Convergence: Beyond the Threshold

📸 John Valdivia / Crossroads Photography

Every June, I look forward to returning to one of many wonderful musical homes, namely the Victoria Bach Festival. I have a somewhat long history with VBF, ranging from my time as a young professional singer, and continuing through my stint as interim conductor in 2016. Since 2018, I have served as VBF assistant conductor and curator, supporting the inimitable Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez. 

Earlier this year, I was tasked with putting together a morning program for the festival. I immediately tapped my friends from Convergence to create a collaborative concert interweaving electric, instrumental, vocal, and dance elements. 

Given that this is a festival with “Bach” in its name, I knew programming a new music concert in the middle of non-Austin Texas might run a bit of a risk, even when considering the strides VBF has made in the past decade of expanding the repertoire to include living composers and underrepresented music creators. Much of this rep, however, gets presented in traditional forms (string quartet, chamber orchestra, etc.), whereas Convergence planned to do what convergence does: an amalgam of contemporary dance, moody electronic textures, and non-traditional use of instruments and voice. 

So, yeah, I may have had a few nerves going into this show.

Setting that aside, we put together a program which included Threshold Meditation by Pauline Oliveros, Für Alina by Arvo Pärt, my arrangement of Waking Life by Beck, and three new-ish works of mine (Beyond the Threshold, Atmosfera¹, and a reprise of Peace is Every Step from its premiere at April’s KMFA Day concert). All appropriately meditative works for the earlier hour, but otherwise, yeah… pretty contemporary stuff.

After a handful of rehearsals, we convened at our performance space at historical Victoria’s Nazarene Convent at 7:30am (zzz), did our sound/tech check, and awaited our audience. Fully expecting that we might be looking at a half-filled hall, the people started to trickle in, and after 15 minutes or so the room was full.

Whatever nerves I had about winning over the audience were quickly assuaged by its warm and effusive response to the program. Dedicating Peace is Every Step to the people of Uvalde in the wake of last week’s tragic shooting, we invited people to freely move around the space to hear the sound from different parts of the room, close their eyes, lie on the floor, etc., which a decent number of people took us up on.

After a rather deliberately long pause at the end, we were greeted with a heartfelt wave of applause and tears. This enthusiastic response truly moved me in a really profound way, one which I’ll be mentally unpacking for some time to come.

Thank you, dear Victoria Bach Festival friends, for being there and allowing us to challenge your ears and eyes this morning. And note to future me: if you truly believe in what it is you are doing and engage in it with an open heart, remember that you can trust your audience to respond in kind.