Rob Kapilow previews his ambitious new work, We Came to America, with NJArts.net
Composer and classical music commentator Rob Kapilow sat down with Courtney Smith of NJArts.net to give a preview of the world premiere of his latest work, We Came to America, which will be performed by the New Jersey Symphony on January 20 at NJPAC and January 21 in Morristown, with choruses to be sung by the JCC Young People’s Chorus @ Thurnauer, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City® and Ember Choral Arts. In the interview, Kapilow discuss the inspiration and process behind the work, touching on the stories of American immigrants and how their stories create a deeper understanding of their contributions to New Jersey and in America.
I wanted to write about the full spectrum of experience because the demographics of immigration has completely shifted over the years, and each wave of immigration received the same brutal criticism from the people who’d already been there ... One of the things that was really clear to me … was that we’ve cycled back and forth over time between what I’d call an inclusionary and exclusionary version of America ... There were times where we welcomed immigrants and times where we excluded them ... It’s sort of interesting that the more confident as a country we’ve been, those seem to sync up with the times when we were most welcoming. And the times when we were most divided or the most conflicted, like now, are the times when we became the most excluded or tended to exclude. I wanted both of those things to be somehow represented in the piece, but I didn’t want this to be political in any way.
Rob Kapilow to NJArts.net