By Greta Birkby January 2018

Allan Andrews, director of the Swedish Singers of Seattle, announced at our Christmas Concert at Phinney Ridge Lutheran on December 5 the exciting news that we have commissioned a work by acclaimed and award-winning composer and choral conductor, Karen Thomas. The work is to be premiered at the AUSS convention in July 2019. (See full article on Karen Thomas.) This commission is fully funded by the Jane Isakson Lea Foundation. The board was thrilled to learn that the funding was in place, and Ms. Thomas was eager to begin the project. Marta Schee, the board’s president, remarked, “This commission is the fulfillment of a dream. I am so grateful to the Lea Foundation for their faith in us and their support.” Allan Andrews is also appreciative of a long-awaited desire coming to fruition. “I am so pleased and proud that we are sharing this news with AUSS. I am all about raising the bar and this project does just that. I am thrilled that a composer of Karen’s stature is sharing this commissioning project with us.” Our resident linguist, Brita Butler-Wall, researched Swedish poets and poems and came up with several choices from which Ms. Thomas could choose. After much collaboration, the poem, “Morgon” (Morning), by Karin Boye, one of Sweden’s most famous modern poets, has been chosen.

Karin Boye was born in Gothenburg and lived a short and tragic life (1900–1941). She moved with her family to Stockholm at an early age. She attended Uppsala University and published her first collection of poems as a freshman in college. From 1930, she was passionately anti-Fascist, and this would culminate in her most famous work, Kallocain, a dystopian science fiction novel about Nazism written one year before her death. In Sweden, her poetry gave her the most accolades. Her best-known poems are “Yes, of course it hurts”; “In motion”; and “For the sake of a tree.” Her writing explored her personal conflicts with her religiosity and lesbianism, and the rising threat and inevitability of Nazism in Europe. She committed suicide in 1941.

Of the poetry offered to Karen Thomas, one poem in particular appealed to her, because of its joyous nature. Unlike Boye’s other writing selections considered, which had a dark, forsaken or wistful voice, “Morgon” is in fact hymn of joy. It was, Karen said, “a place I wanted to inhabit.”

Swedish Singers of Seattle will premiere the work at the convention during the individual choir performances evening, with Karen Thomas in attendance and Allan Andrews at the podium. We feel incredibly honored to have this opportunity to share this with you. The SSS board believes that it is important that heritage choirs be a part of the commission culture, and inject the Swedish culture with new music. In this way, our heritage continues to stay alive and fresh—and hopefully will be attractive to younger generations. The convention will be a historic one for us, and certainly one that we will never forget.