Kansas City Symphony: To Awaken the Sleeper: Works of Joel Thompson
Reference Recordings

Composer Joel Thompson must be having one of those “pinch myself to see if I'm dreaming” moments: not only does To Awaken the Sleeper feature his music exclusively, with the Kansas City Symphony (KCS), cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato involved the musicians presenting it are among the most esteemed in their professions. Led by Michael Stern, the orchestra performs five compelling works by the composer, whose career has undergone a meteoric upswing since the 2015 premiere of his choral work Seven Last Words of the Unarmed. Among the pieces joining it on the hour-long release are the titular work, featuring narration by Thompson himself, and one set to Maya Angelou's “Caged Bird.” Also appearing on the set are the vocal ensemble Exigence and Raymond Santos, principal clarinetist of the Kansas City Symphony.

Each work is in its own way a powerful expression, with Seven Last Words of the Unarmed addressing head-on issues of race and violence and To Awaken the Sleeper set to words by James Baldwin. The impact of The Places We Leave is bolstered by the vocal artistry of DiDonato, while the same could be said about Breathe/Burn: An Elegy in featuring Ma as the solo cellist. Thompson addresses topics with humanity and compassion as he honours those whose voices have been silenced, often violently. In setting to music the final words of Black men before they were killed, his seven-part Seven Last Words of the Unarmed ensures that they won't be forgotten.

Currently Houston Grand Opera's first-ever full-time Composer-in-Residence, a five-year post he'll hold until 2027, Thompson has seen performances of his work increase dramatically over the past decade and commissions are competing for space in his calendar. Stern, the KCS's music director from 2005 to 2024 (Matthias Pintscher his successor), guides the orchestra masterfully through these performances, and the challenges inherent in the recording process no doubt multiplied when so many different artists participated.

Written after the 2014 death of Eric Garner at the hands of a police officer, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed emerged from Thompson as a cathartic exorcism of grief and anger. Garner's is the seventh and final death addressed in the piece, however, with Trayvon Martin, Amadou Diallo, and others also memorialized. Opening plaintively, the work sees the Dr. Eugene Rogers-directed Exigence singing the words the men uttered when they took their final breaths (e.g., Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr's “Officer, why do you have your guns out?”). Energy and passion enliven the Martin episode (“What are you following me for?”) before Diallo's (“Mom, I'm going to college”) imbues the work with an aura of gentle calm. If confusion and disbelief characterize the Oscar Grant III episode (“You shot me! You shot me”), John Crawford III's (“It's not real”) is informed by painful regret over a life needlessly lost. Style and tone shift from one movement to the next, contrast generated when aggressive and elegiac parts sit side-by-side.

Baldwin's words were written decades ago, but his eloquent writing speaks as loudly today. In To Awaken the Sleeper, texts from three sources were chosen by Thompson for his nineteen-minute piece: excerpts from the 1972 essay “No Name in the Street,” a speech given to the National Press Club in 1986, and “An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis” from 1971. The composer assumes the orator role in a mercurial setting that begins with Ives-like chaos and snippets of patriotic tunes before settling into the spoken passages. Again, the tone changes rapidly in accordance with the text content, the music florid at one moment and eruptive the next; listen as the music rises, for instance, when Thompson asserts that “ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” His voice is mixed rather too low in the production, however, which robs the performance of some of the impact it might have had.

Set to a transporting 2021 poem by Tracy K. Smith, Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019, The Places We Leave is graced by an incandescent performance from DiDonato and oft-majestic accompaniment by the orchestra. Her luminous voice, which has graced countless productions (operas such as Kevin Puts' The Hours and Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, to name two), is perfectly suited to music of such delicacy and poignancy, and Thompson's material is significantly enhanced by her presence. Written in response to tragedies suffered by Black citizens and Breonna Taylor in particular, Breathe/Burn: An Elegy is distinguished, naturally, by Ma's artistry, with the elegiac lyricism of the DiDonato piece continuing into this one. The cellist is his usual inimitable self and does much to distinguish the work with his contribution. At album's end, The Caged Bird Sings for Freedom features Exigence giving rousing voice to Angelou's words. Joined by piano and clarinet, the singers reflect on the contrasting experiences of a free bird versus one caged, with Thompson's music once again paralleling the meanings of the text—soaring music set in major for the free one as opposed to oppressed, minor-set writing for the imprisoned bird.

For Thompson, the album is both a major professional accomplishment and personal statement. Yes, police brutality, racial bigotry, and feelings of grief and rage are central to its content, but the project's message is ultimately one of hope, affirmation, and resilience, not despair and resignation. Through this music, he aspires to remind us of the fundamental connections we share, regardless of race, and the pressing need to recognize our common humanity. We come away from this recording newly fortified and emboldened to take on the challenges that await.

September 2026