CHELSEA HOLLOW – Cycles of Resistance

“Chelsea Hollow has rewritten the book on the potential of musical activism.” —Matt Wolka, Old First Concerts

Cycles of Resistance is a recital and album by soprano Chelsea Hollow and pianist Taylor Chan featuring new commissions that aim to broaden perspectives. The pieces, including music, texts, and spoken program notes, explore a range of international resistance movements from the past 120 years. They offer catharsis, clarity, and insight, with compositions submitted by various composers from different communities. The songs represent numerous perspectives and languages, such as Mandarin, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Czech, as well as English. The themes include Chinese feminist poetry from the early 1900s, love conquering all evils in a Dutch sonnet, the unity of young Czech girls imprisoned during World War II, disability awareness, maternal concerns in the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, Turkish femicide, prayers for peace from the traditions of Islam and Hinduism, and speeches by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and activist Valarie Kaur.