Postcard from David Harrington and Nikky Finney
This week’s postcard features David Harrington, Artistic Director & Violinist of Kronos Quartet and Nikky Finney, author and narrator of the new, evening-length work for string quartet, At War With Ourselves–400 Years of You.
At War With Ourselves – 400 Years of You features a text by National Book Award-winning poet Nikky Finney inspired by her 2013 poem “The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy.” The music was composed by Michael Abels, composer for the Jordan Peele films Us and Get Out. This powerful new work for string quartet, narrator, and chorus explores race relations, social justice, and civil rights in 21st century America.
This program will feature nine Premier Ensemble singers and the chorus will be conducted by SFGC's Artistic Director, Valérie Sainte-Agathe.
Performances take place:
Saturday, May 7, 2022 at 7:30 PM and
Sunday, May 8, 2022 at 7:00 PM
At SF Jazz | Miner Auditorium
David Harrington, Artistic Director & Violinist, Kronos Quartet
How did you first learn about SFGC?
Many years ago I began to hear about a fabulous group of young singers in San Francisco called the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Whenever I hear about inspired excellence, I’m compelled to investigate the source—eventually Kronos began rehearsing and performing with the SFGC. The title track on our 1988 album Winter Was Hard (Nonesuch) features the SFGC, at that time conducted by the founder Elizabeth Appling, and we’ve had the pleasure of performing and recording music with the chorus numerous times since. Now under the direction and leadership of Valerie Sainte-Agathe, the SFGC continues to be a beacon of musical exploration and vocal beauty admired not only in San Francisco but throughout our country.
Please describe your path of becoming a musician and working with Kronos Quartet.
I began playing violin in fourth grade in the Seattle Public School system. Soon afterwards, because my parents cared a great deal about my musical education, they enrolled me in the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra program, which began with the Little Symphony (now called the Debut Symphony), followed by the Junior Symphony, and eventually ending with the Youth Symphony Orchestra. At SYSO, I was fortunate to be surrounded and inspired by a community of very dedicated young players and excellent conductors, teachers, and coaches. At 12 years of age, coming across a recording of string quartet music played by the Budapest Quartet had a deep and lasting effect. The day after hearing that recording I called three other members of the Seattle Youth Symphony to see if they’d like to try playing a string quartet. Later that week, after checking the sheet music out at the Seattle Public Library, all four of us attempted to play Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127—the first of his late quartets. Trying to sound like the Budapest Quartet was a huge task for us 12 year olds, but I think we may have sounded like them for about half a second on the very first chord! That half second was enough to convince me that with lots of work, eventually I could be happy playing in a string quartet. Thus began a lifelong love affair with this powerful musical form composed of 2 violins, a viola, and a cello. It is a configuration composers often turn to when expressing their deepest, most personal thoughts.
Can you describe the program, At War With Ourselves, in your own words? How did this project come to be?
The seed for At War With Ourselves was planted in 2012 when Kronos was asked to develop a concert celebrating the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War, to be performed in 2015 at Antietam. I had recently encountered Nikky Finney’s voice and poetry after hearing her 2011 acceptance speech for the National Book Award in Poetry. It’s an incredibly powerful speech that I believe should be included in school curriculums throughout the country. Over the past 10 years we were forced to overcome a number of challenges including cancellations, shutdowns, and other nearly insurmountable hurdles, but thanks to the dedicated leadership of Kronos’ manager, Janet Cowperthwaite, we can now perform AWWO. Composer Michael Abels (Get Out, Us), choral director Valerie Sainte-Agathe, who leads different local choirs in each city we perform, and the thrilling poetic voice of Nikky Finney, combine with Kronos to offer audiences an experience that we are all very proud of.
Can you speak more to its messages around race relations and movements for social justice, civil rights, and resistance?
There are many things I didn’t learn in school. The deeply personal lived history of enslaved people in the US was one of those things. The ways in which this inhumane enslavement of others was embedded into every aspect of our society, and continues to manifest itself with fierce energy to this day, is something I think we all need to constantly learn about and confront. The amount of human suffering that was left out of my education is appalling. The fact that our country was built upon this suffering (and that of countless others), and I hardly knew the extent of it, is something the work of Kronos can, and must try to address. If At War With Ourselves can build a community that looks deliberately hidden facts squarely in the eye, I’ll be given hope for the future.
Music is always about musicians trying to make better notes with each passing opportunity. In a musical group such as Kronos or the SFGC, we always try to make each other stronger, with the aim of playing (or singing) better and more cohesively. Sometimes that work involves revealing flaws, and critiquing each other’s performances in order to build a stronger whole. It seems to me that if we treat every rehearsal and concert as a microcosm of society, musicians can begin to find a path forward, where everyone, not just musicians, strives to make better “notes,” and considers how they fit into the whole. Kronos has always been of the opinion that music belongs to all of humanity; it has no borders, boundaries, or walls—no one owns music—we just get to share it for a while, together, and it in turn almost magically reflects our humanness back to us.
Can you speak to the importance of social justice themes in art in our current society?
Elders have a sacred responsibility to do everything they can to make younger people’s lives better. If we as artists, and elders step up and encourage a culture of exploration, delight in learning, and the search for answers to the most vexing issues confronting us, then maybe the world can become a more welcoming place for all life. The energy, vision, and idealism of young people to forge a livable future encourages me and gives me much hope. When Kronos works with young musicians I’m reminded of how far things have come since our group began playing almost 50 years ago, and how much further we have yet to go. At some point young people will lead the way – the sooner the better!
A lot of our choristers have parents who are not musicians - what would you like to tell them about what it means for a young musician to be doing music?
I always begin by reminding parents that the community of musicians is one of the most hard-working, supportive, inclusive and dedicated communities there is. The constant practice, the self-examination and confidence required to perform on stage, the joyful act of creating music with others––these are all wonderful things you get to learn about and be a part of. Music will give your children useful tools in life, regardless of what field they eventually choose to focus on. For me, music as a way of life has been immensely rewarding, thrilling, and invigorating. It has connected me to a wide range of humanity. I can’t for a second imagine any other field that would have made me nearly as happy. Sure, it’s been tough, sometimes nearly impossible, but it remains satisfying. Once my own parents got over fearing that I would have trouble making a living as a member of Kronos, they became tireless advocates for this way of life. My parents were among our biggest fans, and their lives were enriched not only by our music, but also through getting to know and learn about many composers and guest artists from every corner of the planet, every race, and many religions. Music has the ability to open up the world like almost nothing else.
For our singers who would like to become professional musicians, is there anything you would like to share with them?
Here are some of the very last words my teacher of 30 years, Veda Reynolds, shared with me before her death. She said: “you know Dave, the great thing about music is it can always be better.” As musicians, one of our jobs is to try to create better notes every time we have the opportunity. By better I mean more aligned to our inner sound; always more of what we hope the future might be; and always with the aim of eliciting an experience for someone else that might be at least as inspiring as those that have inspired us. In my opinion, all music is a huge set of variations, whether it is Bach, Weddell Seals, Pygmy music from Central Africa, or any of the thousands of other examples one could mention. Your instrument, whether it is your voice, a violin, viola, cello, or something else, offers you the chance to participate in this amazingly mysterious, bountiful creation that is the world of music, and which often is a window into the soul of humanity.
Nikky Finney, Author/Narrator, At War With Ourselves–400 Years of You
Please describe your path of becoming an artist and working with Kronos Quartet.
I received a wonderful out-of-the-blue phone call in 2013 from David Harrington – founder of Kronos Quartet. He had heard my acceptance speech after I had won the National Book Award for Poetry. David had never heard of me before or read my poetry but he had a very strong feeling that we should work together on something. David is a creative genius and always has a plate of ideas at the ready. It was a moment in time when there were several historical anniversaries about to happen. Initially, we set our eyes on a project that would focus on the Sesquicentennial End of the Civil War (1865 - 2015) but the project was delayed and that delay led us to the 400th anniversary of the African American presence in the United States (1619 - 2019).
Can you describe the program, At War With Ourselves, in your own words?
It is a story about making a way out of no way. I am a poet who believes in the power of self-knowledge. I am auto-didactically inclined. The truth of my own history, as an African American, was kept from me by those who did not want to feel uncomfortable about all of what had happened throughout all of those years, but the only way we will ever grow as a society and a country is to tell the truth about our histories. We need every point of view in the circle. At War With Ourselves is a look at the inhumanity and the resilience of African and African American people. It is a story I was compelled to tell and one that resonates so deeply in the human heart – once it is heard.
Can you speak more to its messages around race relations and movements for social justice, civil rights, and resistance?
The big message for me is how much we human beings fear the truth. What do we fear? We are in a moment in our history where individuals are trying to legislate truth. It will never happen. Art – art that lasts – must be honest and provocative. If it's not then what good is it? Every time I share this music and these words with students I find them standing before me in tears. They want the information. They want to mix it with other information and become their whole selves. There is so much we don’t teach about the African American presence in America these last 400 years because there is so much fear and shame associated with it. We would rather spotlight stereotypes and keep a lid on the hard stuff. But shouldn’t we want our children to know that African Americans stepped out of hundreds of years of being enslaved into a burgeoning new society and one of the first things they desired to do – for all of society and not just for themselves – was invent new things that improved that society.
Can you speak to the importance of social justice themes in art in our current society?
I believe passionately in looking the hard to say thing right in the eye. I also believe passionately in beauty. If there is injustice and inequality for any one of us – then none of us get to rest and pretend that poverty and violence and not having a home is just happening to people “over there.” If it happens to any of humanity it happens to all of humanity. I love the power I find in language. I want my words to be beautifully said and I want them to move human beings to act. My parents and grandparents were involved in making the planet better for all. I want to do my part.
How do you find your inspiration for bringing creativity and imagination into your work with young performers?
I was a very sensitive child, a young person who started writing in journal books to try and find answers about why people treated other people so mean or what kind of human heart would wave a machete and kill an animal as majestic as an elephant? I protected my sensitive child self and there were adults who helped me protect my sensitive child self. I am now a protector and nurturer of that younger generation of“sensitive children” who have so much to teach us about creativity and our brilliant imaginations. Young people – the next generation – is one of the great hopes humankind still has left.
At War with Ourselves - 400 Years of You was commissioned by the Kronos Performing Arts Association, funded in part by a Hewlett Foundation 50 Arts Commission and the MAP Fund, in partnership with ASU Gammage at Arizona State University, Hancher Auditorium–The University of Iowa, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, SFJAZZ, Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, University of South Carolina, and Andrea A. Lunsford.