By Sara Atencio- Gonzales, The Paper – On a weekend later this month, singers and musicians from across New Mexico will gather for a collaborative performance celebrating the power of music and community. Voices of Our Community, presented by the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus (NMGMC), will bring together five ensembles for a concert of choral and orchestral works.
The performances take place Saturday, March 28 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe and Sunday, March 29 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. The program features music by two-time Grammy Award-winning composer Christopher Tin along with An Earth Song by composer Marques Garrett.
For artistic director Aaron Howe, the project builds on earlier collaborations that brought Tin’s music to New Mexico audiences. Howe has spent more than a decade directing the NMGMC and previously directed the Zia Singers in Santa Fe. During that time the two groups joined forces to perform large-scale works by Tin.
“It’s kind of a continuation of something that we’ve actually done twice before,” says Howe. “We have done two other major works by Christopher Tin: The Drop That Contained the Sea and To Shiver the Sky.”
Those earlier performances left a lasting impression on Howe and the performers involved. “It was such a positive experience for everybody that I wanted to do it at least one more time,” says Howe.
This time the vision expanded beyond a single partnership. Howe began reaching out to other organizations across Albuquerque to see if they would be interested in joining the project. “I decided, let’s just make this a really big community event and ask some other choruses here in Albuquerque if they’d like to participate,” says Howe.
The result is a collaborative concert featuring the NMGMC alongside the Albuquerque Civic Chorus, the New Mexico Peace Choir, the New Mexico Women’s Chorus and the Albuquerque Philharmonic Orchestra. Each ensemble brings its own musical identity and mission, but for this performance they will share the same stage.
For Howe, the collaboration highlights the interconnected nature of Albuquerque’s arts community.
“I feel like all these groups kind of do their own thing in isolation,” says Howe. “And that’s really good, because everybody has their own mission. Everybody has their own ideas of what they want to sing about or play. But occasionally it’s really good to remind each other how much we are all part of the same ecosystem.”
The concert centers on Tin’s music, which blends classical traditions with global musical influences. His compositions often incorporate multiple languages and draw from poetry and cultural traditions from around the world.
Howe explains that Tin’s style helps connect modern audiences to classical music. “Of all the composers out there, he seems to really be able to bridge that gap between classical and something more modern and relevant,” says Howe.
Tin first gained widespread attention through his work composing music for video games, including Civilization IV and Civilization VI. Those projects introduced his music to audiences far beyond the typical classical music crowd.
“Gamers know him from his music for video games,” says Howe. “But he has such a wide appeal. People really are very interested in him that don’t actually follow classical music at all.”
That accessibility is part of what makes Tin’s music appealing to both performers and audiences. His compositions frequently include texts in a wide range of languages including Japanese, Chinese, Sanskrit and Farsi, along with several European languages.
Howe believes that diversity can create a sense of shared humanity, even when listeners do not understand every word being sung.
“For me, what I want the audience to do is to broaden their sense of what music is and what the world has to offer,” says Howe.
For the Albuquerque Philharmonic Orchestra, the concert also provides an opportunity to perform repertoire that is not part of their typical programming.
“It’s really a rare pleasure for us, because we rarely get to work with choirs as an orchestra,” says Jason Parris, board president of the Albuquerque Philharmonic Orchestra. “For us it’s a fun opportunity to play some repertoire that we normally don’t get to.”
Parris says the orchestra has collaborated with Howe before and is always eager to work with him again. “He’s such an inspiration and someone who really creates wonderful musical opportunities in the Albuquerque area,” says Parris.
Tin’s music is also personally meaningful for Parris. He previously performed one of Tin’s major works with Howe and said the experience was among the most memorable of his career.
“I really liked Christopher Tin’s music,” says Parris. “I participated in a collaboration with Aaron before where we did To Shiver the Sky. That was one of the most meaningful and fun performances I’ve participated in in the last decade.”
For audiences attending Voices of Our Community, Parris hopes the music creates a similar sense of excitement and discovery. “Christopher Tin’s music is not your standard classical music,” says Parris. “It’s a little bit more accessible to a broad range of audiences.”
(Coutesy NM Gay Men’s Chorus)
Because of that accessibility, Parris believes the concert could introduce new listeners to orchestral and choral music. “He’s one of the composers who bring a new audience to classical music,” says Parris. “I just hope they take away the joy of his music. It’s full of different influences, different cultures, and it’s always super fun.”
Preparing a performance of this scale requires coordination between the participating ensembles. Each group rehearses its own music before coming together for combined rehearsals closer to the concert date.
Howe says watching the different pieces gradually come together has been one of the most rewarding aspects of the process. “I know what the women over here sound like, and I know what the instruments over here sound like,” says Howe. “I know what the men sound like over here, but none of them know what each other sounds like.”
When all the ensembles finally perform together, Howe hopes the experience will create a sense of connection among the musicians and the audience. “I want people to smile and to feel invigorated,” says Howe. “I want people to feel those kinds of goosebumps of performance, of a wonderful new experience.”
Voices of Our Community will be performed Saturday, March 28 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe and Sunday, March 29 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Tickets range from $20 to $75 and can be purchased through the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus website at NMGMC.org, where audiences can also find more information about the chorus and its current concert season.