Home in Me (Choral Score)

c.24 min

World Premiere (I. Body)

February 16, 2020
Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
Consortium of Treble Choirs
Dr. Sandra Snow, Director

World Premiere (Complete)

November 6, 2022
First Congregation Church of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Vox Femina
Iris Levine, Music Director

Commissioned by a consortium of treble choirs With support from National Concerts (Matthew Workman, director) World premiere performance presented and sponsored by National Concerts PARTICIPATING CHOIRS Radford University Singers, Dr. Meredith Bowen, director mirabai and Mosaic Ensemble, Dr. Sandra Snow, director Texas Tech University Women's Chorale, Dr. Carolyn Cruse, director Rutgers Voorhees Choir, Dr. Brandon Williams, director The Women’s Chorus of Dallas, Melinda Imthurn, director VOX Femina Los Angeles, Dr. Iris S. Levine, director Aurelia, Dr. Stuart Chapman Hill, director Advanced Treble Ensemble, Dr. Nana Wolfe-Hill, director Georgia State University Women's Chorus, Dr. Jennifer Sengin, director Voices Rising - Boston, Leora Zimmer, director eVoco Voice Collective Treble Ensemble, Dr. David Fryling, director MSU Community Music School Children & Youth Choirs, Alison Geesey-Lagan, director Carling Fitzsimmons, La Caccina Home in Me was supported in part by a Diverse Voices Collaborative Grant from The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).

treble choir, 2 percussion, piano

Sienna Craig : Home in Me

I. Body
II. Speech
III. Heart-Mind

Home in Me was commissioned by a consortium of treble choirs with support from National Concerts. Home in Me (I. Body) was given its World Premiere at Carnegie Hall in NYC on February 16, 2020 by a consortium of treble choirs under the direction of Dr. Sandra Snow. The concert was presented and sponsored by National Concerts, Matthew Workman, director.

Home in Me is inspired by beautiful, poignant poetry by Dr. Sienna Craig that she created specifically for this piece. The three parts explore “what is home” in body/place, speech and heart/mind respectively. In 2008, Sienna and Andrea trekked to a remote region of the Nepalese Himalaya where Andrea researched and helped document Tibetan folk music and Sienna continued her work in Tibetan medicine. The experience led to an interest in migration, diaspora and questions about the nature of home. The first movement, “Body”, invites selected choir members to play stones that they gather from places that they call home. The work is a journey, moving through different musical spaces, and is essentially about cultivating home within ourselves. The second movement, “Speech” is about struggling to communicate and understanding and breaking through that struggle. The third movement, “Heart-Mind” addresses our humanness, how both heart and mind must go hand in hand despite the challenges we face. The piece also offers the perspective that we are more than just individual beings, and points to the larger world space contained in us, and our humble place in the universe.

— Andrea Clearfield