Leaving Home from Three Songs from Athena (Shruthi Rajasekar)

Three Songs from Athena
Music by Shruthi Rajasekar, b. 1996
Poetry by Athena Kildegaard, n.d.
I. Morning Song
II. Leaving Home
III. Friends

Score source: https://www.shruthirajasekar.com/

Rachel Velarde, mezzo-soprano
Luis Rodriguez-Morales, piano

Named by The Guardian UK as a composer "who will enrich your life", Shruthi Rajasekar is an Indian-American musician exploring identity, community, and joy. Rajasekar’s music draws from her training in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) and Western classical idioms. Composition honors include the KHORIKOS ORTUS International Award and the Global Women in Music Award from the United Nations & Donne in Musica. As a soprano and Carnatic vocalist, Rajasekar has been recognized by the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and the internationally-televised Carnatic Music Idol USA. A graduate of Princeton University, Rajasekar was awarded a Marshall Scholarship in the UK for graduate studies in composition and ethnomusicology.
https://www.shruthirajasekar.com/bio

Athena Kildegaard lives in prairie pothole country — that is, Morris, Minnesota — where she’s a lecturer at the University of Minnesota.
Here are a few things she’s done:
cleaned creamed corn machines
nursed two beautiful children
eaten fresh pineapple
listened to her husband play banjo
worked as a resident artist in Minnesota, Mississippi, and Texas
taught 6th grade, high school English, and at the college level freshman composition, creative writing, environmental ethics
read War and Peace three times
received grants from the Lake Region Arts Council and the Minnesota State Arts Board
received the 2011 LRAC/McKnight Fellowship
https://athenakildegaard.com/about/

II. Leaving Home
Sun in your tomatoes,
Wind in the yellow lilies
bees secure their futures,
how does the earth turn
but by gravity?

How certain I am
of loving you, papa,
and how certain,
like the bee, of leaving.

No, what do I know
of bees’ desires?
What do I know of wind?
Except it carries me
out the narrow door.
defying gravity.
defying gravity.

The Women Sing!
A recital honoring the NATS 2020-2021 celebration of women composers.
Presented during the the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Cal Western Region Conference
January 17, 2021

Rachel Velarde, mezzo-soprano
Luis Rodriguez-Morales, piano
Recorded January 9, 2021 at Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, AZ
Videography and editing by Maya James, https://mayapapayapictures.com/