new works
SATB Chorus, String Quartet & Piano
text: Lynn Ungar | 11'
Lynn Ungar’s text for "A Seed Marks Time" initially appears to be about nature, contemplating how seeds mark time underground. But near the end of this poem, we find ourselves reflected in this blend of hurry and waiting. Are we simply counting minutes until it’s time for the next task on our to-do list, or are we consciously noticing the beauty around us? The final line leaves us with a sung meditation that turns into a whisper: “Now this. Now this. Now this.”
SA, TB, or SAB chorus & vibraphone (or piano)
text: Dale Trumbore | 3'
This luminous lullaby narrates the experience of watching sea turtles hatch, guiding the listener through darkness with tender repetition and quiet resolve. Its imagery embeds real aspects of a baby sea turtle's journey—the struggle to find the light of the moon and walk toward the sea—in a larger metaphor about finding the right path.
SATB or TTBB Chorus & Piano
text: Dale Trumbore | 4'
This piece imagines the sound of a piano being tuned turning into an unintentional song. The chorus spins those sounds of tuning into melodies, bending pitches and using the tuning as a metaphor for their own personal transformation.
SSAA Chorus & Piano
text: Dale Trumbore | 5'
"How to Fall in Love With Yourself" was commissioned and premiered by the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS) National Girls Choir, Christopher Bell, Artistic Director. The U.S. premiere of this work was given by Bel Canto (Azusa Pacific University), conducted by Brandon Di Noto.
SATB Chorus, Harp, Cello & Piano
text: Dale Trumbore | 7'
This piece reflects on memory, loss, and intergenerational longing through vivid coastal imagery and layered emotional landscapes. With music that mirrors the ebb and flow of tides, it evokes the act of returning—both physically and emotionally—to a place where the past resurfaces with haunting clarity.
SATB Chorus A cappella
text: Dale Trumbore | 4'
The lyrics for this piece were inspired by the singers of South Albany High School UnitedHarmony’s reflections on the ways they work through challenges to find joy and meaning. Ultimately, this is a piece about the relationships and bonds that can form when we sing together, as well as the way those bonds can hold, years later, when we don’t get to see each other as often.
SSAA Chorus & Piano
text: Erica Reid | 6'
Erica Reid’s poem “Part of Me Hurtling Toward” uses a poetic form invented by Kat Lehmann. In Lehmann’s “sudo-ku” form, a 5 x 5 grid creates haiku both horizontally and vertically. Setting these poems to music presents a challenge: How should a composer represent the 10 possible ways to read such a poem, as well as their fractured nature?
SSAATBB Chorus a cappella
text: Dale Trumbore | 10'
Our relationship to the night sky evolves over a lifetime. As children, we may look to the sky as a symbol of something lasting and certain. As we grow older, the stars represent something much more complex: a reminder of how small we are, how insignificant, compared to the vast universe beyond our planet.
SATB chorus & piano
text: Diane Thiel | 8'
Diane Thiel’s text for Learning to Breathe describes a significant difference between swimming underwater and scuba diving. In the latter, holding one’s breath is not only discouraged, but can actually be harmful to one’s lungs because of pressure changes. This piece offers a metaphor for how to live when everything we know is changing.
SATB chorus, mezzo-soprano soloist & audience
text: Barbara Crooker | 75'
A Calendar of Light is a twenty-four movement, concert-length work. With a libretto by poet Barbara Crooker, this new piece explores how our relationship to change is mirrored in our relationship to the changing seasons. These range from small changes, like our personal triumphs and artistic failures, to the urgent and wide-ranging consequences of climate change. This piece calls for reflection and action in recurring refrains and six call-and-response movements that invite the audience to join in singing.
