Title: We Can Sing!
Instrumentation: String Orchestra, Grade 1.5
Duration: 2 minutes
Written In: 2022
Premiered by:
Hawaii Youth Symphony, Intermediate String Ensemble, Chad Uyehara, Conductor, Honolulu, HI, 2022
Commissioned by the National Orchestral Institute + Festival’s K12 New Music Project, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, in partnership with the American Composers Alliance
Purchase: Score+parts available at American Composers Alliance
Learn More: K12 New Music Project
Program Note:
This piece is an anthem—a claiming of identity and personhood and shouting it out loud for the world to hear. When writing, I kept imagining these words:
We can sing
On our own.
We can sing
Altogether.
Raise your voice,
Shout out loud
Let the world
Know we’re here.
To young students everywhere, especially those who have not previously seen themselves reflected in the repertoire, you have a gift. You have a superpower that no one else has. Use it. Let it shine. And be who you can be.