Camerata d’Amici will present its next choral concert, “The Road Home,” on Sunday, May 18, at 4 p.m. at South Salem Presbyterian Church, 111 Spring St., South Salem, NY. Dr. Kristin Sponheim will conduct the ensemble of singers from Fairfield and Westchester counties in a concert featuring a wide range of selections that focus on “home” in its various meanings.
Sunday’s concert opens with works that reflect on the sense of “home” many find in the natural world. Joan Szymko’s The Peace of Wild Things beautifully sets the words of poet Wendell Berry in an inspiring depiction of the power of the natural world to calm our despair and impart a sense of centeredness. The piece concludes with the words “For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free,” set by the composer with hushed unison singing. The first half concludes with a powerful setting by Gwyneth Walker of E. E Cummings’ poem I Thank You God For Most This Amazing Day. Walker builds the piece to a triumphant conclusion, describing it as “a thank you to God for creating this world, and for giving us the faith to overcome any obstacles.”
The second half of Sunday’s concert turns to pieces that portray the search for “home” as one journeys through life, and the wistfulness one feels when one is absent from it. This yearning is at the core of the familiar American folk song Shenandoah, sung by the men of the choir in a new arrangement by Kevin Memley, accompanied by pianist Margarita Nuller. This theme is continued in the contemporary composition Long Time Traveling, written by Minnesota composer Abbie Betinis. Betinis uses early-American hymn melodies as the basis of her work as she portrays the soul-weary traveler seeking a better land. The program also includes solos from Ridgefielders Thomas Carr, Michael Forbes, and Juliet Pratt. Sunday’s concert concludes with the uplifting South African song Tshotsholoza (meaning literally “Go Forward”), accompanied by percussionist Jon Churchill. The infectious rhythms of this piece embody the “forward motion” of hope and optimism.
