Description

CANW presents the PNW premiere of Los Angeles-based composer, Reena Esmail’s Malhaar: A Requiem for Water. A rising star in the choral world, Reena Esmail joins CANW for a two-day residency, helping us craft Malhaar but also leading masterclasses on her music with choirs from Bellevue, Bothell, and Newport HS, and Cantabile from the Columbia Choirs.

For our concert, we share the stage with our high school and community partners, following their opening performances with Ms. Esmail's stunning new work, Malhaar.

From the Composer (about Malhaar):
"In Hindustani music, Malhaar refers to a family of raags that beckon rain. As the legend goes, the greatest musicians could cause a downpour from even the most severely parched skies by the power of their song.

This is the inspiration for Malhaar: A Requiem for Water. As the drought worsened in Southern California, I yearned for a way to process the rising panic. The work intertwines texts from the traditional Latin Requiem mass alongside the work of Wendell Berry and William O’Daly, along with interspersed Hindi. It traces a trajectory of beauty and awe of water, the fear and devastation around its loss, an answered plea of atonement, and eventually a promise of a new cycle of life, as the water returns to the skies.

This is a hopeful requiem. While the collective loss has been so tremendous, we can still hold out hope that if we change our relationship to the earth, we might beckon the rain back."– Reena Esmail

Highlights include:

Workshops/concerts with Reena Esmail, CANW's 2024 Composer-in-Residence and rising star in the choral community
+Saili Oak, Hindustani vocalist
+Ravi Albright, tabla
+Special Guests: Columbia Choirs Cantabile, Katrina Turman, director; Bothell High School Chamber Choir, Mikaela Rink, director; Bellevue High School Concert Choir, Andrew Jacobson, director; Newport High School Concert Choir, Nancy Fisher, director
Northwest premiere of Malhaar: A Requiem for Water

Ensemble Photos

Choral Arts Northwest