As one of the leading professional chamber choirs in the United States, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale has been at the forefront of new American choral music. The Chorale has commissioned over 35 new works, and in 2019 founded the Desert Chorale Commissioning Club to expand the choral canon and bring new works of beauty into existence. ROOTS & RIVERS is a selection of works written especially for the Chorale, reflecting the best of new American choral composition.

Composer Reena Esmail infuses elements of Indian classical music into Western forms. Her commission The Tipping Point, which was written for the Chorale in 2021 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, spoke to that moment in a direct way. Amy Fogerson’s words set the scene:

…balanced on the razor’s edge between darkness and light
darkness exults its hold
yet we have arrived at the tipping point
and light stands proudly poised for her return
(come morning light, come enlightenment)

The piece is essentially a conversation between the voices and the tabla, an Indian percussion instrument that can create a complex variety of sounds. The voices take on the rhythms of the drum, at first slow and then faster as they work through a series of variations of increasing intensity. Using traditional scales of Indian classical music, two solo voices soar above the choir, leading to a luminous and hopeful ending. Light overcomes darkness not through force, but tenderly, just as young shoots might grow into a mighty tree.

For our 2022 season, the Commissioning Club selected Minnesota-based composer Jocelyn Hagen, who wrote a bilingual Spanish-English work to reflect Santa Fe’s multicultural identity. Combining poetry of Antonio Machado and Julia Klatt Singer, her work Caminante (Traveler) divides the choir into two groups, each of which has its own language and its own song. The choirs present their songs independently before Hagen brings them together in the final verse, yielding surprising and delightful results. The synergy created when the songs come together suggest possibilities for connection and cooperation across boundaries of language and culture.

Northland by Kile Smith, is a significant four-movement work that received its premiere in 2023 as part of the Chorale’s American Immigrant Experience program. It uses a quintessentially American musical language characterized by syncopation, elements of blues and jazz, and an appealing melodic lyricism to explore the poetry of Claude McKay, an early 20th-century Jamaican immigrant to New York. Smith’s piece takes us from homesickness upon McKay’s arrival (“The Tropics in New York”) to facing discrimination and rootlessness (“America”), to the thrill of big city life (“On Broadway”), and ultimately acceptance and deep affection for his new country (“To One Coming North”). In Smith’s writing, the piano is an equal partner to the voices, sometimes supporting and other times leading with driving rhythms. The final movement, elegiac and heartfelt, is a moving depiction of an immigrant whose patriotism is hard-won, and who despite significant trials has come to embrace and love his new home.

The American Road is a major commission by Shawn Okpebholo that received its world premiere in 2025. Written in six movements, the piece draws upon a variety of American musical traditions ranging from African American spirituals, to hymns and gospel music. Okpebholo writes:

This work traverses themes of sacrifice, oppression, freedom, war, healing and strength. The suite opens with “Prepare Me One Body,” a solemn invocation drawn from the Negro spiritual’s affecting meditation on the crucifixion. “Little Cuckoo,” inspired by a contemporary folk lullaby by Rhiannon Giddens, tells the story of an enslaved woman who, while singing to and nursing not her own child but the child of her enslaver, envisions the road this baby will one day travel, capturing moments of love given freely amidst unthinkable cruelty.

We often hear “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” sung with a bright, almost celebratory spirit. But when you sit with its origins—a song created by enslaved people, holding on to hope in the midst of unimaginable hardship—it carries a deeper weight. That history moved me to approach it differently. In this setting, it becomes a lullaby, as if a weary mother is softly singing her child to sleep. There’s a moment of personal, more direct affirmation of that truth, before it gently returns to the cradlesong. The assurance remains, but it feels tender, almost fragile—a quiet prayer for protection and peace, whispered in the dark.

The energy builds with “Left Foot, Peg Foot (Follow the Drinking Gourd),” which brings to life the uncertain passage of the Underground Railroad and its promise of a secret passage to freedom in the North. “Shall We Gather at the River” is a space for mourning, healing and renewal—a sanctuary along the road where burdens can be set down and strength renewed. This movement is dedicated to Daniel Treier, a dear friend whose brief time on earth was marked by humility, kindness, and faithfulness, and who has now reached the “shining river.”

The suite culminates with “Shine! (This Little Light of Mine)” in which the familiar children’s song is transformed into a dynamic anthem of perseverance. Here, despite life’s struggles voices rise together, ensuring that our light shines unwavering and enduring.

The American Road is a significant addition to the American choral canon and was commissioned by Lindsay S. Pope in memory of her grandmother Hope Stearns Anderson, who instilled in her a love of music and deep appreciation of beauty.

The Desert Chorale has enjoyed a close association with Shawn Kirchner, who has distinguished himself as a master arranger and interpreter of American folk styles. Kirchner originally wrote Sweet Rivers in D Major, but the Chorale subsequently requested a special higher version in E-flat Major. That “Desert Chorale version” is recorded here, together with a piano introduction inspired by an improvisation Shawn performed while in concert with us.

This album is offered with gratitude for the rich tapestry of new American choral music, and the artists that bring it to life.

–Joshua Habermann