Amanda Harberg - Suite for Wind Quintet
Cantus
Furlana
Fantasia
Cabaletta

The U.S. Army Woodwind Quintet
MSG Robert Aughtry, flute
SFC Meredeth Rouse, oboe
SFC Aaron Scott, clarinet
SFC Patricia Morgan, bassoon
SFC Aaron Cockson, horn

Allison Loggins-Hull - Homeland
SSG Sonia Dell’Omo, flute

Lori Laitman - I Never Saw Another Butterfly*
The Butterfly
Yes, That’s The Way Things Are
4. The Garden
6. The Old House
SSG Bethsaida Ramos, soprano
SSG Emily Kerski, clarinet

Augusta Read Thomas - Plea for Peace
SSG Nicole Bouffard, soprano
SSG Sergey Prokofyev, violin
SSG Jordan Hendy, violin
SSG Erica Schwartz, viola
SSG Aaron Ludwig, cello

Jessie Montgomery - Strum
SSG Sergey Prokofyev, violin
SSG Jordan Hendy, violin
SSG Erica Schwartz, viola
SSG Aaron Ludwig, cello

*PROGRAM NOTES/SONG TEXTS
In 1995, soprano Lauren Wagner asked composer Lori Laitman to write a song cycle using texts from I Never Saw Another Butterfly, an astonishing collection of poems written by children from the Terezin Concentration Camp.

The Butterfly
This poem was written by Pavel Friedmann, born January 7, 1921. He was deported to Terezin on April 26, 1942 and died in Auschwitz on September 29, 1944.

The last, the very last
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone…
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure because it wished to
kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here,
in the ghetto.

Yes, That’s The Way Things Are
This poem was written by three children – Kosek, Löwy, and Bachner – who wrote under the name Koleba. Miroslav Kosek was born on March 30, 1932 at Horelice in Bohemia and was sent to Terezin on February 15, 1942. He died at Auschwitz on October 19, 1944. Hanus Löwy was born in Ostrava on June 29, 1931, deported to Terezin on September 30, 1942, and died in Auschwitz on October 4, 1944. No information survives on Bachner.

I. In Terezin in the so-called park
A queer old granddad sits
Somewhere there in the so-called park.
He wears a bear down to his lap
And on his head, a little cap.

II. Hard crusts he crumbles in his gums,
He’s only got one single tooth.
My poor old man with working gums,
Instead of soft rolls, lentil soup.
My poor old greybeard!

The Garden
This poem was written by Franta Bass, born in Brno on September 4, 1930. He was sent to Terezin on December 2, 1941 and died in Auschwitz on October 28, 1944.

A little garden
Fragrant and full of roses
The path is narrow
And a little boy walks along it.

A little boy, a sweet boy,
Like that growing blossom.
When the blossom comes to bloom,
The little boy will be no more.

The Old House
This poem was also written by Franta Bass and concludes the song cycle.

Deserted here, the old house
stands in silence, asleep.
The old house used to be so nice,
before, standing there,
it was so nice.
Now it is deserted,
rotting in silence --
What a waste of houses,
a waste of hours.