Athena Kildegaard was a fellow at the (Art) Song Lab in Vancouver, BC. Mina Esary, a composer fellow at the same workshop, set a poem Athena wrote borrowing text from an essay by Virginia Woolf. To be part of a line of women artists is a great privilege. The recording features singer Lynne McMurtry and pianist Alison d'Amato.
This choral piece was written by Andy Stermer for the Minnesota choral group Vocalessence. It is an example of the “small world” syndrome (is there such a thing?): at the time Andy won this opportunity to compose for Vocalessence, Athena’s daughter was singing in the group. Years before, Athena and her daughter met Andy and his mother when the young people were seniors in highschool and they happened to be visiting a New York college and were in the same tour group. A few years later, Andy’s brother was a student in one of Athena’s classes.