Wings to Fly
Year
2023
Length
3'00"
Category
Choral
Orchestration
Youth Chorus, Piano
Commission
Boston City Singers
Premiere
January 21, 2024
Boston City Singers Cantare
Jaime Alberts, Director
Program Note
The Boston City Singers youth chorus commissioned author Meghan Guidry and I to write Wings to Fly for their 2023-24 season. Meghan’s poetry grew out of a collaborative workshop in which the singers shared their sentiments on what the theme Wings to Fly means to them. Meghan deployed key words and concepts from the chorus, spinning them into the moving poem, below, which I then set to music. The italicized words and phrases came directly from the Boston City Singers.
Text by Meghan Guidry
If I could wrap my arms around
and hold the home that we have found,
what questions would its music bring?
If I could fly, would I have wings?
If I can hold my loved ones dear
in laughter, joy, and through our tears,
what kindness in our hearts would sing
if we all try, can we have wings?
If I create a place to land
with love, compassion in my hands,
from there community will spring
and fly because we’ll all have wings.
When I fly and you come along,
when hope and love soar through our song,
together we’ll do all these things
and fly because we all have wings.
*
Performance History
- January 21, 2024: Boston City Singers, St. James Episcopal Church, Cambridge, MA
