A New Country is a cycle of five songs about immigrants arriving in America through New York. Following the precedent of my American historical compositions (The Blizzard Voices, Sanctuary Road, Songs of Love and War,A Nation of Others), the opening song sets to music the words of an actual immigrant, Anna Vacek, who arrived at Ellis Island in 1901. The second, fourth and fifth songs set texts by native Long Islander, Walt Whitman. The third song is a setting of part of “The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus’ iconic poem about the Statue of Liberty.  

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