World premiere of Filipino immigrant song at Carnegie Hall this summer

Filipino immigrant stories along with other Asian and Pacific Islander legacies will be celebrated through song at Carnegie Hall on June 10, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. Produced by National Concerts, this historic collaboration by API composers, choral ensembles, community elders, culture bearers, and cultural practitioners is centered on the world premiere of “Wide American Earth” by award-winning Filipino composer Saunder Choi. Based on poems by Aileen Cassinetto and Carlos Bulosan, Choi’s commissioned piece brings to the fore issues surrounding belonging and inclusion in the expansive, multitudinal space that is America. “I first came across Carlos Bulosan’s works while researching Filipino-American narratives,” says Choi. “Bulosan paints a rich imagery of what this yearning was like in the middle of the 20th century, while Aileen Cassinetto, a contemporary Filipino-American poet, offers a present-day perspective of the ambition and longing held deep in the hearts of immigrants.”

Saunder Choi has previously been commissioned by Grammy winning choirs such as Conspirare, Pacific Chorale, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale; as well as international commissions by the  SYC Ensemble Singers (Singapore), the Earth Choir (Taiwan), and Taipei Philharmonic Choir and Women’s Choir. As an arranger and orchestrator, Los Angeles-based Choi has written for Tony-Award winner Lea Salonga, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa, San Francisco Symphony, the New York Gay Men’s Chorus, and Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, among others.

The concert’s guest conductor is Dr. Jace Kaholokula Saplan, a Filipino and Native Hawaiian artistic director, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa assistant professor, and Obama Foundation Leaders Asia-Pacific program alumnus. Tickets for this performance will go on sale through the Carnegie Hall box office on March 14. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2023/06/10/National-Masterwork-Chorus--Orchestra-0800PM.