Being Me

By Maggie Symington

Concentus first received this piece, a poem by Joshua Everett set to music by Joanna Gill, last spring, in anticipation of our joint concert with Vox Anima in Kent, England. I didn’t really focus on the lyrics as I was learning the piece, and the music wasn’t particularly intricate – no annoying time or key signature changes, no quirky intervals, no foreign language to wrestle with. So I spent much more time learning another piece we were singing jointly with the British choir, which was much more difficult, and very intense (we will be presenting this piece in Spring 2024, so more about that another time…). However, at the beginning of our first rehearsal together, James Meaders, the Vox Anima conductor, shared some of the background of this piece, and all of the singers were either in tears or at least choked up. When we finally found our voices again, James guided us through the work and added layers of dynamics and tempo changes that gave it an incredible sense of urgency, and an intensity that I hadn’t thought possible.

So many times, it takes a reading aloud of a poem to experience the emotional weight of it. Think of Amanda Gorman’s reading of her poem “The Hill We Climb.” Then overlay that with music, which has the power to affect our mood, and this seemingly simple piece, “Being Me,” becomes rich with complexity, nuance, and gravity. We were honored to perform the piece for the composer in July, and we all returned home knowing that one performance was not enough. I am glad that our conductor, Anna Atwater, has put this piece on our December concerts, so our Rochester audiences will have the privilege of experiencing it for themselves. The rest of the program will be great, too, but this is the piece that will stick with you. You don’t want to miss it.

To hear “Being Me” and the other pieces we’ve been working on, join us on Friday 12/1 at 7pm (First Presbyterian Church of Pittsford) and Sunday 12/3 at 3pm (The Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word). More concert details (and tickets!) available here.