voskresinja (Воскресіння)

Commissioned by Kappella Kyrie Slavic Chamber Choir (Dr. Melanie Turgeon, dir.)

When Ukraine was invaded in February 2022 I watched both with horror and also intense admiration for a people that so readily adopted varying methods of resistance - be it taking up arms, programming drones, or increasing the country’s resilience through an array of creative, nonviolent means. On the eve of Orthodox Easter 2022, Lviv based poet, artist, publisher, and political activist Marjana Savka posted her poem “Here Lies the Lord” to her Facebook account. My setting of this poem expresses the intense energy of Ukraine’s fierce resistance in the theatre of war imposed upon it, the beauty of the selfless acts performed by the subject of the poem to serve his fellow countrymen, also the peace in the knowledge that although this brave hero’s body was struck down, his spirit is resurrected and his brave, kind, selfless spirit lives on.