Promised Lands

Notes on the Program

by Michael Barrett

To give an overview of folk song in one concert is impossible. Regarding today’s program you may ask: why these songs? Where is the Czech, the Hungarian, the Scandinavian, the Polynesian and South American songs? (All of which we wanted to include!) The answer is simple. Today’s artists all gravitated toward their own folk song roots. Christopher Trakas is a second generation Greek who learned the language at home and then later studied it at school. The Ravel Greek Songs sung in Greek were a natural choice. Carmen Pelton is half English and half German; Britten and Brahms seemed to be another obvious choice. Pamela Warrick-Smith grew up idolizing Odetta, and has sung American folk songs, spirituals, and chain gang songs for years. When we began work on this program she presented a list of nearly 200 songs from this repertoire she was prepared to do. My own ancestry is full of Mormon pioneers, and my childhood worship of cowboys (instilled in me growing up in Micronesia), brought a certain prairie flavor to the program. Where we all seem to meet is in the American half of the program. But that is because we are all American, and we bring with that our own individual ethnic background.

For the complete text of these program notes, please e-mail us at:  info@nyfos.org.