The San Francisco Bach Choir is holding a Thanksgiving celebration, of sorts, at its next performances, on May 15 and 16. The program, “Celebrating American Heroes,” is more than just an acknowledgment of the famous heroes and events in American history. Instead, it’s a thank-you to the everyday heroes in the country’s past and present who are willing to put their lives on the line every day to serve others — police, firefighters, National Guard members, and military personnel, to name a few.
The program ends with a beginning: the premiere performance of a work for chorus, soloists, and dancers, titled Thanksgiving for Heroes. It’s a collaboration between composer Eric Davis and choreographer Rachel Lopez, featuring both the choir and dancers Stefanie Bernhard, Rosemary Chavez, Jeremy Hahn, Andre Lackner, Ebonee Arielle Le’Triece, and Paul Vickers.
Thanksgiving for Heroes has its roots in the 2009 work And Then There Were Three. This dance piece was created by Davis and Lopez as a tribute to law enforcement personnel after the death of Davis’ stepbrother Curt Massey, a member of the Culver City Police Department, in an car accident. With the tragic killing of four Oakland police officers following shortly after Massey’s death, Davis and Lopez, along with San Francisco Bach Choir Artistic Director Corey Jamason, began to look for tangible ways for the arts community to express its gratitude to those who choose to serve the public.
Looking for lyrics for the choral piece, Davis and Lopez turned to poet Edwin Markham, who had strong ties to the Bay Area. They were drawn to the poems he wrote shortly after the end of World War I that honored the soldiers who fought in its fronts. The message of these poems resonated with the two, creating the theme and mood they were looking for.
Although the Bach Choir is probably best known for performing choral masterworks, in recent performances it has also been exploring works from later composers. In the May concerts, the choir turns to a previous time of great personal sacrifice in American history. The first half will feature songs from the Civil War era, starting with Stephen Foster’s haunting Hard Times Come Again No More and ending with the rallying song (though with somewhat melancholy lyrics) Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! by George F. Root. The second half of the program includes works by Eric Davis, based on the poetry of Ben Mazer and Carolyn Forché, as well as various psalms.
For all these performances, the choir is joined by soprano and early-music specialist Catherine Webster; local baritone, collegiate voice instructor, and mountain biker Paul Murray; and pianist Steven Bailey, who is the regular accompanist for the S.F. Bach Choir, as well as a soloist and guest artist.
So while this is not, perhaps, a typical S.F. Bach Choir concert of early music, it promises to be exciting and uplifting. Most of all, it offers a chance for the artists and the audience to say a well-deserved “Thank you.”