Crossing Frontiers
Conductor’s Note

For the past decade, The Cecilia Chorus of New York has been proudly in the vanguard of musical organizations showcasing the talents of composers outside the mainstream (or about to enter it). We are thrilled to be presenting the world premiere of the full orchestral version of Neither Separated, Nor Undone, a transcendently happy work we commissioned during the pandemic’s darkest hours from California-based composer Derrick Skye.

Skye’s artistic practice is a music-making without borders. His approach is, in my experience, unique: exceptional in its sincerity and authenticity. It is not so much that Skye is aware of borders (though he is) and making a willed choice to cross or dismantle them. It is rather that, as a by-product of his innate broadmindedness, magnanimity of spirit, talent, and all-embracing ear, other people’s “borders” do not have any psychic reality for him. Since they have no existence, are invisible, there is nothing to cross or dismantle. He simply loves the world, all of it; it sings and dances to him from every corner.

Accordingly, there is no trace of self-consciousness or artificiality in what we might otherwise characterize as a stylistic fusion. His pan-language is his natural language: who he truly is. He communicates multiply all at once, and the result is sublimely inspiring. Neither Separated, Nor Undone, for which he also wrote the words, joyfully interweaves meters, rhythms, harmonies and textures from Balkan, Hindustani, Persian, West African and Western European musical practices. It makes for as generous, optimistic, and irresistible a musical half hour as you could want to spend.

Derrick and I had many a Zoom while he was writing this work. You who read this note will probably nod in rueful agreement when I say that, as grateful as I was for Zoom, I grew heartily sick of it. And yet: I found myself looking forward to my Zooms with Derrick, and when they were over, I invariably felt lifted up. Derrick’s sensibility and presence are such that you feel better after sharing time with him, than you did before. When you hear his music, you’ll understand.

Also on our program: the first-ever Carnegie Hall performance of a choral-orchestral work by Mozart’s four-hand piano duet partner Marianna von Martines, a world-class composer in her own right. Plus music by Mozart, and a folk song cycle by Béla Bartók.

–Mark Shapiro