Welcome to the last concert of our 2024 - 2025 season advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community through new choral music (or choral classics presented in a new way!). We acknowledge the many challenges our world is facing. We are more determined than ever to continue our mission of fostering a community that celebrates the significance of presence, love, and advocacy for our LGBTQIA+ community.

We continue to create a community that nurtures love, understanding, and positivity. Your support can help us achieve this!

Your donation, regardless of its size, will make a significant difference in the lives of your LGBTQIA+ neighbors and help you become an advocate for the arts and your community.

Donate Today and get the Un/Heard T-Shirt

This concert will last 1 hour with a brief intermission. Below are our featured composers. See you soon!

Home, Here, Now

“Do Not Leave Your Cares At the Door” has its roots in old-time gospel and popular American folk song, reflecting my own upbringing in the Carolinas and Appalachian Ohio. By all means, go ahead and sing this song with the vocal nuance and abandon which these genres suggest!
– Elizabeth Alexander
Do not leave your cares at the door.
Do not leave them there when you come into this place.
Be open to forgiveness and transformation
—Come on in; you are welcome here;
And do not leave your cares at the door.
Bring your pain and sorrow and joy,
There’s a place for them upon the altar of life.
Be open to forgiveness and transformation
—Come on in; you are welcome here;And do not leave your cares at the door.
This is a place of grace,
Of losing and finding the way upon the winding road,
Meeting and parting,Stumbling and starting over.
Every journey is sacred here, even yours.
Do not leave your cares at the door.
Do not leave them there when you come into this place.
Be open to forgiveness and transformation
—Come on in; you are welcome here;
And do not leave your cares at the door.
Amen.
Original poem © 1997 by Norman V. Naylor. Adapted text © 2006 by Elizabeth Alexander.
In response to the question, “How do you define home?”, I turned to the poetry of my good friend and multidisciplinary artist, Rūta Kuzmickas: a Lithuanian-born pianist, poet, and visual artist who has lived in many different parts of the world and has a unique interpretation of what home means to her. Rūta’s way of making sense of her world was to devise a multi-movement poem, organized as a compass with each cardinal direction depicting a place she has lived: Houston (south), Lithuania (east), and Las Vegas (west). north speaks globally of North America. As the poem circulates through each direction, a stronger sense of self-identity emerges. Each movement begins with the physical elements of the location:
“one nation, fatherland…”
“the sea resumed its melancholy drone…”
“sleepless birds amassing on the powerlines…”
“golden spines of sandstone…”
And ends with both a personal and universal sentiment:
“…for all”
“…my hyperborean blue heart”
“…to allocate us temporary shores”
“…a home within the knuckles of my hands”
Like all of us, Rūta’s sense of self-identity and home is shaped by the collection of environments and experiences with which she grew up. Each location holds a different piece of home within her. Each ecosystem carries with it a different emotional emblem. A house is not always home, but do the physical elements of our environment elucidate part of us? Does how we define home define who we are?
-Alex Berko

this land was made for golden spines
of sandstone, every water drop
a talisman, each curve of wind
a chisel sent to document the hours
thirst prolonged, the fractured earth
unpolished vagrant dust set out to calcify
a home within the knuckles of my hands
– Rūta Kuzmickas
You Do Not Walk Alone is a setting of a traditional Irish blessing. Its meaning speaks of those who give support in times of trial. We rely on the good graces and hope of others even in our darkest moments. My musical tapestry is one of unadorned a cappella mixed chorus, using soft dissonances and free-flowing counterpoint. The voices are sometimes asked to divide, creating a sonic wash of color and overtones. Together in song, we do not walk alone.
This work was commissioned by and is dedicated to the Macalester Concert Choir and their director, and my good friend, Michael McGaghie.
May you see the light on the path ahead when the road you walk is dark. May you always hear even in your hour of sorrow, the gentle singing of the lark. When times are hard may hardness never turn your heart to stone. May you always remember when the shadows fall– You do not walk alone.
- Traditional Irish Blessing
Tell me, where is the road
I can call my own
That I left, that I lost
So long ago?
All these years I have wandered
Oh, when will I know
There's a way, there's a road
That will lead me home
After wind, after rain
When the dark is done
As I wake from a dream
In the gold of day
Through the air there's a calling
From far away
There's a voice I can hear
That will lead me home
Rise up, follow me
Come away, is the call
With the love in your heart
As the only song
There is no such beauty
As where you belong
Rise up, follow me
I will lead you home
In 2024, I commissioned a poem for a song that would later be called I Am Home. Inspired by the
universal need for belonging, I turned to my dear friend and fellow composer, Hannah Jensen, to craft a text that would reflect this profound theme. Though we grew up in very different places—Hannah in Kansas and I in a small town south of Mexico— our childhoods were bound by similar joys, struggles, and needs.

I Am Home speaks to the search for a place where one is welcomed, seen, and valued. For many, this journey is not an easy one. It is marked by uncertainty, by the weight of leaving behind the familiar, and by the hope of building something new. Finding belonging is not just about geography- it is about the people who open their hearts, the voices that say, “You are welcome here.”

The world is vast and ever-changing, yet our longing remains the same: to find a home where we are safe, where we are treated with dignity, and where we can contribute to something greater than ourselves. No matter where our journey begins, may we all find a place where we truly belong.
I Am Home
By Hannah Jensen
(adapted by Hugo Madera)
In roots that grow below the earth,
In footsteps marking paths in dirt,
I feel the pulse, I know the sound.
For in belonging I am found.
Under the sky of moon and sun,
I feel the warmth of those who’ve come,
Who walked before, who led the way.
For in belonging, I am safe.
With each exchange of word and deed,
I am seen in them, and them in me.
Through their light, I am not alone,
[In this life, I am not alone]
For in belonging I am home.
I love being here, where my spirit can roam free.
In the place I belong,
A place I can call my own.
Always wished to be seen
as something more than who I’ve been.
It's the people I love…
A place I call home.
Child,
You are not alone.
Child,
You were made for peace.
Child,
You were made for love.
You are needed.
all your dreams,
all your wonders,
let them hear.
Child,
You are not alone.
Glória in excélsis Deo
et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis.

Laudámus te,
benedícimus te,
adorámus te,

glorificámus te,
grátias ágimus
tibi propter magnam
glóriam tuam,

Dómine Deus,
Rex cæléstis,
Deus Pater omnípotens.
Dómine Fili Unigénite,
Iesu Christe,
Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei,
Fílius Patris,
qui tollis peccáta mundi,
miserére nobis;
qui tollis peccáta mundi,
súscipe deprecatiónem nostram.
Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris,
miserére nobis.

Quóniam tu solus Sanctus,
tu solus Dóminus,
tu solus Altíssimus,

Iesu Christe,
cum Sancto Spíritu:
in glória Dei Patris.
Amen.
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace
to people of good will.
We praise you,
we bless you,
we adore you,
we glorify you,

we give you thanks
for your great glory,
Lord God, heavenly King,
O God almighty Father.

Lord Jesus Christ,
Only Begotten Son,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
Son of The Father,
you take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us;
you take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father
have mercy on us.
For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
Item description

* Denotes Commissioned World Premiere

** Denotes TTBB voicing premiere

Un/Heard - Carlos Cordero, Founder and Artistic Director

Central Presbyterian Church - Austin, TX. August 25th, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Un/Heard Artists

We are a tenor-bass choir made up of LGBTQ+ people and allies. Our artists encompass many cultures, experiences, ages, and skills, making Un/Heard a unique ensemble that advocates for the LGBTQ+ community in Austin, TX.