A Far Cry & Luciana Souza--The Blue Hour

The Boston-based GRAMMY®-nominated string orchestra A Far Cry has commissioned a new work for its 11th season. The Blue Hour will feature Grammy-winning vocalist Luciana Souza in a song-cycle created by a collaborative of five leading female composers—Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. The text of the work, by 2017 Windham-Campbell Prize winner Carolyn Forché, is the poem “On Earth” from the 2003 collection Blue Hour, which takes the form of an abecedarium, a listing of images, thousands of them, in alphabetical order, like a flurry of memories from a life coming to its end. Through several workshops, A Far Cry and the composers have embarked on a truly collaborative work, coming together to develop the text adaptation of Forché’s poem for this musical setting, maintaining its abecedary form. Each composer is contributing individual songs, instrumental transitions, refrains, and musical themes to create a continuous, integrated vision. Opening Nights at Florida State University is a co-commissioner of this work.