Event Details: Celebrating the Centenary

This second cameo program salutes the 2012 centennial of New Mexico’s statehood. World premieres of three new works, commissioned from composers who represent the state’s three principal ethnicities, anchor the program. A work by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, depicts a child falling asleep to a Pueblo lullaby. As the child dreams, it experiences echoes of Pueblo Buffalo, Sunflower and Eagle dances, and it awakes to the original lullaby, intertwined with a Sunrise Song.

Cristian Grases, a native of Venezuela, and now on the faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, has set Three Women Walking, based on the dramatic poem, Cundiyo, by New Mexico writer Alice Corbin.

Desert Chorale Composer-in-Residence Robert Kyr’s contribution is Land of Enchantment, a setting of excerpts from four poems by D. H. Lawrence, written while he was living in Taos, along with original text by the composer.

Native American flutist Ronald Roybal joins the program, which also will include music from New Spain; contemporary works by New Mexican composers, including John Michael Luther’s Song of Blue Water, a tribute to the beloved Tewa linguist and storyteller, Esther Martinez; and new arrangements of popular New Mexican songs.

Pre-concert lecture one hour before each performance.