Valerie Coleman praised for World Premiere work with Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra

Valerie Coleman with daughter Lisa and soprano Angel Blue after the world premiere of Coleman’s “This Is Not a Small Voice” by The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nezet-Seguin (Photo credit: Pete Checchia)

In Philadelphia Orchestra world premiere, composer Valerie Coleman embraces the love in a Sonia Sanchez poem
By Peter Dobrin
The Philadelphia Inquirer
February 7, 2022

The program featured two world premieres, and a chance to reconsider one of the great American works for voice and orchestra. Works of art don’t always keep still once they’re down on the page or up on the wall. Sometimes they talk amongst themselves, and if you listen carefully, you can hear their meaning changing just a little bit.

Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” emerged Saturday night in a performance by The Philadelphia Orchestra absolutely unchanged in one way. It is still one of the greatest works for voice and orchestra. That’s a good enough reason all by itself to put it on a program.

But it was paired with a new piece: an orchestral song by Valerie Coleman set to the Sonia Sanchez poem “This Is Not a Small Voice”. And while these two views of childhood are worlds apart — one idyllic and white, the other an energetic statement of Black resilience — it was striking to feel the pull of one work on the other.

“Knoxville” isn’t tension-free, to be sure, but it does mostly roll out in warm, reassuring waves. Coleman’s work, though, coming right after the Barber, retroactively changed my view of Knoxville and the James Agee text to which it is set. Maybe, even before this concert, the piece and its particular nostalgic view of America had begun to change in the minds of some of us who already knew it well. The pairing emphasized not just the privilege written into the Barber, but also its depiction of the inner tension of a child concerned with nothing less than the central mystery of existence.

Soprano Angel Blue seemed to note that angst in her interpretation. The song ends with a line that says despite being “well-beloved,” the child knows that those around him “will not, oh, will not, not now, not ever; but will not ever tell me who I am.”

When Blue sang the words “I am,” she dug into them with an emotional edge that sent shivers.

This is not a small voice

you hear this is a large

voice coming out of these cities.

This is the voice of LaTanya.

Kadesha. Shaniqua.

“This Is Not a Small Voice” comes from a collection of poems published in 1995, though the poet and composer spoke at length as part of the project’s process. Coleman could have pulled any number of word cues, any number of meanings, from Sanchez’s poem. The Philadelphia poet writes of love — her poem mentions it repeatedly — and the score mirrors the feeling beautifully.

Coleman is long known to Philadelphians, most recently for “Seven O’Clock Shout”, the orchestra’s anthem to pandemic front-line workers. This new piece, commissioned by the orchestra, has Coleman’s trademark radiant energy. It is both potent and economical. When Blue shouts the names of the children, the orchestral music is optimistic, and when the text speaks of mending children with love, Coleman responds with what it sounds like to wrap your arms around these children. There are subtleties and complexities in the score that cry out for repeated performances. One is imminent. The orchestra takes it to Carnegie Hall Tuesday night.

An aside: isn’t it time for Coleman to have a titled position with the orchestra?

To read the full review, click here.