Judith Clurman And Essential Voices Release May You Heal

Judith Clurman announces the release of MAY YOU HEAL, a series of five choral works that have been recorded and commissioned by Essential Voices USA during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pieces offer music of comfort, peace, renewal and self-awareness.

The singers of Essential Voices USA are joined by pianists James Cunningham and Lee Musiker and cellist Raman Ramakrishnan. The five recordings can be streamed on all platforms. The published scores are available as "The May You Heal Cycle" through Hal Leonard. Stream the music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and other sites.

MAY YOU HEAL, with heart-felt music by Canadian composer Mark Sirett, and lyrics by Bruce L. Ruben expresses what the world is feeling today, as we hopefully move on from Covid-19: May You heal, May you be well again, May you lean on friends and family, May you return to health and wholeness. DONA NOBIS PACEM, an A Cappella work by Welsh composer Katie Jenkins expresses a yearning for peace. Jenkins dedicates her piece to the memory of those lost to Covid-19. David Chase's WHEN SCIENCE TRIUMPHS sets the words of three individuals dedicated to fighting diseases that have plagued our world during the 20th and 21st centuries. Dr. Anthony Fauci (1940-) is a physician and immunologist who serves as director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is the chief medical advisor to the President of the United States. His work has been most prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic; Dr. Mathilde Krim (1926-2018) was a research scientist and educator, and the founding chairman of amfAR, American Foundation for AIDS Research; and Dr. Jonas Salk (1914-1995) was a virologist renowned for developing the first polio vaccine.

RESPONSIBILITY, a setting by Mark Sirett, offers lyrics by Hillel the Elder, a famous Jewish leader and scholar, from Babylon, who lived in the first century BCE to the beginning first century CE. In this aphorism, Hillel captures the tension between the need for healthy narcissism (self-care) and the importance of caring for others -: Im ein ani li, mi li? . . . If I am not for myself, Who will be for me? But if I am only for myself. What am I? And if not now, when? I CELEBRATE MYSELF is a setting of the opening line from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself "(1892) by Boston based composer Bill Cutter. The piece celebrates our connection to one another: I celebrate myself, and sing myself. . . . For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. . . .

"Now more than ever, our students and our singers of all ages need a place to go and a place where they can find safety and healing. After more than two years of quarantine, those of us who love and need the safety and community of a music organization yearn to return. The 'May You Heal' cycle from the Judith Clurman Choral Series allows and encourages us find this in the music."

- Scott Foss, Concert and Classical Choral Editor @Hal Leonard