The Summer Day (SSA)

SSA, piano, flute obbligato

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Such is the emphatic query in “The Summer Day,” the first movement of It Is Happiness, a twenty minute choral suite for treble voices and chamber orchestra featuring fresh and lively settings of iconic poetry by Mary Oliver, one of America’s most significant and best-selling poets. A master of vibrant and illuminating text setting, Joan Szymko is at her best here. Szymko is privileged to be one of just a handful of composers ever granted permission to set Oliver’s poetry to music. This stand-alone movement has been rescored for mixed voices by the composer with piano and flute obbligato accompaniment. A fantastic concert opener or closer!