Culture & Community | Downtown | Arts & Culture | New Haven Symphony Orchestra
NHSO Composer-In-Residence Courtney Bryan with Jameela and Aqueelah Irshad. Shaunda Holloway Photo.
Inside Woolsey Hall, dozens of bows dragged across taut, singing strings, translating to thunder. Arms moved slowly up and down, guiding string instruments into a frenzy of activity and promise. Before long, bells chimed, a reminder to honor what is sacred within one another and our own selves.
Had you missed service at any of New Haven’s 100 churches last week, your Sunday was safe with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO). It was in especially good hands with composer-in-residence-Courtney Bryan, whose 12-minute “Sanctum” fully channeled the sacred space after which it is titled.
Seventy-five musicians, with Bryan, soprano Dana Fripp, drummer Anton Kot, and bassist Jeff Fuller, brought a spirit of unity and perseverance to Woolsey Hall last Sunday, as the NHSO performed “Montgomery Variations,” a tour de force that builds on a season woven with cultural and literary significance.
In addition to Bryan’s “Sanctum,” as well as her arrangement of “This Little Light of Mine,” the concert featured Margaret Bonds’ “Montgomery Variations,” Tania Léon’s “Stride,” and a moving arrangement of the spiritual “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me,” made complete with Fripp’s powerful voice and presence. The NHSO is directed by Maestro Perry So, now in his second season with the organization.
“I finally feel like I know what I am doing. This is not like playing the clarinet where you practice and then you play,” So said of conducting, the act of which turns him into a live wire on the podium, still intentional in every movement. Sunday, he moved with the grace and urgency of a professionally trained dancer, moving with the music as instruments did most of the talking. (Asked if he’d ever studied dance, he refuted the question immediately, “Oh no! In fact, my wife hates my dancing. I step on her toes all the time.”)
Sunday, he made sure the crowd’s spirit was ignited. As the program began with “Sanctum,” he let the music move through him, lunging forward and retreating as it built slowly. While his back faced the crowded auditorium, all the intensity was there: instruments stirred up a soul-warming sound throughout each performance, aware of their own voices and yet often in concert with each other.
This was not yesteryear’s silver-haired, overwhelmingly white symphony. “I am not that,” So said. Instead, it was on the road to reflecting the richness of our society, including members and listeners from an array of backgrounds.
That was very much on view during “Sanctum,” as Bryan—who herself has familial roots in Kingston, Jamaica—spoke to the audience about the urgency of emergency aid for Hurricane Melissa, which has left parts of the island devastated. As she dedicated the piece to survivors of the storm, she showed immense gratitude for the love and support.
In the audience, Jamaica-born attendee Jameelah Irshad, now a student at Southern Connecticut State University, was spellbound. Born and raised in Kingston, she’s been living with her heart in two places as she watches the news of the hurricane unfold. During the piece, Irshad sat forward, holding her face in between both hands as if the moment had been hers alone fully savoring its intricate offering. “The hurricane really hurts me,” she said in between pieces.
Leon’s “Stride,” meanwhile, gave the audience flashes of sound so intensely it could have easily been the score from any riveting drama. At the podium, So turned the pages of sheet music while calculating time, making quick movements to choreograph sound. Sharp thumps vibrated from violas. The harp gave a gently seasoned tune as the brassy horns wailed from the stage’s rear. Trumpets blared. Then, a brief silence.
Enter sounds resembling a train in motion, making Sunday afternoon as exciting as any Saturday night out.
From the audience it was nearly impossible to count the number of musicians performing. But, each was an essential thread in the tapestry of enchantment of this sweet, small city. The concert attendees ranged from adolescents to octogenarians, wrapped and rapt in spell between music scales.
By Fripp took the stage for “This Little Light of Mine,” the soloist had the audience in her hands. Like Moses, she parted the room in two. The left side cried out “This light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!” The right willfully replied: “We got a right to the tree of life!” Voices lifted in contrasting harmony, sopranos wailing from the left and tenors emoting from the right. Fripp commanded the stage and the moment.
In the final performance, one powerful note after another filled every square inch of Woosley Hall. “I want Jesus to walk with me; All along my pilgrim journey, I want Jesus to walk with me,” Fripp sang. With outstretched arms, she gave the audience all of herself; tears rolled down her cheeks.
“She took me to church," New Haven educator Dee Marshall said of Fripp’s mountain-shifting delivery. "If you missed church this morning you got it here.”
Irshad agreed. “She really touched my soul,” she said.
Fortified souls, good music, and community made this Sunday an afternoon to remember. Or as Bryan herself said, “My introduction to the New Haven community has been warm and overwhelming musically. I’ve enjoyed the experience, and I am looking forward to a lot more musical experiences in New Haven.”