On Friday, August 20, Tonality & Alexander Lloyd Blake released their second album of socially conscious new choral works: America Will Be. Following their debut Sing About It, released February 2019, the new album expands the award-winning Los Angeles choral group’s mission to “to unify our community through social outreach and serve as a beacon of peace, empathy and justice.” Engineered by Jeff Galindo and produced by Joseph Trapanese for Aerocade Music, the album’s 11 tracks sing of America, in all of its flaws, glory, and, most importantly, possibility. 

Dr. Alexander Lloyd Blake, an award-winning conductor, composer/arranger, vocal contractor, singer, and music activist, is the Founding Artistic Director of Tonality.

Colleen Kennedy: Congratulations on America Will Be. The whole album is filled with contemporary works that address a variety of social issues. How do you select which songs and which issues you want to tackle?

Alexander Lloyd Blake: The first year we did these concerts, I just thought about the kind of conversations I heard. And, of course, when we started in 2016 there was a lot happening. That first year we just chose the topics, but since then I ask questions of the singers. What’s so powerful about our concerts is hearing singers tell their personal stories. The topics that we cover certainly come out of those conversations and really just being a citizen of this country and of the world, thinking about what is happening and how we can raise our voices together.

CK: Let’s discuss the formation of Tonality in 2016. You were already working on your doctoral dissertation and started to form a choral group during this time. That’s a lot!

ALB: In 2016 at American Choral Directors Association’s Conference, I listened to Conspirare’s performance of [Craig Hella Johnson’s] “Concerning Matthew Shepard.” That piece was so beautiful and so powerful but what really stuck out to me was after the performance, listening to the conversations that the piece inspired. Shortly after that, I remember a friend asked me what I might want to do when I graduate. I said, when I'm 70 and figured out life I would love to have a professional choir. But then I thought about my own experiences as a Black classical musician who didn't always feel welcome or reflected in the same way within my field. I thought, What would it look like to create an environment where people like me and other people marginalized in classical music felt that their music and all of who they are was treated with respect? And what if their performance practice also reflected that intent? So that's how I was moved to start Tonality. A year later we evolved and expanded the mission to do more than just be composed of a racially diverse choir, but to use diverse perspectives to speak about issues that are rarely talked about in classical music.

CK: So much of canonical classical music remains the domain of old white dead men, so how does Tonality challenge that?

ALB: That canon was valued and prioritized in my educational career. But, you know, I exist. And in order to see me and to see others, it became a mandatory question of how do we start to show that in our musical practices? Because we can continue with the canon, which only reflects and validates a small number of people or we all can be involved in it. That drove our first conversations. Who do we commission? Who do we bring in to help teach performance? Who is involved in every aspect of what we do? It’s been very helpful to start with that perspective when we began with these issues of social justice, because they are so nuanced. Intersectionality makes us have to be more attentive to the views that we express and to be intentional. This gives us an open mind when we're talking about some of these more difficult topics.

CK: To make these songs work for Tonality’s mission you commission younger composers from diverse backgrounds.

ALB: At first, I certainly was not expecting that Tonality would be a new music ensemble. As the mission evolved, we spoke to musicians, composers, and artists about how we all are involved in these issues. How do we use our gifts to bring voice where we can? We've had a good number of people who've never written for a choir before commission songs for us because they want to get involved. It’s been exciting to also see an avenue where we can offer a lot of people an opportunity to commission new works, to find innovative ways to really help us share more perspectives as well.

CK: Let’s begin with the title track “America Will Be” that sets the tone for the album.  

ALB: Joe Thompson is a young composer who is starting to become more well-known, as he should be. He is also someone who has felt inspired to write about the experiences of marginalized communities, particularly the Black community. His “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” received a lot of recognition in the classical world. He took the final words of unarmed black men who were killed by police and put that to music. We had done that work before, but this piece “America Will Be” he wrote for Freedom High School in Florida with many students who speak different languages, so this song involves over ten different languages of students talking about hopes and dreams. The piece incorporates poetry by Langston Hughes and Emma Lazarus. It’s a message of hope: We can create the America that we sing about in patriotic songs, a land of possibility and opportunity, but only if we accept the challenges and affect change.

CK: Can we discuss “Build Me Up,” an anthemic track about Black Lives Matter?

ALB:  “Build Me Up” was written by Roman GianArthur, an author, artist, and composer. We went to undergrad together actually. I was talking to him about an upcoming concert about criminal justice reform. He was working on a piece that was inspired by a seventeen-year-old who was incarcerated. When we turned all of our projects to virtual events, the piece was still about criminal justice reform at first, but with everything happening around Black Lives Matter it seemed to resonate just as well in terms of how we see each other and support each other.

CK: Tonality’s music gives voice to those underrepresented in contemporary classical music while reaching the ears of those who may not know of these issues and these individual stories, expanding who classical music is for and about.

ALB: Absolutely. And each song has a video. In the past couple of months we have been able to also expand our community to involve the Deaf and hard of hearing population. And two of our videos include ASL [American Sign Language]: “1232 Lyfe” and “No, Child. No Child.” Roman suggested that I watch the documentary 13th on Netflix, and through that I learned about the three strikes law, which infuriated me, where the system can put someone in jail for life for a non-violent crime based on past offenses. There's not a choral piece I know of about the three strikes law and this was an opportunity for us to bring this awareness to our audience members. I've never written a piece before but I felt compelled to try and so that was how “1232 Lyfe” came about. “No, Child. No Child.” was written in general about someone working through their own shame and growing to accept themselves. We took a turn and focused that perspective for LGBTQ+ youth. We worked with a Deaf videographer, Deaf director, and Deaf performers to have a full ASL video for that song.

CK: “In This House” is a really moving work about the contributions of immigrants and the problems with ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. Can you tell us more about this?  

ALB: “In This House” is something that I am very proud that it’s out there. This piece informs how to interact with ICE agents who come to your door. I know we have always had this conversation about how close are we going to get into politics and I think we are bringing a very direct perspective in this song. Our pieces are always around stories. It’s the story that move us to talk about these issues. We had a singer in Tonality who was actually picked up and detained by ICE. When we first did a concert on displacement it was an issue that we cared about because we had people in our community, but when I saw my friend in court in a jumpsuit, it became much more. This is an unjust act; this is my friend. This brought the piece close to so many of us in our group. I hope that more choirs start to involve these sort of works to speak to populations who may never feel proximity to these experiences except through our concerts.

CK: You have two chamber music pieces about climate change New Collective Consciousness I and II that are very striking, very haunting. I’d love to hear more about these.  

ALB: Joseph Trapanese is an amazing composer. We wanted to do a concert about climate change. This was actually a topic that a majority of the singers said they wanted to talk about. So, we decided to give this concert, but of course then we have to come up with the music because Bach didn’t write about climate change. Talking to Joe about this issue that he is also very passionate about it seemed best to use words from people [environmental activists Andri Snær Magnason and Greta Thunberg] who are directly involved in these issues. Joe’s pieces are amazing. It’s hard to describe the emotions but really the urgency and anxiety you hear and feel.

CK: Often, we think of musical performances of moving in one direction with musicians performing onstage and the audience listening, but in concert Tonality seems to encourage a reciprocity, a discourse, a new type of engagement with the listener.

ALB:  Yes. I feel like the arts have been used in a lot of these social issues in terms of performances and sometimes used as an escape mechanism. Tonality also performed at March for Our Lives in L.A. in summer 2020, and a virtual performance with LGBT Center last year. When we look at civil marches, these big collaborations and communities searching for justice, music is used as a catalyst for energy. I feel like we can do that even in our performance spaces and many of these conversations are very intellectual. People aren’t moved by statistics; they’re moved by stories and their empathy, by watching people share their stories. Music continues to move people, to inspire, encourage, and even enrage. We haven't done a single concert without organizational support because it isn’t just our job to inspire people, but also to give them resources at the same event to get involved.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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