Program Notes:

Welcoming (original art song version) is based on a text by poet Andrea Nicki and tells the story of the varied emotional states one experiences when moving to a new city. Working through self-encouragement, expectation/hope, and loneliness, the narrator finally comes to acceptance regarding this significant life change.

The solo piano version of this piece was arranged for Brianna Matzke for premiere at “Música pro Femina,” organized by Salon 21 in Cincinnati, Ohio (2018).

Welcoming, by Andrea Nicki

I welcome myself to this city; as no one else will do it as well; they don’t know my sensibilities, my character dispositions, what I can withstand, tolerate, what I cannot.

I welcome myself with the sights of the majestic moose, and Alaskan mountains. I welcome myself with the earth’s beauty. I welcome myself with hopes and desires, a desire for joyfulness. I welcome myself with an expectation of love. I welcome myself with these words to surround me like a friend.

I welcome myself with the familiarity of foreign lands, of travel, of displacement. I welcome myself with the familiarity of adaptation to new people.

I welcome myself with familiar tears for friends and places far away. I welcome myself with the constant companion of loneliness. I welcome myself with my resilience, courage and strength: the lions and tigers of myself. I welcome myself with my light spirit, with my love of life: with the songbirds of myself. I welcome myself with my curiosity, my playfulness: with the cats of myself. I welcome myself with my affability, my sociability: with the dogs of myself.

I welcome myself with my memories: some are terrible.... I welcome myself with things I have survived.