Let your True Self Sing (New piece!)
Hola, People! It’s been a long time since I sat and wrote a blog post and to be honest I needed the space to just figure out life in many ways. I just turned 30 this year and to celebrate I did my first collaboration with my husband, Ryan Heller, and with the amazing Alex Bruce and Suono Chamber Choir. Together, we created a piece called Let Your True Self Sing, and what an incredible experience was to create this piece for them.
Suono performed our piece at the TCDA convention and I died. It was all I could imagine and more, especially because I saw so many friends (and new friends!) and felt again a piece of another home came back to me. What a rollercoaster of emotions. If you know of anybody looking for a wild journey of acknowledging our voice and our instincts, then Let Your True Self Sing is for them. Here is the wonderful text Ryan wrote and my program notes:
Let Your True Self Sing – Ryan Heller
Cold winds blow over my barren soul,
Scattered pieces of my life across broken time, I am alone.
Surrounded by eternity
I hear a voiceCalling me:
come backI am broken, yet whole. Listen deeply,
Your true self sings Throw open the door, Come back to that voice, Share that voice,Your voice…
Program Notes
Let Your True Self Sing is my first “official” piece in 2022 since writing Fresh Fruit. I tell you this because I have learned that creating my pieces is to go on an emotional journey, and after Fresh Fruit, I needed time to process. When Alexander Bruce, artistic director of Suono, told me about this commission, I experienced what felt like a big hug…the kind that tells you that everything is going to be ok.
My husband Ryan and I have often talked about collaborating as composer and poet/writer, and I mentioned this could be our first collaboration. Last year, as I was approaching my 30th birthday, I told him: “Write me a text about knowing myself and listening to the voice within that will lead me to the hope of singing my true self. Happy, free, not worried about being. Fully giving my all to all around me, and being proud of what I do, feel, and who I am.” What he wrote was exactly what I needed to read; I hope it also resonates with you on whatever level you may need.
