Voice: Celebrating Our Humanity

Registration required for this event.

Celebrating Our Humanity is made possible in part by a generous gift from Marjorie Linden, in memory of Roy Linden.

Voice Studies at the University of Toronto Presents:

Celebrating Our Humanity

Featuring singers from the Faculty of Music, and pianist Narmina Afandiyeva.

PROGRAM

Lost then Found

Weeping Iris (Labyrinth of Tears)

Alice Ping Yee Ho (b. 1960)

Alia Ginevra, soprano (4th-year Performance)

연꽃 만나고 가는 바람같이 [Like the Wind That Met With Lotus]

Joowon Kim (b. 1984)

Tracy Wong, soprano (4th-year Performance)

The last verse

Nan-Chang Chien (b. 1948)

Wen-Shan Wang, soprano (1st-year Master’s, Performance)

陽 關 三 疊 [Three Tunes of Yang Guan]

Xia Yifeng (1872-1963)

Nathaniel Kulin, bass-baritone (1st-year Performance)

Algún día

Jaime Léon Ferro (1921-2015) arr. Jean-Paul Feo

Emma Lavigne, soprano (2nd-year Performance); Jean-Paul Feo, tenor; Hayden Thomas, piano (2nd-year Interdisciplinary Music Studies)

Tes yeux sont des adieux

David Bontemps (b. 1978)

Kimiya Afkhami, soprano (1st-year Performance)

秋天的夢 [Autumn Dreams]

Tianhe Chen (1911-1955)

Jeanne Tsui, mezzo-soprano (2nd-year Interdisciplinary Music Studies)

湘累 [River of Tears]

Chen Xiaokong (1903-1962) Zeng Lizhong (1926-1992)

Katherine Zhu, mezzo-soprano (1st-year Performance)

Весенние Воды [Spring Waters]

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)

Katia Monaco, soprano (2nd-year Performance)

九十九里浜 [At the beach of Kujo-kuri]

Kōzaburō Hirai (1910-2002)

Mathias Séror, baritone (1st-year Performance)

Sara's Aria (Birzhan and Sara)

Mukan Tolebayev (1913-1960)

Sofia Radenko, mezzo-soprano (2nd-year Interdisciplinary Music Studies)

Mah Pishanoo

Khurasani Folk

Hoy Nazan

Armenian Folk

Shabnam Bahrami Asl, soprano (1st-year Mus Bac); Kimiya Afkhami, soprano (1st-year Performance)

Pasii (Trei Cântece pentru Til)

Felicia Donceanu (1931-2022)

Emma Puscalau, soprano (2nd-year Performance)

Text and Translations

Like the Wind That Met With Lotus

Sadly, 

Though 

Not tragically,

Just a bit sad…

This is farewell,

Though  

Not forever, 

As if to meet again 

in another life

Not like a wind that is flowing towards the lotus blossoms

But the wind that has already met them and is now flowing away…

Not like a wind that met the blossoms just a few days ago, 

But like the wind that met them years ago and knows it will be back here soon…

The last verse

Xi, Mu-Rong

No matter how beautiful, how enduring the meeting,

it, too, will eventually come to an end.

The time has come for goodbye,

Here at this ancient ferry,

Beneath the evening sky.

The time has come for goodbye.

You gently hold my hand,

And I bow my head in silence, waiting—

Waiting for fate to part us.

Forgive me, please.

Forgive me,

My dearest friend.

You have given me the journey of your wandering life,

Yet all I can offer in return

Is a single, slender book of verse.

The day dims to twilight.

My tears fall upon the sand,

Etching the last verse:

"If there is truly another life,

Please, watch for a woman

Writing poems upon the sand."

Three Tunes of Yang Guan

In Wei Cheng city, the morning rain drenches the light dust, the inn and the willow are fresh and green 

Please empty another cup of wine, you will see no more old friends west of yang pass 

Travel quickly; it’s a long way to cross the ferry 

You will go through so many difficulties, please take good care of yourself 

In Wei Cheng city, the morning rain drenches the light dust, the inn and the willow are fresh and green 

Please empty another cup of wine, you will see no more old friends west of yang pass 

The parting is reluctant, the tears wet the handkerchief 

Longing sentimentally for you, I will think of you days and nights 

We will miss each other day by day

One day

One day you shall arrive.

Love waits for us, 

and you shall tell me:

Beloved, spring has arrived.

One day you shall love me.

By my breast you will be, so close 

that I shall not know if the fire that holds me

is of your heart or of the summer.

One day you will have me.

We will silently listen 

to the beating of our veins, 

and to the naked, weeping trees.

One day, any day, 

brief yet eternal.

Our love remains the same, no matter spring, summer, fall, or winter.

Your eyes are farewells

Your eyes are farewells

and the sad air of sunset.

Your hands know nothing,

too weary, they pass without seeing.

That time, you remember, 

never again will return

in our lives which it embraces.

Autumn Dreams

Wangshu Dai

The distant shepherdess’s sheep bell,

Shakes the light leaves from the trees,

Autumn dreams are light,

They are the gentle love of the graceful shepherdess.

And so, my dream quietly arrives,

But it carries the weight of past days.

Oh, how, I feel a bit of cold,

A bit of cold, and a bit of melancholy.

River of Tears

Guo Moruo

Our tears will run dry,

Oh, my love! You still have not returned.

We have waited from spring to autumn,

From autumn to summer,

Waiting until oceans dry and rocks crumble,

Oh, my love! You still have not returned!

For him our tears run dry,

For him our hearts are shattered,

Oh, my love! You still have not returned?

Oh white clouds circling the Jiuyi mountains,

Oh waters of the Dongting lake rippling ever

so slightly, Do you know him,

Do you know where he is?

Ah! Jiuyi mountain’s white clouds gather and

fade,

Dongting lake’s waters rise and fall,

Oh the clouds of worry in our hearts!

Oh the tides of tears in our eyes!

They never fade,

They only rise.

The sun rays fall on Dongting’s waves,

Our spirits tremble and dare not sing,

Staying until the sun wanes in the west,

I gaze into the bamboo grove in which I cried,

The flowers are already blooming.

Ah! My love,

My tears already bloom and wither!

You still have not returned.

Spring Waters

Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev

The fields are covered still with snow,

But Spring has swollen all the streams.

They run and sparkle as they go,

And wake the shores from drowsy dreams.

They call out loudly on their way:

“Spring’s coming on! Spring’s coming on!

We bring the message here today,

That’s why we meet you on the run!

Spring’s coming on! Spring’s coming on!

And soon the lovely days of May

Will follow happily along

And dance a merry roundelay!”

At the Beach of Kujû-kuri

Far away off shore it is storming

Waves are rising on the horizon

Sunrise is near

Sea birds are flying

Watching waves from far away

What I am thinking

Is immeasurably distant

I won’t be able to accomplish it

Directly facing the Pacific Ocean

The sandy shore is white

Kujūkuri, it is!

Sara's Aria (Birzhan and Sara)

A storm has struck me, should I believe this or not?

Mad has gone the poor Birzhan,

In my heart, the light is fading,

To me, the world is a desert, hot and barren,

The spring blossom within me has withered,

Why has this storm trampled my spring?

And why must I die of anguish?

Why do I need my wedding? Why do I need my home?

Without Birzhan it's all a desert,

Where can I find joy?

Without love, I have no happiness.

Fate has dealt me a cruel hand,

Oh where are you, my friend, my Birzhan.

Mah Pishanoo

I said to her, oh my face of the moon 

She said, Jon-e-Jonoum 

June of Junom, oh June of Junom 

I told her to tell me where the flower bud is 

She said it was my lips 

June of Junom, oh June of Junom

I told her, why are you so unkind? 

She said I want to burn you (array)so that you know my value 

I said that I am a victim of ghamza (coquetry) 

I am glad that I named you 

I sit on my knees 

Ah, the face of the moon, the face of the moon. 

I told her, why are you so clever and naughty, girl? 

June of Junom Oh June of Junom 

She said, "No, don't say. My cascade hair is golden." 

June of Junom Oh June of Junom 

I said I will build you a house out of clay and mud 

She said, if you like me, give me a cup at Del's house 

I said that I was the victim of Ghamza 

I am glad that I named you 

I sit on my knees 

Ah, the face of the moon, the face of the face 

I told her, let's tie the alliance 

June of Junom Oh June of Junom 

She said ok, but promise to laugh all the time

June of Junom, oh June of Junom  

I told her you are lying, you are drunk 

She said that believe me, I will stay with you as long as you are there 

I said that I am a victim of ghamza (coquetry) 

I am glad that I named you 

I sit on my knees 

Ah, the face of the moon, the face of the moon.

Steps

By the gate slowly opens when you creep by tiptoe 

I recognize your tread, I feel your steps O Țil. 

From the thousands of stamps that resound in the universe 

Immediately I recognize the precipitous going 

As the gate slowly opens when you tiptoe 

I recognize your treat, I feel your steps O Țil

So afraid, the lizard jumps through the cracks

And hides under a stone, the singing brook pipes 

Or the squirrel gnaws nuts in his broken teeth 

And in the lamp a moth flutters 

There is a ineffable rustle, a drop on the wet window pane 

A graceful flight that I alone hear 

The thunderstorm if you should encounter it on the path 

Unwinding your hair in the air like smoke 

The earth would howl from hail and rain 

And the bending trees would hinder you 

If it thundered oblong the giant clouds

nevertheless you would immediately recognize the steps 

In the road you would leave to wipe your wet cheek 

Because I alone hear your suave stride