On a family vacation to Hawaii last August, Theresa Wong witnessed some of the worst that nature can dish out, and some of the best that humans can do in responding to adversity.
The Berkeley cellist, vocalist and composer had just arrived on Maui when Hurricane Dora slammed into the island, knocking out power to the hotel. It wasn’t long before smoke appeared on the horizon, but with limited access to the news it was days before Wong started hearing details about the destruction of Lahaina.
“Night into Dawn,” her newly commissioned work as composer-in-residence for Palo Alto’s Peninsula Women’s Chorus, reflects on the disaster and the way that the people around her rallied to support each other. Dedicated to the community of Lahaina, the improvisation-laced work is the centerpiece of the PWC’s spring season, which takes place May 4 at Mission Santa Clara and May 5 at Mission Dolores in San Francisco.
The challenging score explores new ground for both Wong and the PWC, requiring the singers to make decisions at various points in the piece. It’s a strategy inspired by “how communities work together in a time of crisis, when people are bonding together in shelters and makeshift tents, or sharing food,” Wong said.
“There are all these different dynamics. Some have to lead and some have to follow. You have to improvise and come up with solutions on the spot. All of this is really interesting to me as a composer. This is what we do as musicians. Some people lead and some people follow. You improvise.”
“Night into Dawn” is part of an expansive program that also features the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus. Both ensembles perform separate sets and then come together for Giacomo Puccini’s “Messa di Gloria,” a masterly Mass written when he was 22, just before turning his full attention to opera.
The PWC’s solo set places Wong’s premiere in the midst of a program focusing on works by women, including an arrangement of the Baptist hymn “How Can I Keep from Singing” by Alice Parker, the prolific Massachusetts arranger and composer who died in December at the age of 98.
“She was an incredible woman I had a chance to meet personally,” said PWC Artistic Director Anne K. Hege. “That song feels like a commitment to hope, and with ‘Negra Sum,’ a setting from the ‘Song of Solomon,’ both of them speak to Theresa’s piece, speak to this idea of hope that needs to be held and nurtured and committed to.”
A restlessly creative musician who has collaborated with some of the most intrepid artists of the era, from guitarist Fred Frith and postmodern dance pioneer Anna Halprin to pianist Sarah Cahill and violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt, Wong has become a sought-after composer by vocal ensembles. She’s also created works for San Francisco Girls Chorus, Vajra Voices, and Long Beach Opera, and Hege sought her out because she knew Wong would take the chorus on a singular journey.
“One thing she does in this piece is create this feeling of crackling with the reiteration of the word ‘stay,’” Hege said. “By holding staccato chords there’s a patterning of sound like snapping twigs. It captures heat in an environmental sonic way that’s amazing. I haven’t heard anything like it.”
Under Hege’s direction the PWC has collaborated with adventurous composers like Julie Herndon. Working with Wong, the chorus played an active role in the creation of “Night into Dawn” via three lengthy workshops where the composer guided the vocalists through various improvisational structures “and kind of created a form for that material,” Hege said.
“She created a mock-up so we could see the score, which is fairly graphic. There are some fully composed sections that interweave, while the chorus is making a lot of decisions, mostly based on timing. It’s something we’ve never done before, and it’s incredibly exciting.”
Wong is in her second and concluding season working with the PWC (last year the chorus performed her work “To Burst to Bloom”), but the relationship is set to continue. Last month Wong was awarded a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship and she’s working on a multimedia opera for the PWC’s chamber ensemble Radiance.
Wong’s plan is to expand on her concept of “installed songs,” which places her music in a specific physical space “with a sculpture where the performer is embedded somehow,” she said. “The theme is the multiple identities we all have inside that are marginalized, hidden or morphed in order to fit in.”
Wherever it manifests, Wong’s music is guaranteed to stand out.
Contract Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
PENINSULA WOMEN’S CHORUS
Presents Theresa Wong’s “Night into Dawn”
When & where: 8 p.m. May 4, Mission Santa Clara, Santa Clara 4 p.m. May 5; Mission Dolores Basilica, San Francisco.
Tickets: $30-$50; pwchorus.org
