The sound is instrumental, a piano orchestrated into a broad horizon of expression and emotion. Between 1880 and 1920, more than two million Russian Jewish immigrants came to the United States. The years before the Holocaust were an era of rapid change for Russian Jews, leaving behind the dreadful poverty of the Pale of Settlement. This is the very personal story of Lisa Swerdlow’s grandparents who fled Russia to find a way to survive the harsh conditions.

Lisa Swerdlow is a composer and pianist living in Grass Valley, California with her wife, Lucie, and her three horses and one cat, Tuxedo. Born and raised in Los Angeles, her childhood home was full of music thanks to her father’s piano, accordion, mandolin playing, and his beloved RCA record player.

Lisa studied classical piano from the age of six playing “Fur Elise” by Beethoven for her first piano recital at seven. In the 1980’s she performed at the West Coast Women’s Music Festival and for three years, she toured Northern California with a ten-piece all women salsa band called Las Malandras.

Lisa’s early musical influences range from Laura Nyro and Carole King to Harry Belafonte and Burt Bacharach. Later in life, she was drawn to the piano music of Keith Jarrett, David Lanz, Eddy Palmieri, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Barbara Higbie and Mary Watkins. In the 1970s, Lisa performed in coffee houses on Fairfax Avenue in L.A. and went on to play piano in a rock ‘n’ roll band in San Francisco. In the 1980s she performed at the West Coast Women’s Music Festival, and soon after toured Northern California with a ten-piece all women salsa band called Las Malandras. These genres have influenced her unique composing style, and Lisa has moved into more complex orchestration and arrangements in recent years.

Lisa’s solo piano compositions are featured on her debut CD Equus Rising (2017), and Voyager (2018). She followed up with Lasting Impressions (2019) and a series of singles: “Dawn Contemplation” (2020), “Carousel of Life” (2020), “Still Here” (2019), and the latest “All Is Not Lost” which released August 13, 2021; the latter two works pay tribute to her triumph over cancer. Lisa has also been featured on the Mindful Music Association’s compilations A Better Life (2019) and Focus Zone (2021). Her new EP, the fully-orchestrated Coming to America Concerto, released on September 17, 2021.

The inspiration for composing the Coming To America Concerto came during the long Covid-19 quarantine. As she spent days, weeks and eventually months in her home, she started researching her grandparents’ immigration to the United States from Russia (and what is now Ukraine) in the years 1907-1910 due to persecution of the Jewish people. She reflected on the courage it must have taken for them to leave their homeland of many centuries, their family and friends, to sail to a foreign country they had barely heard of called “America.”

“Had these villagers and townspeople not made that sacrifice, I would not have been born here, in this country that–even with all its flaws and dark eras of history–has given me so many freedoms and choices not available to the current people of Russia and Ukraine.” She feels that this particular project contains a very important and timely message to share. “I dedicate this concerto to my Grandparents, and to all the immigrants who come to this country called “America” in search of safety and the promise of Hope.”

The Movements
First Movement: Home of My Ancestors
This Russian klezmer-themed movement tells the tale of life in the Jewish ghettos and villages of late 19th and early 20th century Russia. Life had its joys and celebrations as well as its fears, especially of the Czar’s army showing up to desecrate what the villagers most loved and valued: their traditions, their homes, their temples. But, the Jewish people were and are resilient people who keep their spirits alive, even in the face of adversity. Finally, the time came for them to seek a new homeland.

Second Movement: The Crossing
In this movement, I imagined my Grandparents carrying what possessions they could, living in cramped steerage quarters far below deck on a huge ocean liner such as the Mauritania. The music captures the journey: feeling seasick, longing for their homeland, the great trepidation of crossing an endless ocean bound for “America,” which was probably more of a concept to them than an actual place. Their uncertainty is matched only by their determination to best the conditions on board; sometimes they dream of home.

Third Movement: The Arrival
At long last, they step onto the deck of the ship. Their excitement and anticipation grows as they make out New York Harbor on the horizon. The huge ship’s engines grind into reverse, as the shoreline grows closer and the harbor becomes clear. The reality dawns: a new life is awaiting them, in a country where they don’t speak the language, don’t understand its currency, and don’t have any friends or relatives waiting for them. Still, as they sail next to the Statue of Liberty, they understand her welcoming message, feeling grateful for their new homeland.

Music is often something mystical, intangible and supernatural. To what extent should an understanding of history shape our lives now? One of the lessons of the past few years is that the unthinkable is indeed possible, the banished evil only needs a banner and a shouting crowd to return. Our best defenses are vigilance, keeping alert to the sliding tide, and keeping our spirits nourished by things like good music and creative optimism.

“I hope you enjoy this concerto, both hearing and feeling the story I am trying to tell. A story of the courage, hope and dreams that reside in all who immigrate to this place called America.”

Buy, stream or download the Coming to America Concerto by Lisa Swerdlow from the platform of your choice: http://hyperurl.co/t9pn0h

Links:
Official website – http://lisaswerdlow.com/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lisaswerdlow/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LisaSwerdlowPiano/
Bandcamp – https://lisaswerdlow1.bandcamp.com/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/LisaSwerdlow
Concert Tix – https://thecenterforthearts.org/event/ten-hands-88-keys/

Preview: Coming to America Concerto