Songs of Devotion concert showcases original music, poetic adaptations

Soprano Rachel Doehring and pianist Dan Sato had never performed together before the 2019 Civic Morning Musicals Vocal Competition. After receiving a first-place prize at the competition, they realized how much they liked working with each other. Since then, they’ve continued to perform together.

Yesterday, Doehring and Sato performed at the Songs of Devotion: Music for the New Year concert at Park Central Presbyterian Church. The music centered around the theme of devotion and the variety of passions that people devote themselves to. Devotion is not limited to religion, Sato said, but is an all-encompassing term that can be applied to aspects such as family and love, as well as dedication to one’s country.

One piece titled “A Letter from Sullivan Ballou” is a letter from a soldier in the Civil War to his wife, Sarah, set to music by John Kander. Doehring said that the song captures a conflict between devotion to one’s family and country.

“As we found more and more pieces that we really liked, this theme sort of started to emerge of various devotions of humankind that really spanned generations,” Doehring said.

Rachel Doehring and Dan Sato performed at Park Central Presbyterian Church on Jan. 12. Elizabeth Billman | Asst. Photo Editor

The theme of devotion is especially pertinent in the new year because people often reexamine what to devote their lives to during this time, Doehring said. In addition to encompassing various types of devotion — including love, family and religion — the songs come from different time periods. Some pieces, such as excerpts from “The Hermit Songs,” include lyrics from the eighth to 12th centuries, while others, such as Sheila Silver’s “On Loving,” feature music from 2015.

The theme of devotion also embodies Sato’s and Doehring’s personal devotions to music, Sato said.

“We want it to represent ourselves as artists — how we are devoted to our repertoire and how much we love it,” Sato said.

The concert provided Sato and Doehring with an opportunity to create a program of songs that they wanted to perform. Musicians are often assigned the pieces that they perform rather than getting to choose, Doehring said.

Dan Sato debuted a solo piano arrangement he created from a piece originally composed for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet. Elizabeth Billman | Asst. Photo Editor

Many of the songs Sato and Doehring performed included poetry, such as works of William Shakespeare, Paul Verlaine and Olivier Messiaen. Doehring sang the words to the poems while Sato played the music on the piano.

“It’s so nice and so exciting to be able to just put together a whole program of music that really resonates with you and that you feel means something greater and has a lot of this power of communication,” Doehring said.

Joel Jackson, who attended the concert, said that the incorporation of poetry in the music was his favorite part of the program. At the concert, Doehring sang the words of poems by Paul Verlaine while Sato played Claude Debussy’s music on the piano. Jackson said that he had never heard anyone sing to a composition by Debussy before.

Sato also debuted a solo piano arrangement of a piece that was originally composed by Maurice Ravel for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet at the concert. The process of converting the piece to be played on one instrument took him three years. He contrasted his own process of creating the solo piano arrangement to that of Ravel, who Sato said completed the composition quickly so that he could go on a boat trip. Sato continuously revised the arrangement so that it remained faithful to the original work, but still made sense when played on the piano.

“Oftentimes, we’re taught in school that we have to cover all these grounds that prove that we’re somehow very well-rounded musicians. But in the end, we do have to find what we truly love,” Sato said. “‘Why not go with what we feel very strongly about?’ So that’s our kind of homage to the idea of devotion.”