The Zia Singers, Santa Fe’s women’s chorus, is bringing a new performance to the stage next weekend. The work of Norwegian composer, Kim André Arnesen, Tuvayhun is a piece that has never been performed in New Mexico.
KUNM spoke with Andre Howe, the artistic director for the Zia Singers about why Arnesen’s work resonates so well for this moment.
AARON HOWE: Well, he's a modern composer rather young in his early 40s. But he's really hit his stride in the last 10 years writing music that is just so compelling for choirs. He's very popular. He has a couple of larger works that he has done and one of them was called Magnificat and a lot of the pieces from that Magnificat are performed separately, but I was just entranced by the whole piece. And so back in 2022, the Zia singers performed Magnificat. It's a traditional Latin text, we just were in love with the way he set them. The melodies were so interesting and memorable. And the harmonies just felt so good and emotional. But in my search, I also came across this other piece called Tuvayhun, which is based on the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. And it was even more compelling.
KUNM: What is your thought process when selecting the pieces that will be in your concerts like this one?
HOWE: The Zia singers, I've been working with them, this is my ninth year with them. And ever since I started, I think I probably had something in my mind that I wanted to do pieces that were meaningful to community but also to women, also that they felt empowered, excited. But also I felt like I wanted to make some social statements. Now it's not that I only choose music that's like that. But it has to give me that feeling as though that it's doing some good in the world. Having this music performed inspires people to be better people. That's what the music of Tuvayhun does. The lyrics are very timely as we live in a time of violence and war and hunger. It especially addresses the issues that are in front of us.
KUNM: Why did you choose to do this piece now?
HOWE: Well, actually, I didn't really choose to do it with the current political situation. And this was about a year ago that I decided I wanted to do this. It wasn't with the events of this past fall in mind. But as we began rehearsing, and as the events of the fall unfolded, I realized it was timely to be able to sing this music. And perhaps this kind of music would be timely at any time, because we're always facing different times of conflict. And there are people in the world that definitely are needing attention in terms of uplifting their situation and fixing the problems that we have.
KUNM: Why is it important to be performing it now?
HOWE: So I'm gonna read a little bit from one of the pieces “Blessed are the peacemakers” was the beatitude that’s spoken and then the poem that went along with that was called “What Is Peace.” And this is just the last little paragraph from that particular poem. It says, “Peace is not a foregone fate for peace, like war must be waged mindfully, deliberately, with arms ever ready and eyes wide open”. And it just says to me that whenever we want to do some sort of good in the world, we can't assume that we can just will it into action by wanting it, we have to work very hard. And the peace process in any situation is very difficult. And it's never just, you know, we all hugged and sing, it really is something we have to work at. We have to constantly be waging peace for the rest of our lives. And so I just felt like this speaks to all of our struggles in our particular life, that we can't just want things to be better, we have to find ways to actually do it.
KUNM: What message will this performance offer?
HOWE: We as Zia Singers, we like to do music that has a community impact beyond just the text. We want people to be inspired by this concert beyond just loving the music and thinking the words are great. So we went around in Santa Fe and asked different organizations that want to contribute to positive social change, like for homelessness, for immigration, and other things like that. And we collected kind of a pamphlet that shows what each of these organizations does, and we're putting it in our program. So we can say at the end of the concert, hey, if you were moved by this music and you want to make some positive change in your community, here's some organizations who are already doing it. You can contribute to them, you can join them. We are one big community trying to just make the world a better place.
The Zia Singers will be performing at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe at 3pm on January 27 and 28. They will then be bringing their show to Albuquerque February 4 at Central United Methodist church at 3pm.
