A Clearfield debut piece for Orchestra's Camden visit

Composer Andrea Clearfield's catalog of works has often been inspired by women's issues and poetry. So when Philadelphia Orchestra's animateur Thomas Cabaniss asked if she was interested in writing a piece based on some heartfelt verses by local women, the answer was yes.

The occasion was the orchestra's fifth neighborhood concert, to be held tonight in Camden, where it has done several community collaborations.

For this one, 12 women from the Linden Elders' Center expressed their thoughts and feelings toward younger generations. The women's deeply felt words were shaped for narration by the orchestra's longtime student concert storyteller, Charlotte Blake Alston.

Clearfield's debut piece for the orchestra, "Kabo Omowale" ("Welcome Home Child"), will receive its world premiere tonight, featuring members of the Camden Creative Arts High School Choir and the Christina Cultural Center Choir, both led by Suzzette Ortiz.

At conductor Rossen Milanov suggestion, more choral voices - the Temple University Music Prep Children's Choir, led by Stephen Caldwell, and professional vocalists from the Philadelphia Singers - were added to balance with the orchestra sound. Also on the program are some well-known indoor fireworks: Bernstein's Overture to "Candide," Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" Suite, the "1812 Overture" by Tchaikovsky and a final, Sousa flourish - "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

Said the composer, "This time, we also include the sense of community, not just bringing the orchestra to Camden but receiving what the people of Camden are bringing to us."

The ebullient Clearfield's music has been played by virtually every local organization, with upcoming works for Dolce Suono and the Network for New Music. She's doing a chamber work for the Debussy Trio in Los Angeles and a cantata for the Turtle Creek Chorale in Texas.

For two decades, Clearfield has played and accompanied at the Sarasota, Fla., Music Festival, danced with the Group Motion company and taught an interdisciplinary arts course at the University of the Arts. For even longer, she has held chamber salons in her spacious Center City home where friends and colleagues enjoy richly diverse combinations of artistic talent.

Ortiz, who once played in a Latin band with Clearfield, gave her a recording of songs from the Camden choir's African tour and a DVD of the women and high school children the choir members had met.

Clearfield's compositional method is to immerse herself in research - in this case African music, spirituals and gospel, early American religious and Appalachian music, Southern choirs, jazz, R&B, blues and hip-hop. Often, she then heads to the peaceful artist's colony Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to write.

"Working with Charlotte was an amazing process," said Clearfield, "because we wanted to craft a piece that would incorporate the memories, dreams and hopes of these women with a dramatic trajectory. They wanted to provide guidance to a younger generation, what their values are and what is important in life, as well as what they sang to their children and the gift of music they played in the home."

Clearfield recalled one meeting with the women where "there was singing, hand-clapping, even some dancing, with talk of gospel, jazz, blues, Motown, classical, spirituals. I left with just this full feeling in my heart that we were all in it together, translating it all through a musical language into a familiar, open door."

Alston sifted the passionate words and sent them piecemeal to Clearfield, who finished the choral parts in February and the orchestration in late May.

"Charlotte was very respectful of how she was embodying these women's thoughts and dreams, and kept it always interactive," recalled Clearfield. "Along the way, I played them some parts though a computer . . . and it was so exciting for them. They suggested a section illustrating handclapping games and double-dutch, even some hip-hop.

"And one youngster showed me beat boxing, which replicates the sound of a drum with the voice. For the poetry at the end, the energy was so high they suggested tympani and trumpets, which I used."

An African birth ritual of whispering a newborn's name in the baby's ear begins the piece, she said. "The libretto goes through a new home in America, explaining how people found refuge in spirituals and how the elders represent us by finding sacred space in voices."

Clearfield considers composer Margaret Garwood as her mentor, and values their relationship immensely. Garwood is well-known through her magnificent choral works and several superb operas. She recently completed "The Scarlet Letter," whose first act was performed by the Academy of Vocal Arts, with a complete staging scheduled for an upcoming season.

"Peggy [Garwood] was my piano teacher when I was 18 at Muhlenberg College," Clearfield said. "I didn't know a woman composer before her, and she woke me up by capturing the soul of each character with soaring lines in her operas, always revealing the underlining message.

"She's also a very compassionate and respectful person. Whenever I get into trouble, she reminds me to LISTEN, saying the craft will come later, for me to listen for what the piece needs and wants - my inner knowing." *

E-mail Tom Di Nardo at dinardt@

phillynews.com.

Gordon Theater, Rutgers University, 3rd and Pearl sTreets, Camden, 7 tonight, free, 215-893-1988, www.philorch.org/neighborhood.