MUSIC
“Every poem, or movement of poems, possesses its own song, shape, form; it is my job to listen deeply, to seek the song the poem is already singing.”
- Rebecca Gayle Howell
32 Poems
WIR
A new song cycle
Written by Rebecca Gayle Howell
Composed by Reena Esmail
Commissioned and premiered by violinist Hilary Hahn & baritone Matthias Goerne for their 2026 US tour
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In this time of constant noise, Wir invites us to remember that silence is the nourishing gift we now most need.
Written by poet Rebecca Gayle Howell, this new bespoke text moves us through a lyric elegy for the quiet we risk losing. As Howell prays for its return, she weaves her own English poetry with German fragments from Paul Celan, a poet survivor of the Holocaust who knew all too well the dangers caused by constant din.
We begin with a sober chant— Die Urnen der Stille sind leer / Die Urnen der Stille sind leer / Silence, your ash is spread. As the cycle advances, the two poets call and respond to each other in a dialogue that echoes across the canyons of history into our present hope that it’s not too late to recover solitude.
Wir is composed by Reena Esmail for violinist Hilary Hahn and baritone Matthias Goerne. At their request, there is no piano between them: audiences will experience only violin and voice, accompanied by nothing but the silence the piece seeks. These two exceptional voices meet one another in disquiet and rest, requiem and revelation as they reveal what the divine Noone says once the noise falls away.
Wir – the German word for We. Poly-vocal, bilingual, and minimal, Esmail & Howell's Wir whirls with faith that silence can still guide us back to one another and to ourselves.
October 24
World Premiere
Spivey Hall
Morrow, GA
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October 25
Hodgson Concert Hall
Athens, GA
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November 30
Davies Symphony Hall
San Francisco, CA
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December 02
Granada Theater
Santa Barbara, CA
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December 03
Disney Hall
Los Angeles, CA
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December 05
The Baker-Baum Concert Hall
San Diego, CA
A WINTER BREVIARY
“In writing A Winter Breviary,
Reena Esmail and I both wanted to write an interfaith celebration of these cold and holy days, something that could offer choirs of different traditions an epiphany journey toward the divinity that surrounds us all.”
-Rebecca Gayle Howell
forOxford University Press blog
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A Winter Breviary is a set of three interfaith eco-carols that trace a journey through the dark woods on solstice, in search of the light. The poems follow the Christian canonical hours and the music maps onto Hindustani ragas for those same hours.
I. We Look for You (Evensong – Raag Hamsadhwani)
II. The Year’s Midnight (Matins – Raag Malkauns)
III. The Unexpected Early Hour (Lauds – Raag Ahir Bhairav)
Written by Rebecca Gayle Howell
Composed by Reena Esmail
Published by Oxford University Press
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Performed annually by choirs like the The Sixteen, The Yale Ensemble, Kathmandu Chorale, & the National Symphonic Chorus at Carnegie Hall
Premiered in the US by the LA Master Chorale
Premiered in the UK by the BBC Singers
Featured on BBC 3
Featured in Carols for Choirs 6
Recording featured on The Wise Men and the Star: A Christmas Collection by The Sixteen(2025)
Recording featured on Choral Music from Oxford with the Gesualdo Six (2022)
Recording featured as the title tracks on A Winter Breviary: Choral Works for Christmas with St. Martin’s Voices (2023)
SAY YOUR NAME
“Suffrage means:
it is to each other we belong.”
“We say the word “suffrage” when discussing voting rights, but do we know what it means? The word has roots in late Middle English and Latin, meaning “intercessory prayer,” the kind of prayer one offers on behalf of another. Trust the Ballot explores this connection, understanding that when we vote we don’t just voice our own opinion. We join our neighbors in a sacred act that is both solitary and communal, together praying to our larger democratic will for human rights and a prosperous commonwealth.” — Rebecca Gayle Howell
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Written by Rebecca Gayle Howell
Composed by Reena Esmail
Published by A Piece of Sky Music (ASCAP)
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Say Your Name is a voting-rights cantata composed by Reena Esmail and written by Rebecca Gayle Howell. Here is the resilient story of a woman named Democracy, a woman battered by gaslighting and confusion. As she finds the courage to remember who she is, she learns what we all must: that to guard our thoughts is to guard our nation.
Say Your Name was premiered on the West Coast on April 27, 2024 by the Kirkland Choral Society and Philharmonia Northwest in Seattle, WA, featuring soloists Stacey Mastrian and Danielle Reutter-Harrah and introduced by Charles Douglas III, Executive Director of Common Power.
Originally commissioned by Amherst College Choir and Orchestra and premiered on the East Coast on November 5, 2022 at Amherst College, Amherst MA by Sherezade Panthaki, soprano; Alice Rogers, soprano; Amherst Choir and orchestra, Arianne Abela, conductor.
INTERGLOW
Written by Rebecca Gayle Howell
Composed by Reena Esmail
Interglow is a call-and-response community meditation, written for the COVID-19 quarantine. Commissioned by Salistina Los Angeles and premiered on February 12, 2021. Published by A Piece of Sky Music (ASCAP).
Interglow is written for audience participation. Want to contribute your voices to Interglow? Find out more here.