Program Notes:

Heart-Fire is a setting of the spirited and exuberant poem, “Joy” by American poet Sara Teasdale (1884-1933). With lines like, “I am wild,” “I will sing to the stars in the sky,” and “I have heart-fire and singing to give,” this poem expresses a raw abandon that comes from the beauty of experience and from the natural world around us. In composing this work, I was inspired by my own image of “heart-fire,” of a radiant glow emanating from the heart and the deep love and gratitude that one feels from simply existing.

This piece was commissioned by the Georgia College Choral Ensembles under the direction of Dr. Jennifer M. Flory for premiere in 2018 in Carnegie Hall. The premiere celebrates the centennial of Sara Teasdale’s 1918 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her collection “Love Songs,” which includes the poem “Joy.”