Collaborator

Margaret Halbig, piano

Program

Lee Hoiby: Lady of the Harbor - text by Emma Lazarus
     from Three Women

Emili Rice

Jake Heggie: These Strangers
     1. These Strangers - text by Emily Dickinson
Antonia Caceres 
     2. In the Midst of Thousands - text by Frederick Douglass
Alyssa Vieau
     3. I Did Not Speak Out - text by Martin Niemüller
Sadye Sobel
     4. To a Stranger - text by Walt Whitman
Emili Rice

- Short Pause -

Vignettes: Ellis Island is a twenty-six piece song cycle by American composer Alan Louis Smith. Crafted as a genuine portrayal of the human spirit, it was initially meant to be a single song written as a birthday gift for mezzo-soprano and friend, Stephanie Blythe. The composer, however, was so compelled by this topic that he set a musical backdrop that chronicled American immigration in the early 20th century, through the stories of twenty-one refugees. A fortuitous meeting between Alan Smith and Paul Sigrist, Jr. (former director of the Ellis Island Oral History Project), resulted in a collaboration that became the catalyst for this song cycle. Mr. Sigrist supplied over 100 pages of quotations, taken from interviews he conducted with the Ellis Island Oral History Project, which then were carefully abridged by the composer to create Vignettes: Ellis Island.
-Tamara Regensburger

Alan Louis Smith: Ellis Island Vignettes

Prologue

I. Preparing to leave for America
     Emma Schmid Schwarz, age 18, Germany
     Anna Zagar Klarich, age 18, Yugoslavia
     Manny Steen, age 19, Ireland
     Martha Kallens Reininger, age 13, Germany
     Clara Storz Schmidt, age 18, Germany

II. Boarding the ship
     Theresa Gavin Duffy, age 19, Ireland
     Kaj Sorenson, age 14, Denmark
     Angelo Vacca, age 12, Italy

III. On the ship
     Max Mason, age 8, Ukraine
     Mary Cox Harney, age 22, Ireland
     Regina Sass Tepper, age 14, Poland
     Elizabeth Coyle-Scott, age 22, Ireland

IV. In the harbor
     Dora Heller Rich, age 13, Austria-Hungary
     Estelle Schwartz Belford, age 5, Roumania
     Max Schnapp, age 19, Roumania
     Martha Kallens Reininger, age 13, Germany

V. On the island
     Kaj Sorenson, age 14, Denmark
     Allan Gunn, age 9, Scotland
     Irena Leonidoff Spross, age 8, Russia via France
     Max Schnapp, age 19, Roumania

VI. In America
     Morris Schneider, age 10, Poland
     Jack Tellaloan, age 7, Turkey
     Catherine Gaetano Gallippi, age 8, Italy
     Anna Zagar Klarich, age 18, Yugoslavia

Epilogue
     Anna Zagar Klarich, age 18, Yugoslavia

Featuring:
Antonia Caceres, Stella Hannock, Nina Jones, Megan Mateosky, Emili Rice, Sadye Sobel, Alyssa Vieau