High school choir performs world premiere of song at JFK Library

by Stacia Naoum

The Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School Chamber Choir sang the world premiere of a composition at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on April 15. The music, composed by Jacob Narverud, was inspired by the Robert Bode poem “Healing Heart” and was commissioned by the choir as part of a grieving process.

“A couple of years ago, the BBH community lost some students to some really terrible circumstances,” said Emily Garlock, vocal music director at the high school. “We had a lot of feelings of loss and grief here at school, and we were really struggling to find an outlet for them. I reached out to some choral director friends of mine … to have a piece commissioned for my choir. I wanted to ask someone to write a piece for the BBH community to promote healing and strength in times of sadness and loss.”

Garlock connected with Narverud, a professional choral composer in New York, and asked him to write an original arrangement for the choir to perform as a way of healing for the BBH community.

“He gave me some ideas and within a few days emailed me a poem that he thought would be perfect for what we were looking for,” she said. “Once I approved the text, he wrote the piece of music for the Chamber Choir.”

The choir rehearsed the song throughout the school year and called Narverud via Facetime in March before the Boston performance. In addition to giving the choir constructive feedback, Narverud did a Q&A with the class about being a young composer and the benefits of music education in schools.

“It was an incredible experience for our students to see someone who was really doing what he set out to do with his life, regardless of the struggles it took him to get there,” said Garlock.

The choir performed for 30 minutes in the atrium of the JFK Presidential Library.

“The room was incredible, and we were lucky enough to have Mr. Narverud actually come to see the world premiere of our piece and spend time with the students after they performed,” said Garlock.

The BBHHS choirs and orchestras take trips every two years together as a performance opportunity, said Garlock. In Boston, the two high school orchestras and the treble and symphonic choirs performed outside of Faneuil Hall Marketplace for Boston Marathon spectators. The students also toured historic sites, such as the Lexington and Concord Battle greens, Plymouth Plantation and Boston Harbor.

“We are so thankful that our district allows us to take these incredible trips with our students and that we are able to give them these incredible opportunities that cannot be found inside of a classroom,” said Garlock. “To perform in the JFK Library space was a highlight of my teaching career, and I am so incredibly proud of the dedication, talent and joy that my students performed with on that day.”

Video of the performance of “Healing Heart” can be viewed on the choir’s Facebook page, Brecksville Broadview Heights Choir.

Commissioned choir piece based on poem

Composer Jacob Narverud based the Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School Choir’s commissioned piece on the following poem, “Healing Heart” by Robert Bode:

Here, time is moving

In quiet breaths and

In the long, slow turn of seasons.

Here, the pain of love’s arrow,

once scarlet,

Fades to memory.

Here, the sigh of tides

And fall’s surrender into snow

Mark a white forgetting.

Here, layers of wonder

And the heart’s gentle song

Call us out again

into the morning

into the light.

Featured image photo caption: The Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School Chamber Choir performs “Healing Heart” at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.