• Welcome to IOCSF’s fall concert, Dominion of Light. This program represents our continued exploration of music that examines themes related to estrangement, which we began this past spring. This evening’s concert focuses on the complex emotions and new opportunities that arise when we leave behind past lives that asked us to exist in ways at odds with ourselves and our values.

    Tracy Wong’s Antara serves as a rousing concert opener.  This exciting piece uses a text by Malay poet and performance artist Mohd Fairuz bin Mohd Tauhid to express the sensation of being “in between,” while celebrating the resiliency of the human spirit.  

    Dale Trumbore’s secular requiem How to Go On utilizes texts by contemporary American poet Barbara Crooker to explore the questioning, doubt, introspection, and acceptance that make up the grieving process. Although these poems weren’t written about estrangement originally, several lines take on added meaning when viewed through this lens. Trumbore invites choirs to rearrange or excerpt movements from the full seven movement work. This evening we will present the five movements which resonate most deeply with the themes of loss and estrangement.

    Carlos Cordero’s “Let Your True Self Sing” features a poem by the composer's husband which celebrates and affirms the self. This piece honors a self that is “broken, yet whole” – an affirmation that feels particularly prescient for those experiencing estrangement.

    Finally, we are thrilled to present the world premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s Dominion of Light: A Requiem for the Estranged. Tarik has thoughtfully crafted a piece which blends texts submitted by members of our community experiencing estrangement with poetry by Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. The piece beautifully evokes the swirling, circular, and often contradictory emotions that come with mourning a death while estranged. 

    Premiering a piece of this significance has been an honor and privilege for us as an ensemble. We hope you enjoy this thrilling culmination of our work to uplift and honor the voices of people experiencing estrangement.

Concert Program

  • ANTARA (Between)

    Dari duduk oh berdiri
    from sitting to standing

    Cabar hati
    challenge (your) heart

    Kuatkan jati
    strengthen your inner-self

    Dari pegun oh berlari
    from stillness to running

  • “ANTARA (Between)” was commissioned in 2021 by Exultate Chamber Singers (Mark Ramsay, Artistic Director) on the occasion of its 40 th anniversary. This piece is a musical expression of being “in between” and the celebration of human resilience. The music reflects this through texts by Malay lyricist Mohamad Fairuz bin Mohamad Tauhid, which suggests that strength, in times of conflict, comes from recognizing on our growth and embracing discomfort. This is explored in various sections through asymmetry (being in limbo), pedal points (stillness), and rhythmic drive (anxious / anticipation / excitement). The loose rondo form allows the theme (“antara”) to return in between sections of these musical thoughts.

    - Tracy Wong, 2021

I. ANTARA (2021)
Tracy WONG, composer

II. HOW TO GO ON (2017)
DALE TRUMBORE

  • 1. How
    Myles K. Glancy, baritone

    How can we go on, knowing the end
    of the story?

    —Barbara Crooker, excerpt from “Some Fine Day,” The Pittsburgh Quarterly, 2007.

    2. However Difficult

    However difficult you think it might be,
    it is yours, this life,
    even the failures
    are yours,
    even the garden, though it be unkempt,
    is yours.

    —Laura Foley, excerpt from “Autumn Musings,” Mapping the Fourth Dimension, 2006.

    3. To See It

    We need to separate to see
    the life we’ve made.
    We need to leave our house
    where someone waits for us, patiently,
    warm beneath the sheets.
    We need to don a sweater, a coat, mittens,
    wrap a scarf around our neck,
    stride down the road,
    a cold winter morning,
    and turn our head back, to see it—perched
    on the top of the hill, our life
    lit from inside.

    —Laura Foley, from Syringa, 2007.

    5. Requiescat
    Allegra Bandy, alto

    Let us go, let go with the few roots
    you have left clinging to this earth,
    pull free, like the clean snap of a carrot
    or radish, let us go, shake off this dirt,
    let go, let go of your family, their story
    hasn't been told, yours is already written,
    let go of the world, its sweetness and sorrow,
    let go of your friends, we will cry, yes,
    but we will not forget you, let go,
    let go your fierce will and stubbornness,
    it served you well, now let it go,
    your courage will remain, let your daughters
    become women, your husband lie in his bed of
    pain,
    your long journey is over, theirs is beginning,
    let us go, become spirit and light, spring rain,
    fly away from this prison of bone, let go,
    wait for us, we'll talk again later,
    I am here by the phone, waiting for the call,
    for this long suffering to be over,
    let it go, your work is done,
    soon we will bring you to the river,
    bring your ashes to the current, let them flow
    free,
    earth, fire, cinders, rain, wait for us
    on the other side of the river, let us go.

    —Barbara Crooker, from The White
    Poems, 2001.

    6. Knowing the end
    Laura Curlin, soprano
    Eryka Raines, alto
    Jeremy Davidson, baritone

    How can we go on, knowing the end of the story?

    —Barbara Crooker


    7. Sometimes Peace Comes
    Abbey Hendrix, soprano

    Sometimes peace is like this:
    endless and gentle and soft
    and no compulsion to go
    anywhere. And even the fire
    you walked through,
    even the trail of ashes
    is gone, not even a memory
    in your heart, and even the sun is still,
    unmoving and quiet,
    and you have stepped into
    a place beyond time,
    beyond sadness and form.
    A wide, high plain
    where in the endless, deep silence
    you find out what it is, what it is,
    and your part in it.

    —Laura Foley, from Syringa, 2007.

  • Following the death of a loved one, contemporary poet Barbara Crooker writes, "How can we go on / knowing the end of the story?" How to Go On answers this question in eight movements that range from questioning and doubt (“How”) to introspection (“Relinquishment”) to ultimate acceptance of our own mortality (“When at Last”). Threading solo voices in and out of the choral texture, How to Go On asks how we each confront our own mortality, and how, in the face of that knowledge, we can bring quiet grace back into our daily lives. Ultimately, this work finds beauty, catharsis, and solace in the words of three living poets: Crooker, Amy Fleury, and Laura Foley.

Photo of composer Carlos Cordero. He is wearing a white t-shirt with the word Ukraine on it. He is smiling with curly brown hair with streaks of blond-gray

III. Let Your True Self Sing (2022)
CARLOS CORDERO

  • Cold winds blow over my barren soul,
    Scattered pieces of my life across broken time,
    I am alone.
    Surrounded by eternity
    I hear a voice
    Calling me:
    come back

    I am broken, yet whole.
    Listen deeply,
    Your true self sings
    Throw open the door,
    Come back to that voice,
    Share that voice,
    Your voice...

  • Let Your True Self Sing is my first “official” piece in 2022 since writing Fresh Fruit. I tell you this because I have learned that creating my pieces is to go on an emotional journey, and after Fresh Fruit, I needed time to process. When Alexander Bruce, artistic director of Suono, told me about this commission, I experienced what felt like a big hug...the kind that tells you that everything is going to be ok.

    My husband Ryan and I have often talked about collaborating as composer and poet/writer, and I mentioned this could be our first collaboration. Last year, as I was approaching my 30th birthday, I told him: “Write me a text about knowing myself and listening to the voice within that will lead me to the hope of singing my true self. Happy, free, not worried about being. Fully giving my all to all around me, and being proud of what I do, feel, and who I am.” What he wrote was exactly what I needed to read; I hope it also resonates with you on whatever level you may need.

World Premiere
DOMINION OF LIGHT:
Requiem for the Estranged

IV. DOMINION OF LIGHT:
Requiem for the Estranged (2025)
Tarik O’REGAN

Commissioned by The International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, in part with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Zellerbach Foundation.

Shota Otaguro, percussion
Regina Merrill, soprano
Patricia Wallinga, alto

  • (Text compiled by Tarik O’Regan from anonymous responses to a survey conducted by the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco.)


    Parting is all we know of heaven,
    And all we need of hell.*

    A paradox.

    My full self now.
    Yet, I rarely feel anything.

    All we know of heaven,
    And all we need of hell.

    That Paradox.

    Floating.

    My full self now.
    Yet, I rarely feel anything.

    A paradox.
    Still a paradox.
    Night and day.
    Both at once.
    The Empire of Light.

    I initiated this.
    My choice.

    There is a poem floating around:

    Contact.
    No contact.
    Low contact.
    Cordial.
    Contact.
    Total. No contact.

    How necessary.
    Not specifically.
    But the order.
    The order of decades.
    That kind of energy.

    There’s this poem floating around:

    Contact.
    No contact.
    Low contact.
    Cordial.
    Contact.

    Yes, that kind of energy, back then.

    Not Empire.
    But Dominion.

    Contact.
    No contact…

    I initiated this.
    Kept hoping.
    My choice.
    But that was the time it stopped.

    There is a before.
    And an after.
    A paradox.

    A Dominion of Light.**

    I initiated this.
    My choice.

    There is a poem floating around:

    Contact.
    No contact…

    I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
    And what I [do] assume you shall assume,
    For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.***

    —

    (*): From My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

    Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 3rd ed., Roberts Brothers, 1896.

    (    **): Reference is made to a succession of paintings by René Magritte, known as L'Empire des lumières, which portray a paradoxical image of a nocturnal landscape beneath a sunlit sky.  The French title is ambiguous in translation, becoming either “empire” or “dominion” of “light(s).” In the catalogue to SFMOMA’s 2018 exhibition of Magritte’s work (Haskell, Caitlin, editor. Magritte: The Fifth Season. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2018), Sandra Zalman explains the distinction succinctly: “While an empire exists in relation to a ruler, a dominion does not necessarily require this.”


    (***): From Song of Myself by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
    Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass, 1891-1892 ed., David McKay, 1892.

  • In Dominion of Light: A Requiem for the Estranged, I wanted to give shape to experiences of separation (sometimes chosen, sometimes imposed) that were shared anonymously through a survey conducted by the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco. What struck me most in reading these testimonies was not only the intensity of feeling but also the way certain themes and phrases reappeared again and again. That repetition became the central musical idea of the piece: words circling back on themselves, as if trying to reconcile a paradox that can never fully resolve.

    I interwove these fragments with lines from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, alongside a quiet nod to Magritte’s paintings of day and night coexisting. The result is not a traditional Requiem, but rather a meditation on estrangement itself: how we carry its contradictions, how the language of loss repeats and transforms, and how, even in the echo of familiar words, a kind of fragile light emerges.

GUESTS

  • Tarik Hamilton O’Regan is a London-born composer based in San Francisco, whose music explores themes of heritage, identity, and collective memory. Often shaped by his Arab and Irish backgrounds, his work spans orchestral, choral, operatic, and chamber music, and has been recognized with two GRAMMY® nominations and two Ivors®. His output, described as “exquisite and delicate” (Washington Post) and “music of startling beauty” (The Observer), is published exclusively by Novello and has been recorded on over 47 albums. He maintains a longstanding commitment to education and service to the arts in general. This has been acknowledged by his election to an Honorary Fellowship of Pembroke College, Oxford, and his inclusion in the Washington Post’s annual list of creative artists who are “changing the classical landscape.” In addition to composing, he is an experienced broadcaster, having written and presented numerous documentaries, including Composing LA and Composing New York for BBC Radio. Bestowed with the Coronation Medal by King Charles III for his Agnus Dei, commissioned for the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey, O’Regan is also the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Yaddo Artist Medal.

  • Shota Otaguro is a multi-talented percussionist based in San Jose, California whose artistic versatility extends to numerous professional ensembles. He serves as the tuned percussionist for The Stinkfoot Orchestra, a band dedicated to performing the works and arts of Frank Zappa. He also serves as the principal percussionist for the Monterey Pops Band, where he holds educational clinics for students of Title 1 public schools and performs for the local community.

    Throughout his career, he has won numerous first place awards in various competitions. In 2023 and 2024 as part of the San Francisco Brass Band, he achieved back-to-back first place in the solo percussion category at the North American Brass Band Association, while the San Francisco Brass band — the first west coast band to attend the competition — also secured the top spot in their class. In 2019, he won the Fremont Symphony’s Young Artist Competition and the SJSU concerto competition, while also securing first place in California’s PAS competitive festival’s collegiate solo marimba category in 2018.

THE SINGERS

  • Laura Curlin

    Allison Dedrick

    Abbey Hendrix

    Kimberly Kaz

    * Mandy Lai

    Regina Merrill

    Jane Spencer Mills

    Simona Nass

  • Allegra Bandy

    Erica Dunkle

    * Rebecca Edwards

    Laura Henry

    Valerie Moy

    Eryka Raines

    Lena Smith

    Rebecca van Stolk-Cooke

    Patricia Wallinga

  • Fausto Daos

    Teddy De Puy

    Giacomo DiGrigoli

    Isaac Goldberg

    Karoun Kasraie

    Joshua Saulle

    Sibley Nystrom

    * Nicholas Weininger

  • Joseph Blodgett

    Jeremy Davidson

    Jon Diaz

    Brian Fujimoto

    Myles K. Glancy

    Dominic Lim

    Jack Miller

    Mark Penrod

    Brian Vanderpol

    * Chris Willmore

* Denotes section leader

ARTISTIC STAFF

  • Chris Filice is a teacher, conductor, and singer from the San Francisco Bay Area. Chris received his Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Master of Arts in Teaching at Westminster Choir College. As a member of the Westminster Williamson Voices, Chris sang on the GRAMMY-nominated recording of James Whitbourn's Annelies. After graduating from Westminster, Chris returned to the Bay Area to work as the Director of Choirs at Livermore High School, where he taught for eight years. Chris recently moved back to the South Bay where he grew up, and currently serves as the Director of Choirs at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale. Chris previously served as the Assistant Conductor of the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, and is excited to be taking on the role of Interim Artistic Director for the 2024–2025 season. In addition to IOCSF, Chris currently sings in The Same Stream, a professional choral ensemble under the direction of James Jordan.Description text goes here

  • Dr. Christopher Koelzer, a San Francisco Bay Area native, is an accomplished solo and collaborative pianist who performs, records, directs, and coaches in New York City, Washington, D.C., and the Bay Area. He began his musical career at age 13, working with opera and musical theater companies. Christopher holds a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from Brigham Young University and both Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Collaborative Piano from the University of Maryland, College Park. Currently, he teaches and performs as Music Faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Stanford University, and San José State University.

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Tarik O’Regan * Angel Cassin of TogetherEstranged * Brian Porea of Poco Communications Design for our brilliant poster * St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church * Joey Kotfica for IOCSF photography * Court Burns at the National Endowment for the Arts * Zellerbach Foundation * All volunteers and IOCSF members past and present for helping us share this gorgeous music with you. 

International Orange Chorale is proud to be supported by The National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, the City and County of San Francisco, the Zellerbach Foundation, CAF America, the Schwab Charitable Fund, the PayPal Giving Fund, and the Give Lively Foundation.

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS

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  • Polly Adema

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    Scott Yundt

IOCSF gratefully welcomes contributions in all amounts. To make your tax-deductible donation, please visit the information table with your gift at intermission or after the concert. Donations can also be made through our website at www.iocsf.org/donate or by mailing a check to us at 77 Van Ness Ave #2222, San Francisco, CA 94102. We are a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Donations are fully tax-deductible to the extent permitted under applicable laws.

SUPPORT IOCSF

NEED SUPPORT? YOU’RE NOT ALONE.

Tonight’s concert explores themes of estrangement, grief, and reconnection. These experiences can be deeply personal—and sometimes painful.
We’re grateful to the community organizations listed below for the work they do to support people experiencing isolation, loss, and the complex grief of estrangement.
If you find yourself in need of support, we encourage you to reach out:

Together Estranged
Shanti SF
Openhouse SF
SAGE
NAMI San Francisco
SF LGBT Center
LYRIC Youth
Maitri

Many thanks to our design partner, Brian Porea of hellopoco.com
See below for more info!