Elevation: Are You Looking For Me?
Meyer Media

All nine world premiere recordings, the works performed by the Delaware-based vocal ensemble Elevation on its sophomore effort Are You Looking For Me? cut as wide a swath as any choral set you might imagine. Stylistically, it ranges from one inspired by eleventh-century Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen to pieces rooted in gospel, hip-hop, spirituals, and R&B—music designed not just for the concert stage but also the church and the streets. And with one work written in response to the 2020 death of George Floyd, it's also a collection painfully aware of what's happening in the world today. As diverse as the material is, it's united by an implicit belief in the possibility of a better world, one where hate, racism, and violence are extinguished and kindness, acceptance, and harmony take their place.

At thirty-nine voices strong, Elevation, a branch of Elevate Vocal Arts, delivers its message with passion and conviction, regardless of whether the work calls for refined dignity or raw expression. The set-list reflects thoughtful curation in its examinations of faith and the transformative power art wields. As dominant as the singers are, some pieces include strong instrumental contributions from Erik Meyer on piano, violinist Margaret Dziekonski, violist Shannon Merlino, bassist Hans Hibbard, drummer Stephen Tipping, and synthesizer player Steven Page. Doing double duty, Meyer's also credited as the composer of The Gift to Sing.

The album starts strongly with Faith Zimmer's treatment of Hildegard's chant setting of “Laus Trinitati” as a springboard for her own creation. As the chant had to do with the Holy Trinity and God as the source of all creation, Zimmer's same-titled work attempts to render majestic wonder and ineffable mystery into musical form. In this succinct opening salvo, the vocal tapestry Elevation creates, especially when delivered at maximum volume, is a dynamic wonder. Bringing the recording back to terra firma, Were You There?, Christopher Harris's arrangement of a Negro spiritual first published in 1899, updates the spiritual for our times. Baritone Burjis Cooper solos against the full vocal ensemble in a poignant setting grounded in African-American experience and the suffering of brutalized Black people. After the hush of its hymnal beginning, the music swells as Cooper and the choir passionately emote about religious crucifixion and the trembling such matters induce. For his second piece on the album, Harris uses text by Devondra F. Banks to exalt the human spirit in the rapturous, piano-enhanced Joy Never Leaves.

Words by Indian mystic poet Kabir are the foundation for Dominick DiOrio's grand meditation Are You Looking For Me?, text that eloquently argues that the divine isn't found in everyday materials but in the inner self and the oneness of humanity. The soaring voices of sopranos Rachel Clark and Kethrellan Peterson are featured, with accents of gong and Tavener-like crotales bolstering the mystical tone. Written in response to Floyd's murder, Reginal Wright's Tides isn't a surrender to despair but rather a hopeful plea for change. Piano, violin, and viola set a graceful scene for the vocalists, whose heartfelt declarations (e.g., “Hope is the tide that rises”) communicate the sincerity and importance of Wright's affirmative message. Meyer's spiritually replenishing compositional contribution to the album builds on the poem “The Gift to Sing” by James Weldon Johnson, who's best known for writing the lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Lori C. Hicks crafted Elevate with hip-hop in mind, her goal being to incorporate a genre underrepresented in the choral literature into this vocal ensemble context. Powered by bass, drums, and synthesizer, the vocalists testify exuberantly using lyrics borrowed from Sister Sledge, Stevie Wonder, Queen Latifah, Aaliyah, and other genre-associated figures. Nudging the album in a metaphysical direction, Lee R. Kesselman's tick-tocking Hymn to Time ponders temporality, with, reminiscent of Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence, music that “develops in a circle, starting and finishing at its most philosophical points.” It's science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin, however, who authored the text, which explores how we perceive time and grapple with it. At album's end, Kevin B. James' ecstatic gospel song You Are Worthy of All The Praise places us firmly in the church, with worship leader Jillian Harrison-Jones leading the choir and a muscular backdrop of organ, bass, and drums providing rhythmic thrust.

In a statement included in the release booklet, Arreon A. Harley-Emerson, the Artistic Director & CEO of Elevate Vocal Arts, describes how Are You Looking For Me? embodies the organization's values and provides a forum for the artistic exploration of faith, resilience, and identity. While he's clearly not an impartial observer, his contention that the collection “showcases the choir's range of vocal artistry through music, storytelling, and spoken word, and stands as a testament to the power of song and story” is certainly supported by the stylistically panoramic material featured on the release.

September 2024