Kama

for SATB choir and HandPan

Written: 2024
Duration: 8'
for SATB choir (with occasional divisis, SSAATTBB) and handpan (D Kurd 10: D) A, B-flat, C, D, E, F, G, A, C)
Commissioned by Ember Choral Arts, Dr. Deborah Simpkin King, Founding Artistic Director, as Ember's first Composer in Residence
Upcoming Premieres: Ember, Dr. Deborah Simpkin King, Founding Artistic Director, May 17, 2024, Actors’ Chapel, NYC; May 19, 2024, Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, Montclair, NJ
Publisher: Bill Holab Music

PROGRAM NOTE

In contemporary literature, ‘kama’ is often used to connote erotic desire and emotional longing, but in ancient Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, this concept is more expansive and broadly refers to any desire, wish, passion, or pleasure, the enjoyment of art and beauty, and even more broadly, love and connection. Kama focuses on this ancient concept and these feelings, which are so essential to being human, while reflecting on how machines, no matter how complex, will ever truly feel and love the way we do and will never truly be able to feel what it is to be human. Kama is a musical call to action in a world where we are in danger of machines replacing us or pulling us further apart, but in which we will ultimately prevail.

Kama was commissioned by Ember Choral Arts, Dr. Deborah Simpkin King, Founding Artistic Director, as Ember's first Composer in Residence.