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Found Again

Lembit Beecher composer
John Rommereim composer
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate composer

Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro conductor

Release Date: March 21, 2025
Catalog #: NV6703
Format: Digital
21st Century
Vocal Music
Choir
Percussion
Voice

Award-winning choral ensemble Cantori New York presents FOUND AGAIN, a poignant exploration of human connection, self-growth, and collective pursuit of a better world. At once forward-looking and deeply introspective, this collection features three works espousing the power of transformative renewal.

Each presents a revised version of an earlier work, offering an opportunity for rediscovery, recentering, and new understanding. The New Amorous World, by Lembit Beecher, reflects on the limitations and possibilities of humankind in a spirited setting of texts by French utopian philosopher Charles Fourier. Beauty by Beauty, by John Rommereim, contrasts with a gentle, inward-looking setting of texts by three-time U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo on themes of courage, spiritual transformation, and of human connection to the earth and to one another. The title track – Found Again, by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate – presents a second setting of Joy Harjo poems exploring cultural connection, reconciliation, and renewal.

— Chelsea Harvey

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 The New Amorous World: I. The Calculus of Harmony Lembit Beecher Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Laura Weiner, horn; Nicolee Kuester, horn; Violetta Maria Norrie, harp 2:56
02 The New Amorous World: II. Interlude Lembit Beecher Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Laura Weiner, horn; Nicolee Kuester, horn; Violetta Maria Norrie, harp 1:13
03 The New Amorous World: III. Manias Relating to Love Lembit Beecher Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Laura Weiner, horn; Nicolee Kuester, horn; Violetta Maria Norrie, harp 5:05
04 The New Amorous World: IV. Passionate Attraction: Attractive Work Lembit Beecher Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Laura Weiner, horn; Nicolee Kuester, horn; Violetta Maria Norrie, harp 2:08
05 The New Amorous World: V. The Archibras: The Arm of Harmony Lembit Beecher Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Laura Weiner, horn; Nicolee Kuester, horn; Violetta Maria Norrie, harp 3:14
06 The New Amorous World: VI. Passionate Attraction: The Court of Love Lembit Beecher Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Laura Weiner, horn; Nicolee Kuester, horn; Violetta Maria Norrie, harp 6:26
07 The New Amorous World: VII. Interlude Lembit Beecher Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Laura Weiner, horn; Nicolee Kuester, horn; Violetta Maria Norrie, harp 1:13
08 The New Amorous World: VIII. Blind Savants Lembit Beecher Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Laura Weiner, horn; Nicolee Kuester, horn; Violetta Maria Norrie, harp 4:35
09 Beauty by Beauty John Rommereim Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Jared Soldiviero, vibraphone 6:03
10 Found Again: I. Interlude Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, narrator 0:22
11 Found Again: II. Beautiful Baby, Beautiful Child Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Jared Soldiviero, percussion; Shane Shanahan, percussion; Matt Kantorski, percussion; Every Voice Choirs Concert Choir | Nicole Becker, conductor 4:27
12 Found Again: III. Interlude Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, narrator 0:25
13 Found Again: IV. For Keeps Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Jared Soldiviero, percussion; Shane Shanahan, percussion; Matt Kantorski, percussion; Every Voice Choirs Concert Choir | Nicole Becker, conductor 5:04
14 Found Again: V. Interlude Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, narrator 0:22
15 Found Again: VI. Hesaketvmeset likes (Muscogee Creek Hymn) Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Jared Soldiviero, percussion; Shane Shanahan, percussion; Matt Kantorski, percussion; Every Voice Choirs Concert Choir | Nicole Becker, conductor 6:41
16 Found Again: VII. Interlude Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, narrator 0:26
17 Found Again: VIII. This Morning I Pray For My Enemies Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Cantori New York | Mark Shapiro, conductor; Jared Soldiviero, percussion; Shane Shanahan, percussion; Matt Kantorski, percussion; Every Voice Choirs Concert Choir | Nicole Becker, conductor 5:05

Recorded March 11, 2023 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn NY
Recording Session Producer & Engineer Andreas K. Meyer
Assistant Recording Session Engineer Nancy Conforti

Executive Producer Bob Lord

VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil
A&R Ivana Hauser

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Chelsea Olaniran
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

John Rommereim

Composer

John Rommereim is a musician who has pursued a varied career as a composer, conductor, keyboardist, and professor. His vocal music is distinguished by the way in which it uncovers the emotional core of each chosen text. This successful fusion of poetry and music might be exemplified best in the title song for this album, Into the Still Hollow, which has been praised by the New York Times for its "richly expressive" character. This album offers a selection of his vocal and chamber music performed by an array of celebrated artists.

Learn More

Cantori New York

Choir

Praised by The New York Times for its "spirit of exploration" and "virtuosity and assurance," Cantori imaginatively interweaves historical hidden gems with audacious premieres to create eclectic and dynamic musical experiences. A four-time winner of the ASCAP/Chorus America Adventurous Programming Award — more than any other chorus in the Eastern United States — Cantori has performed at all five major halls at Lincoln Center, as well as Zankel Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, and elsewhere. 

Learn More

Mark Shapiro

Conductor, Artistic Director

Six-time ASCAP Award-winner Mark Shapiro is active as a conductor of choruses, orchestras, and opera. He is Artistic Director of Cantori New York, Music Director of The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Principal Conductor of Marshall Opera, and Conductor Emeritus of The Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra, for which he served as Music Director for a decade. Characterizing his leadership as “insightful,” The New York Times praised his “virtuosity and assurance.” Opera News noted his “superb pacing and great confidence.” As of December 2024, Shapiro has led 25 performances in Carnegie Hall as well as concerts at Geneva’s Victoria Hall and the amphitheater at Vaison-la-Romaine (France), among other venues.

Opera credits include five productions with Juilliard Vocal Arts and appearances with American Opera Projects, Center for Contemporary Opera, Encompass New Opera, Opera Company of Middlebury, and Underworld Opera, as well as the opera programs of Hofstra, Mannes, and Rutgers.

In addition to his recordings with Cantori New York, Shapiro has released the album Glass Hour, featuring music for violin and orchestra by Philip Glass, with Irish violinist Gregory Harrington and the Janacek Philharmonic. In an album to be released on the Naxos label in 2025, Shapiro conducts The Cecilia Chorus of New York with orchestra, soloists, and children’s chorus, in the world premiere recording of Daron Hagen’s human rights cantata Everyone, Everywhere.

Shapiro has been a teaching artist with the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program and teaches conducting at the Juilliard School (Extension Division), Mannes (The New School), Teachers College (Columbia), and The Fort Greene Conducting Workshop, among others. Each summer he directs the conducting program of the European American Musical Alliance in Paris.

markshapiromusic.com

Lembit Beecher

Composer

Estonian-American composer, pianist, and animator Lembit Beecher writes “hauntingly lovely and deeply personal” music (San Francisco Chronicle) that stems from a fascination with the ways memories, histories, and stories permeate our contemporary lives. Threading together fragments of family lore, distantly experienced legends, imagery, and songs from Estonian folk culture, and explorations of place, migration, and ecology, he has created an idiosyncratic musical language full of fragile lyricism, propulsive energy, and visceral emotions. A childhood filled with family stories of homeland and displacement led to an interest in documentary, and beginning with his documentary oratorio And Then I Remember, Beecher has written numerous song cycles, cantatas, and chamber works incorporating interviews, personal testimonies, and historical writings, both as sung text and recorded audio.

Hailed for his collaborative spirit and “ingenious” interdisciplinary projects (Wall Street Journal), Beecher has served three-year terms as the Music Alive composer-in-residence of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the inaugural composer-in-residence of Opera Philadelphia, collaborating with devised theater actors, poets, ethnographers, and engineers, while incorporating Baroque instruments, electronically-controlled sound sculptures, and recorded interviews into his music. Recent premieres include the opera Sky on Swings for Opera Philadelphia (starring Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson), Tell Me Again for cellist Karen Ouzounian and the Orlando Philharmonic, A Year to the Day, for tenor Nicholas Phan and violinist Augustin Hadelich, and quartets for the Juilliard, Aizuri, and Lydian String Quartets.

lembitbeecher.com

Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate

Composer

Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate is a classical composer and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition. He is a 2022 Chickasaw Hall of Fame inductee and a 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from The Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2021, he was appointed a Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. Department of State.

Among many recent premieres, Tate’s highlights include commissions from the New York Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Cantori New York, and Turtle Island Quartet. In 2024, the Dover String Quartet toured Tate’s new quartet, Woodland Songs, Oklahoma’s Canterbury Voices premiered Tate’s first opera, Loksi’ Shaali’ (Shell Shaker), PostClassical Ensemble presented an all-American Indian program curated by Tate in Washington DC, and his popular work Chokfi’ was programmed by the Austin, Eureka, and Ft. Collins symphonies. Tate is currently at work on a new violin concerto for acclaimed violinist Irina Muresanu, as well as new works for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and North Carolina Symphony Orchestra.

Tate is a three-time commissioned recipient from the American Composers Forum, a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program recipient, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award recipient, a governor appointed Creativity Ambassador for the State of Oklahoma and an Emmy Award-winner for his work on the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority documentary The Science of Composing. His music was also featured in the HBO series Westworld.

Tate earned his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Northwestern University and his Master of Music in Piano Performance and Composition from The Cleveland Institute of Music. His middle name, Impichchaachaaha’, means “their high corncrib” and is his inherited traditional Chickasaw house name.

jerodtate.com

Every Voice Choirs Concert Choir

Chorus

Based at Columbia University Teachers College, EVC is unique for bringing exceptional choral training to ALL children. For EVC singers who seek rigorous choral training, the Concert Choir provides the opportunity to perform challenging works in collaboration with adult choirs and orchestras. EVC’s core choirs — Kids Choir and Youth Choir — welcome all singers ages 7–17 without audition. EVC VoiceAbility is designed to meet the needs of children ages 7–17 with disabilities. Cornerstone Intergenerational Choir is an intergenerational choir that invites all children to join with one or two of their trusted adults.

The EVC Concert Choir is designed to meet the needs of singers aged 11–17 who seek rigorous choral training and professional performance opportunities. The Concert Choir collaborates with adult vocal and instrumental ensembles as well as composers and other performing artists for performances, recordings, and other events. The Concert Choir has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall, Merkin Hall, CitiField, and other premier New York City venues in collaboration with adult choirs including The Cecilia Chorus, Cantori New York, and the Teachers College Choir. Other performances include Performa Biennial and appearances in film (Sony Pictures) and television.

everyvoicechoirs.org/evc-concert-choir

Nicole Becker

Artistic Director

Dr. Nicole Becker is the Artistic & Executive Director of Every Voice Choirs, which she co-founded in 2012. At Columbia University, she directs the Teachers College Community Choir and teaches piano and conducting. Becker received an undergraduate degree in Biology from Yale University, a masters in Piano Performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a doctorate in Music Education from Columbia University Teachers College. Becker’s academic research focuses on student-centered teaching approaches in ensemble settings and developing racial literacy through music education.

Notes

Texts by Charles Fourier (1772–1837), based on translations from the French by Jonathan Beecher and Richard Bienvenu

Commissioned by Cantori New York in 2014
New revised version commissioned and premiered by Cantori New York in 2023

“I was first introduced to the work of the French utopian philosopher Charles Fourier (1772–1837) through my father, Jonathan Beecher, a history professor at UC Santa Cruz, who spent a good portion of my early childhood writing a 600-page biography. Fourier’s writing teems with wild ideas couched in a strangely methodical style. And though Fourier’s trust in the better side of human nature often seems frustratingly naive, some of his beliefs seem profoundly forward thinking. Here was a thinker who at the turn of the 19th century was an ardent proponent of women’s rights, gay rights, and to a certain extent, gender self identification. There is a joyous, optimistic spark in Fourier’s work that stands in stark contrast to the realities of life in the revolutionary France in which he came of age.

For all of Fourier’s idiosyncratic imaginings (including carefully ordered bacchanalias of free love and tails ending in eyeballs!), he recognized the oppression and pain of society around him (‘Civilization’) and presented a solution (‘Harmony’). Who is to say that Fourier’s desire to build social order around attraction, both to each other and the work that we do, would not make the world a better place? There are many aspects of Fourier’s Harmony that are funny or ludicrous and I tried not to shy away from these, but my goal in this piece was to present glimpses of Fourier’s utopian vision with sincerity, not irony. Maybe we need more naiveté in this world?”

— Lembit Beecher

Text by Joy Harjo
New revised version premiered by Cantori New York in 2023

“I was inspired by the way this poem by Joy Harjo draws our attention to the wonder and mystery of the living presence that continually transforms and rearranges the world, ‘thought by thought, beauty by beauty.’ I can’t explain how it is that the call to cast away fear that abruptly appears in the last four lines grows out of this encounter with beauty in the poem’s beginning; nonetheless, it feels completely right. The connection isn’t spelled out, but it seems that the meaning of the poem emerges when we contemplate how these two things are linked: the beauty and intelligence that surrounds us in nature, and the call to cast out fear. Fearing death is certainly a reasonable thing to do. What could be more fearsome than death? Yet the poem tells us not to be afraid. Why not? For an answer, we look back to the first part of the poem.

This piece was written to honor the life of our dear friend Jean Ketter, a member of Vox Feminae, the choir that premiered it, and a long-time colleague of mine at Grinnell College. Jean was a both a gentle and a courageous person, and I hope that this piece has some of her spirit in it — an openness to beauty, and a refusal to let fear govern one’s life.”

— John Rommereim

Texts by Joy Harjo
New revised version commissioned and premiered by Cantori New York in 2023 A note from the composer

“Art inspires Art — Joy Harjo inspires me. Her poetry and narratives beckon, and I am a blessed man for having the opportunity to set her words to music. Joy’s insights into life resonate deeply for Indian Country yet are evocative of the universal human experience.

This set of vocal pieces are reflective tone poems of how Joy’s work affects my soul. As an homage to Joy, I have based the music in traditional Muscogee Creek hymns, which also inspire and inform her own compositions. I am honored to express the kinship I feel in Joy’s poetry.”

— Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate

The New Amorous World
Texts by Charles Fourier (1772–1837), based on translations from the French by Jonathan Beecher and Richard Bienvenu

The Calculus of Harmony
The calculus of Harmony is a mathematical theory of the sixteen social orders, only three of which are found on our globes: Savagery, Barbarism and Civilization. Soon they will come to an end, and all the nations of the earth will enter Simple Harmony. We will see the establishment of perpetual peace, universal unity, and the liberty of women.

Manias Relating to Love
Manias relating to love will be common in Harmony. Manias will be completely equal before the law in Harmony. People forget that love is the domain of unreason. The more unreasonable a thing is, the more closely it is associated with love. Some manias are spiritual; some manias are physical in Harmony. How can people assume that God intended love to be no more than an agent of a tyrannical bond called marriage? How shameful it would be if God had created the most noble of passion, only to yield the most contemptible result. How impertinent of man to impute such ineptness to God. Amorous heel scratching, hair plucking, fondness for lesbians, desire to eat spiders — all varieties of love.

The Archibras: The Arm of Harmony
Even though the race of mankind appears on all the globes the men and women living on the sun have a wondrous special trait: the arm of Harmony, the Archibras.

The arm of Harmony is an immensely long tail, 16 feet long!

The arm of Harmony ends with a little hand — it has a firm grip with retractable claws. It enables a man to swim like a fish, dig in the ground, slide down a tree, grab onto rigging.

Passionate Attraction: The Court of Love
The band of adventurers moves forward through a cloud of perfume and a rain of flowers. Choral groups and musicians welcome them with hymns of joy. Bowls of flaming punch are brought in and a hundred different nectars spurt from the open fountains. By means of an equation, a list of five or six sympathetic relationships is drawn up for each knight and lady.

The preludes are over, a salvo is fired. When the Head Fairy waves her wand a semi bacchanalia gets underway. Everybody surrenders themselves to the unfettered impulses of simple nature, supervised by the fairies and the genies who take great care to avoid wounding anyone’s pride. Everybody must have the chance to present themselves to those they desire.

Where no one is poor, and everyone can make love until extreme old age, a fixed portion of each day is devoted to love. Sheer physical attractiveness will not have the colossal influence in Harmony that it has in civilization. The Court of Love in just two or three hours’ time can cement a host of happy alliances.

Amorous life may seem bizarre, but the listeners are urged to suspend their judgment. If love is to be a source of generosity, we must base our speculations on the collective exercise of love.

Blind Savants
Some listeners will cry out “dream,” “visionary.” Patience! In a short time we will wake them from their own frightful dream, the dream of civilization.

Blind savants, just look at your cities paved with beggars, your citizens struggling against hunger, your battlefields and your social infamies. Do you still believe that civilization is the destiny of the human race?

Beauty by Beauty
Texts from “Morning Song” by Joy Harjo

The red dawn now is rearranging the earth
Thought by thought
Beauty by beauty
Each sunrise a link in the ladder
The ladder the backbone
Of shimmering deity
Child stirring in the web of your mother
Do no be afraid
Old man turning to walk through the door
Do not be afraid

Found Again
Interlude – Text by Joy Harjo

“One way to look at it,” he told me one day as I sawed through scales to make muscle for flying, “is that we are all lost, we were already lost the day we were born. In music, we can become tragically and beautifully lost… and found again.”

Beautiful Baby, Beautiful Child – Text by Joy Harjo

Beautiful baby, beautiful child.
Hokosucē herosē. Estuce herosē.

The sky is your blanket; the earth is your cradle.
Sutvt vccetv cēnakēt os. Ekvnv cen topv hakes.

Your mother rocks you close to her heart.
ēfekkē temposen ce hanceces.

Your father holds up the sky.
Cerkē sutv hvlwen kvwapes.

Beautiful baby, beautiful child.
Hokosucē herosē. Estuce herosē.

Interlude – Text by Joy Harjo
I confided in him the longing I was afraid to name. I told
him I wrote to leave a trail so that love can find us. I told
him that poetry is lonely without music. I wanted to
tell him everything, the way you do when you meet the
one who’s going to open all the doors to your heart.

For Keeps – Text by Joy Harjo
Sun makes the day new.
Tiny green plants emerge from the earth.
Birds are singing the sky into place.
There is nowhere else I want to be but here.
I lean into the rhythm of your heart to see where it will
take us.
We gallop into a warm, southern wind.
I link my legs to yours and we ride together,
Toward the ancient encampment of our relatives.
Where have you been? they ask.
And what has taken you so long?
That night after eating, singing, and dancing
We lay together under the stars.
We know ourselves to be part of mystery.
It is unspeakable.
It is everlasting.
It is for keeps.

Interlude – Text by Joy Harjo
When I returned to my ancestral grounds there stood
my relatives welcoming me home. We danced all
summer. We visited all the other grounds, sharing food, songs, and nights that made concentric circles of stories on the road to sunrise.

Hesaketvmeset likes (Muscogee Creek Hymn) – Traditional
Hesaketvmeset likes (God dwells),
Nak omvlkvn hahicvtet (He created all things),
Em penkalit, mekusapis (I fear Him, so I pray),
Cv cukwvn es vkvsamis (I praise him with my mouth).
Em vhakv pu mvhayat (His laws that He teaches us),
Nak hotcen hahyet pu’ mvtes (He made and gives to us in writing), Mvhakv mehenwvt omes (His laws are very true),
Cv feken es vkvsamis (I believe him with my heart).
Vn nettv vhoske ‘monken (While I still have days remaining), Cesvs vm ehake ‘munken (While Jesus still waits for me), Elkv vm oreko munken (Before death comes to me),
Mekusapu hakiyate (I want to become a Christian).

Interlude – Text by Joy Harjo
When I woke up from a forty-year sleep, it was by a
Song. I could hear the drums in the village. I felt the
Sweat of ancestors in each palm. The singers were
Singing the world into place, even as it continued to fall Apart. They were making songs to turn hatred into love.

This Morning I Pray For My Enemies – Text by Joy Harjo
And whom do I call my enemy?
An enemy must be worthy of engagement.
I turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking. It’s the heart that asks the question, not my furious mind. The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun.
It sees and know everything.
It hears the gnashing even as it hears the blessing. The door to the mind should only open from the heart. An enemy who gets in risks the danger of becoming a friend.