Conspirare ‘House of Belonging’ featuring: Craig Hella Johnson

Crossover Media
2 min readNov 15, 2023

As they begin their 30th Season, the GRAMMY® Award-winning choral ensemble from Austin, Texas, Conspirare, present an emotionally rich and wide-ranging program in their Delos recording: ‘House of Belonging.’

Known worldwide for expanding the boundaries of choral performance, Conspirare has teamed up with the superb Miró Quartet to present a tapestry of intriguing new works by dynamic American composers…. Kevin Puts, Derrick Skye, Alex Berko, Moira Smiley, Ross Lee Finney, Shara Nova, Michael Schachter and Margaret Bonds.

The album’s thoughtful texts explore themes about spirituality, philosophy, the natural world, and the human need for deep connection with verses by Ewen Tait, John Muir, William Stafford, Wendell Berry, Rabindranath Tagore, David Whyte, Langston Hughes, Ludwig van Beethoven, Hildegard of Bingen, Kobayashi Issa, Rūta Kuzmickas, Andrew Marvell, and Kiara Skye.

Conspirare founder and leader, Craig Hella Johnson who curated and conducted the music on House of Belonging, also commissioned many of the pieces, as well as composing the album’s opening track. We’re delighted to have Craig with us to discuss the project. Listen to the segment

Conspirare — House of Belonging is a dynamic and timely collection of American music for voices and with instruments. Curated and conducted by Craig Hella Johnson, the album showcases the unique combination of choral virtuosity and extraordinarily beautiful human expression in works by composers and poets diverse in age, geography, and ethnicity who speak to our internal and external sense of home and belonging. Each composer, in their unique voice, offers a reflection point for listeners.

Conspirare’s nationwide roster of vocal artists Simon Barrad, Meg Dudley, Haitham Haidar, Chelsea Helm, Michael Jones, Lauren McAllister, Savannah Porter, Kathlene Ritch, and David Kurtenbach Rivera are featured as soloists on the album.

Produced by Max Horowitz — Crossover Media, This content, as well as the related podcast, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) for redistribution and adaptation.

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