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Premiere performances March 18-20 2022 in Scottsdale, Phoenix & Paradise Valley.
Commissioned for the Chorale's cancelled Spring 2020 series, this new piece by Arizona-based composer Kira Zeeman Rugen depicts the namesake bird of the City of Phoenix and its powerful metaphor for renewal.
Set to original text commisioned by the composer from Phoenix's first poet laureate Rosemarie Dombrowski, 'Out of the Ash' fuses the imagery of the familiar Phoenix bird myth itself but also incorporates elements from similar stories in Chinese and Native American culture, such as the transformation of the bird from male to female.
The final verse is a powerful incantation of our collective yearning for new possibilities after adversity:
"We are the bird that sails between the worlds.
Renew us, make us anew.
We are swallowed and purged by storms.
Renew us, make us anew.
We are birthed again in the river of salt.
Renew us, make us anew.
The mighty Phoenix rising from the ash."
The piece will be performed in the Chorale's re:BIRTH program, featuring Copland's 'In the Beginning', with works by Hassler, Hawley, Koppin, Mendelssohn, Mvula and Vaughan Williams.
For concert info: www.phoenixchorale.org