Shenandoah Voices invite you on a journey through a landscape of change – a story of how we find ourselves and one another.
Uncertainty often begins with ripples. We sense something. Something feels different. Saro Lynch-Thomason’s More Waters Rising sets our anticipation of “harder times” to music through the use of call and response type textures until we reach the final chorus set in a four-part, hymn-like resolve. Lynch-Thomason’s work signals the onset of tides — whether personal, social or environmental — that demand collective strength to weather the storm.
I will wade through the waters, this I know
I will rebuild the mountains, this I know.
As waters rise, our music poses an urgent, heart-centered question through Ysaÿe Barnwell’s Would You Harbor Me? Shifting focus to our shared human responsibility, Barnwell asks if we are willing to provide a safe haven for one another when the path becomes difficult.
Would you harbor me?
Would I harbor you?
Sometimes we find hope by considering broader perspectives. The traditional spiritual My Lord, What a Morning, paints a picture of “falling stars” — stars of a changing world viewed not with dread, but as signs of a new dawn. A musical moment of transformation where the old gives way to a future defined by hope and renewal.
My Lord what a morning,
When the stars begin to fall.
Finally, we emerge into Wide Open Spaces by Sarah Quartel. Having rebuilt mountains, waded through the flood, we find a new horizon — reframing the vast world before us as a place of adventure and discovery, celebrating our internal capacity for growth and potential.
There’s part of my story, there’s part of my song,
There’s part of my journey that's yet to be found.
Together, our story is one of resilience. A journey toward the expansive possibilities of tomorrow.