Amasong to present spring celebration twice this weekend

CHAMPAIGN – Amasong, Champaign-Urbana's premier lesbian/feminist chorus, will present its spring concert, "Renewal," at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at McKinley Presbyterian Church, 809 S. Fifth St., C.

To celebrate nature and spring, Amasong will weave together music from five continents to tell the story of humanity's connection to the Earth. The songs are by indigenous peoples of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil and the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. Also, the chorus will perform a women's ritual weather song from the Republic of Georgia.

The program also will feature songs by 19th-century composer Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and by contemporary composers Nancy Telfer, a Canadian, and Marjan Helms, of Michigan, and settings of an e.e. cummings poem by Amasong director Meagan Johnson Smith and former Amasong director Margot Rejskind.

Also on the program: a piece by Champaign percussionist Rocky Maffit, who with Rachel Jensen will be guest performers on the piece.

"The focus is three-fold, about the rebirth of the Earth every year in the spring, the renewal that humans experience in becoming close to nature, and the need to renew the Earth from the damage that humans have caused," Smith said by e-mail.

Many cultures in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Europe, celebrate May 1 as the beginning of summer, she said. Likewise, Amasong will celebrate the season by singing "In May, That Lusty Season," a Renaissance round from England, and "Im Wunderschonen Monat Mai ("In the Marvelous Month of May")," by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, composer Felix Mendelssohn's sister.

Amasong also will perform Hensel's "Wandl'ich in dem Wald des Abends ("Wandering in the Evening Woods"), about a person experiencing and connecting her grief to the natural environment.

That will be followed by "The Peace of Wild Things," with text by Wendell Berry and music by Szymko. "The theme of this piece is the peace that comes from leaving our busy, human grief behind when we 'rest in the grace of the world,'" Smith said.

The second half of the program will focus on humans taking a more active role in the natural world – for better and for worse, she said.

"Tres Cantos Nativos," based on songs of the indigenous Krao people of Brazil, evokes an ideal situation: humans interacting with the creatures and plants of the rainforest in a nondestructive way, she said.

That will be followed by "The Blue Eye of God' by Telfer, a Canadian composer. In it, the animals of the waters confront humanity with the devastation caused through thoughtlessness and disregard for the health of the environment.

Amasong will then perform "Gonja," the women's ritual weather song from the Republic of Georgia. It is about people working to change the weather – in a broad sense, to turn a bad situation into a good one. That will be followed by the popular Kore Chant by Anna Dembska, which acknowledges the immense power of nature.

The performance of Smith's setting of e.e. cummings' beloved poem "I Thank You God for Most This Amazing Day" will mark its world premiere.

Amasong also will offer a repeat performance of "Sapphire," which Amasong commissioned from Helms last fall. The Maffit song in the program will be "Gathering Song," written by him for his 1998 book/CD 'Rhythm & Beauty: The Art of Percussion.'"

The suggested donation to the Amasong concert is $10 to $20. The concert is partly supported by grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Community Foundation of East Central Illinois. For information about Amasong, visit online www.amasong.org.

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