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Artistic Director Scott MacPherson conducts the Cleveland Chamber Choir in a world premiere performance of “On the Air (Dear Vaccine)” by Cecilia McDowall(b. 1951). Text freely adapted by Seàn Street (b. 1946), from the Global Vaccine Poem.
Recorded LIVE on February 26, 2022 at Amasa Stone Chapel (Case Western Reserve Chapel, Cleveland, OH). Emily Capece, speaker.
McDowall’s “On the Air (Dear Vaccine)” was commissioned by the Cleveland Chamber Choir. In the words of Scott MacPherson and Cecilia McDowall: “For the text, McDowall worked with British poet, writer, and broadcaster Seàn Street. Together, they chose several poetic excerpts from the Global Vaccine Poem project, the brainchild of the Kent State University Wick Poetry Center’s Director David Hassler and the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s Executive Director Tyler Meier. The Dear Vaccine project has received over 2,200 poetic responses from 118 countries and every state in the U.S. In her notes about the piece, McDowall states, “I was delighted when the Cleveland Chamber Choir and Scott MacPherson, Artistic Director, commissioned me to write a piece for this weekend’s concerts. I always enjoy exploring possible texts to set and the process, this time, was most unusual and interesting. I was guided to the newly created website, the Global Vaccine Poem project. All were encouraged to express their hopes and expectations on this website, in poetic language, for a future after vaccination as we emerge from the pandemic.”
McDowall’s “On the Air (Dear Vaccine)” is a poetic letter addressing our desires about the COVID-19 vaccine, including the universal hope for things to return to the way they were before the pandemic. It begins quietly with sustained textures providing the backdrop for a lone speaker who implores the Vaccine to make possible the return of singers to the stage. McDowall notes that when asking Street to choose texts, he “treated each line he drew on with the greatest delicacy; of course, every expression was submitted as a cherished wish in the midst of our very bleak, pre- vaccine landscape. Seàn then shaped these extracts into his own poetic form, opening with a spoken address to ‘Dear Vaccine,’ brimming with anticipation. What follows is a progression of increasingly uplifting stanzas, culminating in the lines, ‘We are the choir—unmasked, unveiled, unmuted. Breathe air, and sing!’ Of course, when we conceived the new work, we were hopeful that the pandemic would have faded into the shadows. But alas, here we are, it is still with us and though the singers are masked and veiled, thankfully they are unmuted.””
- Genre
- Classical