Neighbors (EP)

A MUSICAL REFLECTION ON COMMUNITY, RESISTANCE, AND COLLECTIVE VOICE

Neighbors is a three-track EP brought together by Matt Haimovitz – joined by his colleagues and students from the University of Minnesota – as a tribute to the people of Minneapolis and Saint Paul who bravely endured the I.C.E. occupation. Themes of community, remembrance, and the power of collective voice run through works of Ernest Bloch, David C. Dickau, and Julius Klengel. Ernest Bloch’s Prayer (1924), originally part of From Jewish Life, is reimagined by composer Luna Pearl Woolf and librettist David Van Taylor for violin, cello and choir. Van Taylor’s text is based on the words of Minneapolis activists and the resulting work is renamed Neighbors: A Prayer.  Haimovitz writes, “the violin line joins the cello in solidarity, the choir replaces the wordless piano, transforming the accompaniment into the harmonious incantation of a congregation.”

Former Minnesota resident David C. Dickau’s I Am Spirit, for violin, cello, soprano, and choir, speaks to love nourishing the human spirit, overcoming the darkness of the times. Julius Klengel’s Hymnus (1920), for twelve cellos, performed by Haimovitz and his students, offers a wordless space of reflection and yearning. Together, the three tracks form a continuum in which lived testimony and a communal plea become a musical document of memory, witness, and solidarity.

This is an EP, not available as a physical product.