Peace

for SATB div. a cappella choir

Poetry and singing are beautifully combined in Yeh’s “Peace.” Sustained slow notes in the lower voices portray peaceful waters while top voices take the tune. As the piece progresses, it expands into divided choirs of treble and low voices. This vocal orchestration is then combined to form a climactic SSAATTBB choir. The rhetorical peaceful waters of peace swells and rises in the climax, then recedes back to repeated word, “peace, peace…” for a calm conclusion.

Edna Yeh is a composer, conductor, and singer based in Oakland, California. Her choral music spans both traditional classical styles and modern experimental works. She is a 2021 winner of the HerVoice competition sponsored by Chicago a cappella and the Kansas City Chorale, and is an active composer in the Project:Encore catalog. Recent commissions include works for Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble and Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus.

One of Edna’s greatest passions is music for women’s chorus. She is the founder and artistic director of Vox Alta, a collaborative chamber ensemble for sopranos and altos. Edna also serves as assistant conductor of Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus and music director of The Dulcet Four. She founded and formerly directed Concentus Women’s Chorus (Rochester, New York) and Pacific Women’s Chorus (San Diego, California), and was a guest conductor for Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble (Oakland, California).

She was born in Ellensburg, Washington, where she received her early musical training in piano and violin. Edna was first introduced to choral music as an undergraduate at Harvard University, and eventually earned her Master of Music (Music Theory) from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied music theory with Douglass Green, choral conducting with Morris Beachy and Craig Hella Johnson, and organ with Frank Speller.