds us “disability is a family that you can join at any point in your life.” The vocal line begins determined and inviting but develops into an inspirational power, weaving together text from an interview between Joyce and Heumann with contributions from writer Marco Grosse. The piano anchors the ensemble with undulating cells upon which sparkling figures emerge, eventually driving into urgent textures to support the text’s call to action, “won’t you come join at any time?”

Living Water is a three-movement work for solo soprano, piano, and electronics. Composer Lauren McCall created ethereal backing tracks in Max/MSP using a machine learning model and data from the Flint Water Blood Lead Level Testing Results. The three songs move through the emotions of not knowing what and who to trust into the solidarity and catharsis of community organizing. McCall’s lyrical writing is comforting and a contemplative accompaniment to the almost folksong storytelling. “River Flow” begins with a shimmering electronic track and flowing vocal line as the crisis develops. The electronic shimmer becomes a stagnant and haunting pulse as a mother questions what is safe for her child in “She doesn’t trust the water” supported by descending figures in the voice and piano. “Living Water” urges us onward in text and music inspire action and community organizing.

Another beacon of activism and sensibility, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been continuously celebrated for speaking up to defend those she represents as well as setting an example for how to respond to bullying, harassment, and the sexism she has experienced as a congresswoman. Her words are deliberate in exposing a wider perspective of how this behavior affects everyone. AOC Takes the Floor is a set of two songs composed by Jason Cady, a constituent of AOC’s 14th District and was co-commissioned by me and Lisamarie Eldredge. The first song, “I Could Not Allow That to Stand” uses the text from AOC’s response to Florida Representative Ted Yoho’s verbal harassment on the steps of The Capitol. In her response, she admits that she wasn’t “waiting for an apology, but what I do have issue with is using women—our wives and daughters—as shields and excuses for poor behavior.” Cady sets the vocal line carefully following AOC’s speech patterns, sometimes delivered more like recitative and other times moving towards sweeping melodic lines which make use of Lydian and Pelog scales. The overall form is inspired by the modulation structure of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. The text from second song, “What is So Hard About Saying that This is Wrong” is taken from Ocasio-Cortez’s response to Representative Paul Gosar’s tweet of a violent Anime video depicting him murdering AOC. Here, she calls out the danger of claiming humor as an excuse, “this is not about me…but it is about what we are willing to accept.” She addresses the nihilism that develops when leaders don’t hold themselves to the gravity of their position and reminds her colleagues, “Our work here matters. Our example matters. There is meaning in our service.” Developing musical ideas presented in the first song, Cady incorporates motivic gestures in the piano and modular synthesizer replacing the fourth of the Lydian scale with the raised sixth of the Dorian. The vocal line follows similar speech patterns but often cadences with sweeping quintuplet runs.

AOC’s leadership gives women worldwide an example of how to stand up for themselves and each other. While we have come a long way, there is still much to do. Turkey, which led the European Union in 2011 to address issues of domestic violence with its Istanbul Convention, has now become the only country to withdraw from the effort, caving to pressures from religious and conservative lobbying. Protestors and organizers are demanding criminal consequences for acts of domestic violence; murders that go completely unpunished because law enforcement views them as a matter of the home. Turkey is not alone in the rates of domestic violence and the United Nations released a global report in 2020 stating that every 11 minutes, a woman is murdered by a family member or intimate partner. Al kan kuşak is a song cycle composed by Özden Gülsün with libretto by Didem Gülçin Erdem which addresses the Turkish Femicide weaving together three tales of domestic violence with supportive cheers and chanting of protesters. The work opens with an ominous taunt in the piano and the admission that the community has “known women who had to wait for dark to escape” and the familiarity of broken tools, homes, and mothers. Much of the soprano line oscillates from wailing melodic phrases to restrained and whispered tones as the text recognizes the pain and paralysis of the affected women with vocoder reverberating such experiences. The tales of Zeynep, Ayşe, and Fatma each expand on a dirge in the piano while the vocal line explores who these women were before their lives were cut short by beating, stoning, or being thrown from the 40th floor of a building. The music and text brilliantly balances the tragedy with moments of discovery where real-life protest recordings are inserted into the texture, eventually leading to the fifth movement where a young woman questions her treatment and joins the movement. Again, vocoder is used to represent the collective protesting voices quoting cheers and listing names of victims, a practice inspired by the online tracker: anitsayac.com.

Human resilience is a common thread throughout the album leading to the final work, Prayers for Peace by Myron Silberstein. Purposefully saved for the end, these two song settings of an Islamic greeting and a Vedic meditation are a grounding force for contemplation and presence. News cycles, schedules, and the commotion of daily life too often create a sense of numbness to deep processing; a compartmentalization of our human responses to tragedy and outrage. When we are numb, it is easy to forget or prioritize other thoughts, but we miss out on the community and creativity we gain from collaborating with each other. “As-salāmu ‘alaykum” is a daily greeting of “peace, mercy, and blessings” to one another. The piano begins with quiet descending figures to realize the contemplative harmonic progression while the soprano explores the greeting in arched melodies, eventually expanding into an evocation of Allah’s blessings over ascending arpeggios in the piano. “Śānti-Pāțha” begins with a melismatic “om,” the sacred mantra of consciousness and the divine over grounded piano harmonic gestures. The text inspires both the voice and piano writing into an expansive and more urgent recognition of peace outward to the heavens, around us on the planet, and even to peace itself; finally surrendering to ask for peace returning to the speaker. Silberstein closes with a return to that melismatic invocation of “om” and a repeated mantra of “Śānti” (peace).

Remembering James Baldwin’s comment on pain, it is not the hurting or dwelling that matters but the way we use that to fuel our ability to connect to each other’s experiences and walk onwards together. In researching and realizing this album, I have collected many resources for how to get involved in the movements highlighted here. Please visit chelseahollow.com/cyclesLP to learn more.

ABOUT CHELSEA HOLLOW

Chelsea Hollow “has rewritten the book on the potential of musical activism” creating art that invites her audiences to think collectively and gain perspective. Hollow cherishes her mission as an artist to build capacity for empathy, harness a venue for community healing, and amplify marginalized voices. In 2019, she commissioned, curated, and toured with her feminist recital, Voice for the Voiceless. This work inspired the 2020 call for proposals which led to the creation of this album. In recognition of these commissions, Chelsea was invited to present a talk on Art and Activism (2021) for the United Nations’ Office of Human Rights in collaboration with Freemuse where she premiered one of these commissions, “I Could Not Allow That to Stand," Jason Cady’s song setting of a speech by his congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In addition to her solo work, Hollow was sought out by the San Francisco Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (RASOTA) Vocal Department to create a program for students to work on from home. Hollow created, The Young Activist’s Songbook (2021), commissioning song repertoire for young voices using texts by Bay Area high school students, The Kids and Art Foundation, and other anonymous community members. Highlights from the 21 commissioned songs include, “Being a Student in 2020” (Emily Shisko), “The Future Holds Water in a Wicker Basket” (Joel Chapman), and “I am Growing” (JooWan Kim).

Chelsea is passionate about finding ways of welcoming new audiences to experience the abundance of talent, innovation, expression, and catharsis available within classical music. She performs locally in the Bay Area, throughout the United States, and internationally, known for her “soaring high range” and “stage panache.” Hollow has built a reputation for performing, workshopping, and premiering new works including the roles of Helen Chavez in Dolores (2023) by Nicolas Benavides, Fenghuang in Hutong (2020) by Kui Dong, Elizabeth in Frankenstein (2017) by Libby Larsen, and Mina Harker in Despertar al Sueño (2016) by Federico Ibarra. Her favorite traditional roles include Die Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte/Mozart), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos/Strauss), Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail/Mozart), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann/Offenbach), Lakmé (Lakmé/Delibes), and Marie (La Fille du régiment/Donizetti). Concert soloist appearances include Concerto for Two Orchestras (Gubaidulina) with the Berkeley Symphony, Carmina Burana (Orff) and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra and Judas Maccabaeus by Handel with the San Francisco City Chorus.

To learn more about Chelsea’s projects and upcoming performances, please visit chelseahollow.com.

ABOUT TAYLOR CHAN

Taylor Chan learned the art of collaboration—in music and in life—while completing her M.M. in Collaborative Piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. There, she is currently a staff accompanist and coach to students in Voice / Opera Studies, and has the pleasure of regularly performing alongside them in musical theater and opera productions. She has also held various administrative positions at SFCM in production-adjacent roles, enjoying projects that involve technical writing, data management, creating efficient systems, and identifying ways to optimize collaborative workflow.

Most recently, her relationship with music has expanded in the direction of pedagogy, as she actualizes her general life-calling of knowledge transmission. She would like to pass on her methodologies of self-led skill acquisition to younger artists’, in order to enable them to transcend the limitations of their personal challenges, to raise their ceilings of self-expression and self-actualization.

In addition, she enjoys analyzing piano technique and articulating principles of its physics and physiology, approaching it as a simultaneously scientific and spiritual study. She wishes to change the culture in which chronic repetitive-stress injuries are a given, yet rarely openly discussed.

Her favorite past performances include: the full-length version premiere of Mortal Lessons (2018), a medical oratorio by Ryan Brown (b. 1979); Meredith Monk’s Ellis Island, with pianist Kate Campbell, in a side-by-side concert between SFCM and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (2018); Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians at the 2019 Hot Air Music Festival, and Philip Glass’ La Belle et la Bête with Opera Parallelè.

Outside of music, her interests include interpersonal psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, writing, design, visual art, and cats.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS AND LIBRETTISTS

Niloufar Nourbakhsh, composer

Described as “stark” by WNPR, and “darkly lyrical” by the New York Times, winner of National Sawdust’s 2nd Hildegard competition, recipient of 2019 Female Discovery Grant from Opera America, and a winner of 2022 Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation Competition, Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s music has been commissioned and performed by Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Library of Congress, I-Park Foundation, National Sawdust Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Camerata Pacifica, Shriver Hall Series, Center for Contemporary Opera, Women Composers Festival of Hartford, PUBLIQuartet, Forward Music Project, Calidore String Quartet, Cassatt String Quartet, Akropolis Reed Quintet, and Ensemble Connect at numerous festivals and venues including Carnegie Hall, Washington Kennedy Center, Mostly Mozart Festival, Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music, and many more. A founding member and co-director of Iranian Female Composers Association, Nilou is a strong advocate of music education. In 2014, she worked as the site coordinator of Brooklyn Middle School Jazz Academy sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center. She is currently co-artistic director of Peabody Conservatory Laptop Orchestra and teaches composition at Longy School of Music of Bard College. Nilou also regularly performs with her ensemble, Decipher.

Nilou is a music graduate and a Global Citizen Scholarship recipient of Goucher College as well as a Mahoney and Caplan Scholar from University of Oxford. Among her teachers are Lisa Weiss, Kendall Kennison, Laura Kaminsky, Daniel Weymouth, Matthew Barnson, Margaret Schedel and Daria Semegen. She received a Ph.D. in music composition from Stony Brook University under the supervision of Sheila Silver.

Valarie Kaur, text author

Valarie Kaur is a renowned civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, educator, innovator, and best-selling author of SEE NO STRANGER. She leads the Revolutionary Love Project to reclaim love as a force for justice. Valarie burst into American consciousness in the wake of the 2016 election when her Watch Night Service address went viral with 40 million views worldwide. Her question “Is this the darkness of the tomb – or the darkness of the womb?” reframed the political moment and became a mantra for people fighting for change.

Twenty years ago, when Valarie was a college student, a family friend was murdered in a hate crime a few days after 9/11. He was a turbaned Sikh man she called “Uncle,” killed by a man who called himself a patriot. Across the U.S., people of color were beaten, chased, shot, and stabbed in thousands of hate incidents that were barely reported in the media. Valarie took her camera and began a journey across America to tell her community’s story and fight for racial justice. That journey continues today.

Valarie has won policy change on multiple fronts – hate crimes, racial profiling, immigration detention, solitary confinement, Internet freedom, and more. She founded Groundswell Movement, Faithful Internet, and the Yale Visual Law Project to inspire and equip advocates at the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and justice. Valarie has been a regular TV commentator on MSNBC and contributor to CNN, NPR, PBS, the Hill, Huffington Post, and the Washington Post. Valarie earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School.

Valarie’s vision of “Revolutionary Love” is deeply rooted in her Sikh faith. She grew up on the farmlands of California, where her family has lived as Punjabi Sikh farmers for more than a century. As a child, whenever she felt lost, her grandfather would give her Sikh wisdom through song and point to the path of the sant-sipahi, sage-warrior. The sage loves; the warrior fights — it’s a path of revolutionary love.

Sophie Xuefei Zhang, composer

Chinese-born Canadian pianist Sophie Xuefei Zhang enjoys a career both as soloist, chamber musician, and now composer, with her debut work Two Poems by Qiu Jin. She has appeared on stage with Kim Kashkashian, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Ian Swensen, Bonnie Hampton as well as members of the Juilliard String Quartet, Ives String Quartet, American String Quartet, Windscape, and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, among others. Sophie has served as artist-in-residence with her piano duo, Duo Solis (with pianist Olivier Hébert-Bouchard) at Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec for the 2012-2013 season, and ensemble-in-residence with Aleron Trio on San Francisco's Old First Concert Series for the 2014-2015 season. She is co-founder and artistic director of Lex54 Concerts.

First-place winner of the national Canadian Music Competition, Sophie was also the First-place winner of the Beijing district of Concours de Piano Sino-Francais "MIDO" and semi-finalist of the 12th Pacific International Piano Competition. Sophie was a winner of the Felix Galimir Chamber Music Award and was on full scholarship to attend the Chamber Music program at The Banff Centre. Concert appearances include venues such as Beijing Concert Hall, Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University, Carnegie Hall, Toronto's Arts and Letters Club, Toronto Centre for the Arts, Rolston Recital Hall at The Banff Centre, CBC's Glenn Gould Studio, Berkeley Piano Club, Canadian Opera Company's Richard Bradshaw Theatre, and Nicholas Roerich Museum. Sophie has also been heard on Beijing Classical Music Radio Station FM97.4, CBC Radio Soundstreams Canada, and Banff Centre Radio Station. She has been named an Osher Foundation Scholar. 

An active educator, Sophie has presented out-reach programs and lecture-recitals with various chamber groups on topics ranging from the piano trios of Schumann and Shostakovich to the transcriptions of Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schoenberg; and has given lecture-concerts at Duke University (Kunshan), Tsinghua University, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has also led masterclasses for the Alexander String Quartet at San Francisco State University and coached chamber ensembles from the Crowden School in Berkeley. She currently serves as piano faculty at Turtle Bay Music School and Geneva Conservatory of Music, teaches applied lesson at Columbia University, is adjunct faculty at CUNY Medgar Evers College, and is also a lecturer at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art.

Aside from piano, Sophie found another media for artistic expression in photography. In 2006, she traveled to Tibet and produced a set of photos during the travel. Selections of this set have been published in the book "Tibet, the Life Changing Journey" (Shantou University Press 2010). Sophie's work has also been put on auction at the International Women and Children's Health Conference to raise money to support local initiatives in women and children's health.

Sophie graduated with honors from University of Toronto with a bachelor degree in Piano Performance and a minor concentration in Fine Art History, and obtained her Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music as a scholarship student of Solomon Mikowsky. She also holds an Artist Certificate in Chamber Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Mack McCray.  Sophie is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in Music and Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. 

Qiu Jin, poet

Qiu Jin (1875-1907) was a Chinese revolutionary and feminist who fought with sword and pen for the establishment of a republic as well as equality, education, and governmental representation of women. She founded the magazine Chinese Women’s Journal in which she protested foot binding and arranged marriages and encouraged women to see themselves as the driving force for progress and change. Qiu Jin saw the comforts and protection afforded to her sex as being dangerous boundaries to independence. In 1904, she sold all of her jewelry and left behind her husband and two children moving to Japan where she would study martial arts and community organizing. Her writings and lectures were delivered in formal settings as well as vernacular publications to optimize inclusion and she encouraged her fellow teachers to inspire students to get involved with nationalism and gender equality.

Upon returning home to China, she recruited soldiers and students to the movement and established the Restoration Army with the plan of leading a major uprising. After it became clear that the resistance efforts would fail, Qiu Jin encouraged her followers to disengage in an attempt to avoid capture, but she refused herself this protection resulting in her capture, interrogation, torture, and execution. Her final poem states, “I weep for loss of country…I live on in sacrifice, I have fulfilled my duty.”

Anthony R. Green, composer

Anthony R. Green (he/him/his), composer/performer/social justice artist, was raised on Narragansett and Pauquunaukit (Wampanoag) land in Providence, RI. His various creative projects include musical and visual creations, interpretations of original, contemporary, and repertoire works, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind all his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom. His compositions and projects have been presented in 25+ countries by various internationally acclaimed soloists and ensembles including but not limited to: Julian Otis (voice), Fred C. VanNess Jr. (voice), Veronica Williams (voice), Christian Dillingham (contrabass), Joy Cline Phinney (piano), Elizabeth G. Hill (piano), Ashleigh Gordon (viola), the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project (conducted by Renée C. Baker), and Castle of our Skins. Venues which have hosted his projects include Jordan Hall (Boston), Tivoli Vredenburg (Utrecht, the Netherlands), Spike Gallery (Berlin), the Israel Conservatory of Music (Tel Aviv), the Shoe Factory (Nicosia, Cyprus), and Symphony Space, Spectrum, and the Marian Anderson Theater (New York), among others. 

As a performer, he specializes in piano performance, experimental vocalizations, improvisation, movement, and performance art. He has performed projects ranging from traditional recitals to interdisciplinary performances in the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Turkey, South Korea, and Switzerland. A former McKnight Visiting Composer, Green has been invited to numerous residencies in the US and Europe, including Space/Time (Scotland), the Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden), and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, Nebraska), and has recently received an invitation to the "perfocraZe International Artist Residency" (pIAR) in Kumasi, Ghana. He is the co-founder and associate director of Boston-based Castle of our Skins, dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. When not traveling, Green enjoys a variety of activities, many centered around Black and queer identities. He currently resides in Leiden, the Netherlands, with his MRI physicist/pianist partner, Dr. Itamar Ronen. 

Henriëtte Roland Holst, poet

Henriëtte Roland Holst (1869–1952), nicknamed “Aunt Jet” was poet and socialist leader deeply involved in resistance publications and efforts helping Indonesian immigrants in the Netherlands, as well as Marxist parties. Much of her life was afflicted with depression, eating disorders, and other ailments but she was steadfast in her commitment to creating a better society, especially fighting for youth, women, immigrants, and the labor workforce. She was a firm believer in Marxism and socialist methodologies but was mortified by the governmental oppression created with the communist movement. After speaking at a large Soviet gathering, she published a book challenging the militant direction she witnessed within the communist movement and containing the poem “De Zachte Krachten zullen zeker winnen” (The Soft Powers will win in the end). In addition to her poetry, she wrote biographies of Rousseau, Gandhi, and Tolstoy as well as copious contributions to a variety of journals and even radio plays.

Michael Wiener, composer

Michael Wiener, born in 1975 in Germany, combines his interest in contemporary music, especially composition, with his academic background in international law. 

From 2002 until 2006, he was a member of the composition class of Alexander Müllenbach at the Conservatory of Luxembourg, where he received a composition certificate ‘supérieur avec la qualification très bien’. He was also awarded prizes at the composition competitions Carl von Ossietzky, Engelbert Humperdinck and Artistes en herbe. His choir piece ‘Major autem ex his est caritas’ has been chosen as a winner in the composition contest of Universal Sacred Music in New York City and was recorded by Harold Rosenbaum with the New York Virtuoso Singers (published on CD by Soundbrush Records). In addition, his piece ‘Camino de Santiago’ was recorded on CD by the female ensemble Otto Voci. 

His compositions were selected in calls for scores by Vox Novus, Via Nova Choir, Fidelio Trio, the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective and Voice for the Voiceless. His choir works featured in international festivals, including the Festival of Universal Sacred Music in New York, Rhythms of One World in Geneva, Schubertiade in Bienne, Biennale d’art sacré contemporain in Paris, and the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.

In addition, he completed his doctoral thesis at the law faculty of the University of Trier and also holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of London. In his LL.M. thesis, he analyzed legal notions and copyright issues in the last piano sonata of Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944), thus exploring further the links between music and law. Since 2011, he has also been a visiting fellow of Kellogg College at the University of Oxford.

The Girls of Room 28, text authors 

Room 28 was a small refuge within the Theresienstadt internment camp. Elders including artists and educators prioritized these children with the utmost hope and resilience, often sharing their rations, playing games with them, teaching them, and entertaining them with performances of operas, concerts, and theater. Fredy Hirsch, a Zionist youth leader, said "We had to try to save the children from the debasement of all that is good." With Jewish education forbidden throughout the German Reich, these elders worked in secret to teach history, music, language, art, morality, and philosophy. Composer Victor Ulman was one such elder and at one point the inmates composed and performed an opera together.

Maagal, which translates to perfection and circle, became the name of a child-led club of girls 12-13 years old. Here the children organized themselves into a democratic organization with uniforms, a flag, anthem, and motto, which was used as an incantation or secret password, “You believe me – I believe you. You know what I know, whatever may happen, you won’t betray me – I won’t betray you.” Their anthem, set to the Czech folk song ‘Ach padá, padá rosička’ (‘The Dew Is Falling’) states: “We want to be united…we have come here, but our hope…is to return home again…We shall drive every evil away and won’t go home until we have…We clasp each other’s hands and sing this anthem of our home.” Helga Polak remembers in her diary, “Girls who are attentive, diligent, amicable and who set a good example are represented in Ma'agal.”

When German journalist, Hannelore Brenner, came across the story of these girls, she reached out to two survivors, Anna Hanusová and Helga Kinsky. Together they organized reunions, interviews, and eventually founded Room 28 Projects, an organization that has curated museum exhibits and published their story in books, diaries, and a play in a number of translations.

Molly Joyce, composer and text contributor

Composer and performer Molly Joyce has been deemed one of the “most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome” by The Washington Post. Her music has additionally been described as “serene power” (New York Times), and “unwavering…enveloping” (Vulture). Her work is concerned with disability as a creative source. She has an impaired left hand from a previous car accident, and seeks to explore disability through composition, performance, collaboration, community engagement, and further mediums. Her most recent album, Perspective, featuring forty-seven disabled interviewees responding to what access, care, interdependence, and more mean to them, was released on October 2022 on New Amsterdam Records. The record has been praised by Pitchfork as “a powerful work of love and empathy that underscores the poison of ableism in American culture” and The Wire as a “powerful ongoing project…charged by an intense composer/performer relationship.”

The primary vehicle in her pursuit is her electric vintage toy organ, an instrument she bought on eBay that suits her body and engages her disability on a compositional and performative level. Her debut full-length album, Breaking and Entering, featuring toy organ, voice, and electronic sampling of both sources was released in June 2020 on New Amsterdam Records, and has been praised by New Sounds as “a powerful response to something (namely, physical disability of any kind) that is still too often stigmatized, but that Joyce has used as a creative prompt.”

Molly’s creative projects have been presented and commissioned by Carnegie Hall, TEDxMidAtlantic, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Bang on a Can Marathon, Danspace Project, deSingel, Americans for the Arts, National Sawdust, Music Academy of the West, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, National Gallery of Art, Classical:NEXT, and featured in outlets such as Pitchfork, eBay, Red Bull Radio, WNYC’s New Sounds, and I Care If You Listen. As a collaborator, Molly has worked across disciplines including with media artist Andy Slater, visual artists Lex Brown, Leo Castaneda, Alteronce Gumby, Maya Smira, Julianne Swartz, choreographers Melissa Barak, Kelsey Connolly, Carlye Eckert, Jerron Herman, director Austin Regan, and writers Marco Grosse, James Kennedy, Christopher Oscar Peña, and Jacqueline Suskin. 

Molly is a graduate of The Juilliard School (graduating with scholastic distinction), Royal Conservatory in The Hague (recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Grant), and Yale School of Music. She holds an Advanced Certificate and Master of Arts in Disability Studies from CUNY School of Professional Studies and is an alumnus of the National YoungArts Foundation. She has studied with Samuel Adler, Martin Bresnick, Guus Janssen, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli, Martijn Padding, Christopher Theofanidis, and has served on the composition faculty of New York University, Wagner College, and Berklee Online, teaching subjects including Disability and the Arts, Music Technology, Music Theory, and Orchestration. She is currently a Dean’s Doctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia, focusing on Composition and Computer Technologies.

Judith Heumann, text author

Judy Heumann (1947-2023) was a lifelong advocate for the rights of disabled people. She contracted polio in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York and began to use a wheelchair for her mobility. She was denied the right to attend school because she was considered a "fire hazard" at the age of five. Later in life, Judy was denied her teaching license after passing her oral and written exams, but being failed on her medical exam. Judy sued the Board of Education and went on to become the first wheelchair user to become a teacher in the state of New York.

Judy became an internationally recognized leader in the disability rights community. She was instrumental in the development and implementation of legislation, such as Section 504, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which have been advancing the inclusion of disabled people in the US and around the world and fighting to end discrimination against all those with disabilities. 

Judy was a founding member of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living which was the first grassroots center in the United States and helped to launch the Independent Living Movement both nationally and globally. In 1983, Judy co-founded the World Institute on Disability (WID) with Ed Roberts and Joan Leon, as one of the first global disability rights organizations founded and continually led by people with disabilities that works to fully integrate people with disabilities into the communities around them via research, policy, and consulting efforts. Up to her recent death, she served on a number of non-profit boards, including the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Humanity and Inclusion, Human Rights Watch, United States International Council on Disability, and Save the Children. 

From 1993 to 2001, Judy served in the Clinton Administration as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the Department of Education. Judy then served as the World Bank's first Adviser on Disability and Development from 2002 to 2006. In this position, she led the World Bank's disability work to expand its knowledge and capability to work with governments and civil society on including disability in the global conversation. During his presidency, President Obama appointed Judy as the first Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State, where she served from 2010-2017. Mayor Fenty of D.C. appointed her as the first Director for the Department on Disability Services, where she was responsible for the Developmental Disability Administration and the Rehabilitation Services Administration.

Lauren McCall, composer and librettist

Lauren is a composer and educator from Atlanta, Georgia. She studies music technology at the Georgia Institute and is an alumni of the Vermont College of Fine Arts where she studied music composition. Lauren is an active music educator developing curriculum for the websites EarSketch and TunePad through her graduate research assistantship at Georgia Tech.

Lauren has had compositions performed around North America and in Europe. This includes her piece for piano, Shake the Earth, which was performed in Morehead, Kentucky at Morehead State University’s Contemporary Piano Festival, along with being performed in Eugene, Oregon at the Oregon Bach Festival Composers’ Symposium. Her arrangement of the spiritual I’m Troubled was performed in Lakeland, Florida at Florida Southern College for the Grady Rayam Prize in Sacred Music, and her graphic score composition The Fish Wife was performed in Montreal, Canada by the ensemble Amis Orgue Montreal. Along with composing Lauren also enjoys playing classical music and jazz on the clarinet and piano, spending time with family and friends, and traveling.

Jason Cady, composer

Jason Cady is a composer and librettist. He performs on pedal steel guitar and modular synthesizer. Pitchfork called him a “mod-synth mastermind…funny and engaging.” Anthony Tommasini, in the New York Times, described his video opera, I Screwed Up the Future, as “charming fantasy...drably comic and spacey.” Opera News described his opera I Need Space as “delightfully weird...hilarious, dry and detached performances made this futuristic, retro story of love and rejection endearingly poignant.” His recent opera, Candy Corn, was called “hilarious” by The Wire Magazine, and “radically enjoyable” by I Care If You Listen.

Cady’s CDs have been released on Lockstep Records and Peacock Recordings, and his podcast opera, Buick City, 1:00 AM is available on Apple Podcasts. The Brooklyn Arts Council, New Music USA, free103point9, The Casement Fund, Lighton International Artists Exchange, and the American Music Center have funded his projects. His music has been performed at Roulette, Issue Project Room, The Stone, (le) Poisson Rouge, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, Abrons Art Center, Anthology Film Archives, CBGB’s, Tonic and many other venues in New York City and throughout the US. He has lectured on his music at New York University, New School University, Wesleyan University and Arizona State University. He has been interviewed on WBEZ, WNYC, WKCR, WPIR, KMFA and East Village Radio. NPR featured him in “The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40.” The University of Michigan Press published his essay on Earle Brown in “Beyond Notation: the Music of Earle Brown.”

Cady founded Experiments in Opera with Aaron Siegel and Matthew Welch. He is the Co-Artistic Director with Kamala Sankaram. Experiments in Opera has presented the music of 55 composers, including Robert Ashley, Pauline Oliveros, John Zorn, Joan La Barbara, Jessica Pavone, Roddy Bottom, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Phil Kline. He also performs in the JCC Trio with Dan Joseph and Tom Chiu.

Cady has an M.A. in composition from Wesleyan University, where he studied with Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance from Arizona State University, where he studied composition with Richard Lerman, Harold Budd, and Daniel Lentz. He was born in Flint, Michigan and now lives in New York City. He is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, text author

Alexandria was born in The Bronx to working class parents: her father was a small business owner and architect from the South Bronx, and her mother cleaned homes after moving to New York from Arecibo, Puerto Rico. As school violence and dropout rates in The Bronx rose in the early 90’s, her parents put their savings together and purchased a modest home 30 miles north of the city in search of better schools for the family. As a result, much of Alexandria’s adolescence was spent in transit between her tight-knit extended family in The Bronx and school in Yorktown Heights. It struck Alexandria as unfair, even then, how the opportunities available to children and their families were often based on their ZIP code.

Alexandria went on to study Economics and International Relations at Boston University. At the start of her sophomore year, Alexandria's father passed away suddenly from cancer at just 48 years old. Facing huge medical bills, the family risked foreclosure and her mother took another job driving a school bus. The unjust medical debt left a lasting impression on Alexandria, and she sought out an internship in the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s office. Upon graduating college, Alexandria came back to The Bronx and pursued work in education and community organizing: as an Educational Director for the National Hispanic Institute, she worked with promising high school youth to expand their skill-sets in community leadership and social enterprise; she also piloted projects to help improve literacy skills in young children and middle-schoolers. But as the economy floundered, Alexandria found herself working two jobs and 18-hour shifts in restaurants to help keep her family afloat, while balancing student loan and insurance payments.

After Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, Alexandria joined many Americans who felt a strong calling to do more in civic life. That December, she traveled to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota where indigenous people were demonstrating against a dangerous gas pipeline. Alexandria was inspired by the experience and, shortly thereafter, decided to run for Congress. Despite being a political longshot – she received no major endorsements and was outspent nearly 10 to 1 by her opponent – Alexandria won her primary challenge on June 26, 2018, and went on to win the election, becoming the first woman of color to represent NY-14, and the youngest woman in history to serve in Congress.

Özden Gülsün, composer

Born in 1983 in Izmir, Özden Gülsün started her music education in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory as a violin student under Prof. Gönül Gökdoğan. She continued her violin education in Dokuz Eylül University State Conservatory under Prof. Attila Işıksun and Teaching Assistant Şebnem Edgü. In 2004, she was admitted to the Composition and Conductor Department of DEÜ State Conservatory and started studying under Prof. İstemihan Tavioğlu. In 2009, she was admitted to the post-graduate program of the same department and started teaching solfege and music theory the same year. She studied under Prof. Jean Baily, Ass. Prof. Ebru Güner Canbey, Ass. Prof. Onur Nurcan, and Teaching Assistant Mehmet Aktuğ throughout her education. In 2013, she started working as a research assistant in the Music Department of Trakya University State Conservatory. She completed her post-graduate studies with her thesis titled Examination of Atonal, Serial, and Minimal Styles and their Explanation through Select Examples at TÜ Institute of Social Sciences with Prof. Ahmet Hamdi Zafer ve Ass. Prof. Ebru Güner Canbey as her thesis advisors and she continues her doctorate education at the same institution.

She attended to masterclasses of Mark Mellits, Michael Ellison, Kamran İnce, Dimitris Andrikopoulos, Jan Feddersen Stathis Gyftathis, and Richardo Valligni during her composition studies. Her works have been played in various chamber concerts. Her orchestral work titles Ütopya (2009) was played by DEÜ State Conservatory Student Orchestra at Izmir Sabancı Art Center. In 2010, she participated in the “Mehmet Aktuğ Commemoration Concert” hosted by Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center with her work titled Yalnızlık (2010). In 2011, she attended to the “Klasik Keyifler Chamber Music Festival” masterclass and her work Kırık Ayna (2010) was played during the “Composers’ Cauldron” concert at KMYO Ottoman Madrasah, Cappadocia. In 2012, her work titles Kaleidoscope (2012) was played by Prof. Şeniz Duru Koevoets, Prof. Ümit İşgörür, and Yonca Alpay as part of the fifth “Journey of the Sound, Young Composers Festival” at İTÜ MİAM – Maçka Campus, Mustafa Kemal Amphiteater. In 2016, she attended to the concert performed as part of the “6th Synthermia International Music Festival” hosted in Thermi Municipality Conservatory Concert Hall in Thessaloniki, Greece with her work titled Hystheria (2016).

In November 2020, she was selected as one of the composers to attend to “Deterritorializing the Realm of New Music” Call for West Asian Composers Commissions” hosted by Canadian Music Center. The work she has composed for the “Deterritorializing the Realm of New Music” Call for West Asian Composers” Project will be played by Anoush Moazzeni (pianist) in Canada in 2021.

Didem Gülçin Erdem, librettist

Didem Gülçin Erdem was born in Malatya-Turkey in 1989 and studied Turkish Language and Literature at Beykent University in Istanbul-Turkey. Erdem received her Master’s degree from Pamukkale University, Department of Turkish Language and Literature. With a focus on Folklore, her thesis is titled “Madmen and Madness in Denizli Folk Culture.” Didem completed her doctorate in Turkish Language and Literature with her thesis titled “Alevi-Bektashi Gulbanks – A Context- Centered Approach.” Her poetry and articles have been published in various magazines since 2004. She works at Pamukkale University, Department of Turkish Language and Literature. Published works include Perdesiz, Yasakmeyve, 2010; Olmayanım İçinizde, Everest, 2012; Boşluklara Doğru İlerleyelim, Edebi Şeyler, 2019.

Myron Silberstein, composer

Myron Silberstein is a Chicago-based composer and pianist whose writing falls within the tradition of the overlooked composers whose works he has premiered and recorded. Vittorio Giannini, Ernest Bloch, Nicolas Flagello, and Thomas Pasatieri are among Myron’s greatest influences, and he embraces the unabashed emotionalism, melodic and harmonic warmth, and structural rigor of these composers. Myron’s output includes a large number of songs, works for solo piano, and duo-sonatas. He particularly enjoys collaborating with living poets. His recordings can be found on Naxos, Centaur, and Connoisseur Society. Mark Lehman of the American Record Guide lauded Myron’s recording of sonatas by Peter Mennin and Norman Lloyd as “An indispensable addition to the discography of American music.” A recording of Myron’s first two piano sonatas and unpublished piano pieces and songs by Vittorio Giannini is currently in postproduction.