Here I Stand / Various - Here I Stand [CD]

Here I Stand is the confident debut album of iSing Silicon Valley, the international-award-winning girls' choir based in Silicon Valley, California. Here I Stand celebrates iSing's focus on the power of girls to change the world as they raise their 200+ voices in remembrance, in strength, and in the pure, shared delight of coming together to sing. The album opens with a transcendent performance of the treble-voice version of Eriks Esenvalds' soaring, dreamlike work for solo voice and chorus, Only in Sleep. The pro-gram includes some of the stunning works commissioned by iSing during it's first six seasons, with themes ranging from social justice, to individual growth and collective power. Among these: Never Shall I Forget, Adam Schoenberg's haunting setting for treble voices, string quartet and percussion of excerpts from Elie Wiesel's Holocaust memoir Night; Daniel Elder's arrangements for iSing of his powerful commentary on gun violence, 365, and of In Your Light, his musical setting one of Rumi's most ecstatic poems. Given first life on the concert stage and on this recording by iSing's bright young singers, these commissions and commissioned arrangements make exciting, relevant additions to the repertoire for treble voices, here given definitive, top-notch renditions. The album artwork also includes original illustrations by a young choir alumna; together the package puts girls' inspiring talents center stage in heartwarming fashion. Listeners, prepare to be moved by the breadth of performance of iSing girls: The musical finesse and the stunning vocal blend of iSing's elite choirs; the clarity of expression of the soloists; and - on the later tracks of the album - the lovely ensemble sound of younger iSing girls ranging in age from 7 to 12.