Anthem
April 20, 2024
Numerica Performing Arts Center
Anthem is a presentation of works by composers who celebrate diverse heritages. Composer and flutist, Valerie Coleman, wrote Umoja as an exploration into the meaning of freedom and unity - an anthem that, “celebrated the diverse heritages of the [Imani Winds]”. Bernstein noted West Side Story is a work in which “prejudice will be the theme.…It will not be a feud of aristocrats that keeps the lovers apart, but rather the prejudice of their Jewish and Italian families. The music will be serious music. Serious yet simple enough for all people to understand.”
Nik’s Notes
The feeling of belonging drives how we behave. As our identities and loyalties become stronger, so do our inabilities to tolerate others. But, as an artist, I am particularly interested in realms where diversity is an asset. In orchestras, it is the varied contributions from many that create the whole. And, in particular, it is in community orchestras that many persons of varied backgrounds, abilities, and skills come together to create unity. Coleman’s Umoja: Anthem of Unity and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances are examples of how music illustrates how beauty can come from dissonance - that through contrast we can find harmony.
The Music
Valerie Coleman • Umoja: Anthem of Unity
2024 Young Musician Competition Winner
Leonard Bernstein • Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story”
Learn More
In its original form, Umoja, the Swahili word for Unity and the first principle of the African Dispora holiday Kwanzaa, was to compose a simple song for women's choir. It embodied a sense of 'tribal unity', through the feel of a drum circle, the sharing of history through traditional “call and response” form and the repetition of a memorable sing-song melody. It was rearranged into woodwind quintet form during the genesis of Coleman’s chamber music ensemble, Imani Winds, with the intent of providing an anthem that celebrated the diverse heritages of the ensemble itself. Umoja “...is now a full exploration into the meaning of freedom and unity. Now more than ever, Umoja has to ring as a strong and beautiful anthem for the world we live in today.”
Learn more about Valeria Coleman:
Although there have been many modern adaptations of Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, none has rivaled West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein, produced on the Broadway stage in 1957. The show was superlative in terms of total quality, social impact, and sheer power of expression. For Montagues and Capulets, the libretto substituted rival teenage street gangs, one Anglo (“Jets”) and the other Hispanic (“Sharks”). The star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria, were from the neighborhoods where the two gangs operated.
Learn more about West Side Story
“West Side Story” Trailer
Minnesota Orchestra: Valerie Coleman - Umoja, Anthem of Unity for Orchestra