“When looking through poems to select for this piece, Hay Un Rio Oscuro truly stood out to me. Its content, imagery, and language all startled me with their maturity, as its authors were both nine years old at the time it was written. I am most often drawn to dark, yet beautiful language as well as melancholy musical content, so Hay Un Rio Oscuro seemed perfect for my compositional tendencies. Because of the poem’s ambiguous meaning, I chose to set the text in a musical world of ambiguous tonality. The piece is often mournful, but there are glimmers of goodness and juvenile innocence throughout. The piece ends on a solitary, repeated note, meant to leave the listener with his or her own image of textual meaning.” –Julia Seeholzer
Originally from Santa Monica, CA, Julia Seeholzer graduated summa cum laude from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA with a B.M. in Composition in 2012. During her time at Berklee, Julia received numerous awards for her compositions, including the Laurie Anderson Women in Technology Award and the 2011 Berklee Composition Achievement Award. She was also invited to participate in Yale University’s New Music Workshop as a Composition Fellow. After graduation, Julia continued her composition studies with John Corigliano and David Tcimpidis at the California Summer Music program through Sonoma State University in 2012. In addition to her more conventional musical pursuits, Julia founded and directed the Video Game Music Choir (VGMC), a 25 member vocal ensemble that performs video game scores arranged for a cappella choir.
Hay un Río Oscuro
En la alcantarilla de la calle
En frente de mi escuela.
Nació de la lluvia
Y ya no corre más.
Se queda triste
Con gotas de gasolina
Y un papel rojo
Que tiró un niño
Depués de comer un dulce.
Pero aun triste y sucio
Lleva la sombra de mi cara
Las nubes andrajosas
Y en blanco y negro
Todo el cielo.
There is a dark river
In the gutter of the street
In front of my school.
The river was born in the rain
And isn’t flowing anymore.
It’s sort of sad
With drops of gasoline
And a red wrapper
Some kid tossed
After eating a candy.
But although it’s sad and filthy
It carries the shadow of my face
The tattered clouds
And in white and black
The whole sky.
Michelle Díaz Garza, age 9
Rosa Baum, age 9
Watsonville, CA