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About the Composer
Saunder Choi
Cantus
Light Years to Lebanon (TB divisi & piano)
A love letter across continents, Light Years to Lebanon captures queer longing, distance, and the hope that transcends both.
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Light Years to Lebanon
TB choir (divisi) and piano
Light Years to Lebanon is a choral setting of a queer love letter stretched across continents. Born from a real story shared at West Hollywood Pride, it captures the ache of distance, the weight of secrecy, and the enduring hope that love—burning bright—can transcend time, borders, and silence.
Composer’s Notes
The tradition of queer love letters always intersects with the idea of distance. Just as queer people meet themselves twice in the process of coming out, they also encounter longing twice—first for the impossible lover (the unrequited love, the straight crush), and then for the lover who becomes unreachable due to time, distance, or circumstance. It is a love that is both familiar and estranged.
Light Years to Lebanon explores this kind of love. It stems from a fragment of a love story shared with writer Brian Sonia-Wallace during West Hollywood Pride, as part of his Pride Poets installation, where LGBTQ+ poets are invited to write for Pride attendees based on their personal stories. A young woman from Lebanon, now living in the United States, asked Brian to write for her partner, who remains in Lebanon. Her longing was palpable—an ache not just for a distant lover, but also for a beloved homeland and a life that had to be kept secret.
Yet, more than anything, her story beamed with hope— a hope that when love burns bright enough, it can bend space and time, and travel light years. With her permission, the resulting poem has been set to music.
This work was commissioned for Cantus’ The Secret Letter through the generous support of Tom Arneson. It was premiered in the Twin Cities in April 2025. Special thanks to acclaimed tenor Haitham Haidar for help with the Arabic text. This version is simplified for TB choir and piano.
-Saunder Choi
Text
My love, you love
the mountains, they rise forever,
the sunset, with its promise
of reunion, of stars
filling the dark space
in between.
My love, you love
the smell of sumac, the light
of bakery windows inviting families
to break their fasts, as we
feed each other kisses
in the shadow
Of the olive grove.
Our love forbidden, secret, aching
with a distance that defies time.
Each departure a glimmer of tears
across the expanse of sky.
Light years to Lebanon,
we keep climbing
our love a mountain
Piercing the horizon
where sun and sea kiss
All the shadows away.
Light years to Lebanon
under a shared sky
burning with salt and hunger
we trek through the dark
and follow the stars.
My love, you love
the mountains, they rise forever,
the sunset, with its promise
of reunion
Arabic text and translation
(Lebanese dialect):
ya habibti – my dear (feminine)
/ja ḥa’bib.ti/
assama – the sky
/as.sa’ma/
annujum – the stars
/an.nu’ʒum/
nel ta’a – we meet
/nɪl ta’ʔa/
samawet dawiye – light years
/’sa.ma.wet dao’ʔi.yɛ/
-Brian Sonia-Wallace
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