{"id":3626,"date":"2014-06-01T00:09:01","date_gmt":"2014-06-01T04:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/product\/evolution\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T14:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:01:20","slug":"my-journey-yours","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/product\/my-journey-yours\/","title":{"rendered":"My Journey Yours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MY JOURNEY YOURS<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>by Elise Witt<\/em><br \/>\narranged by Michael Holmes<br \/>\n\u00a9 Non Si Sa Mai Music ASCAP<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ms7wNQZsV8U\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Cantabile Youth Singers of Silicon Valley @ American Choral Directors Association National Conference, Kansas City Elena Sharkova, Artistic &amp; Managing Director<\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CsymQvj6KmI?controls=0\" width=\"800\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>on the CD &#8220;A Harvest Home\u201d live NPR broadcast &#8220;Thanksgiving with Cantus\u201d \u00a9 Minnesota Public Radio<\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VtcIaczmqjc\" width=\"800\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<div><i><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">My Journey Yours<\/span><\/i><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">\u00a0was originally commissioned by a <a href=\"http:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/journey-art-program-rfs-collaborating-artists\/\">multi-disciplinary arts project<\/a> of the same name with Refugee Family Services in Clarkston, Georgia. RFS serves more than 2500 refugees each year from countries including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burma, Burundi, Iraq, Iran, Kurdistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Vietnam. Programs help refugee women and children regain self-sufficiency through education and economic opportunity. The project\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/journey-art-program-rfs-collaborating-artists\/\"><i>My Journey Yours<\/i>\u00a0<\/a>served to incorporate arts into the social service work of the agency.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><i><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">My Journey Yours<\/span><\/i><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">\u00a0musically represents the refugees\u2019 harrowing journey from their homelands, through the seemingly unending days, months, and years of surviving in refugee camps, to the challenge of creating a new life as Americans in Clarkston, Georgia.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">For the first section of the piece, the RFS staff members &#8211; themselves refugees and immmigrants &#8211; translated the phrase\u00a0<i>\u201cmy journey, yours\u201d<\/i>\u00a0into their native language, and each woman sang me a song she remembered from childhood. I gathered lullabies, children&#8217;s songs, and musical games from each of the countries represented. With each language, I took a musical phrase from their song and put the words\u00a0<i>&#8220;my journey yours&#8221;<\/i>\u00a0in their language over that musical phrase. Then I stacked these musical phrases on top of each other into a multi-lingual, multi-cultural vocal collage. Improvisation over the collage is encouraged and recommended.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">Connecting this section to the next are musical phrases in Vietnamese and Somali, calling out the anguish of leaving home, and the intense difficulty of the journey. Many of these people have spent up to 25 years in refugee camps.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">The last section of the piece represents the new home, shared by refugees from many lands. It uses a 6\/8 Bosnian chord progression, with the words\u00a0<i>&#8220;my journey yours&#8221;<\/i>\u00a0sung in English. Once this section is established, I recommend vocal improvisation over it, allowing individual voices to speak\/sing while the group holds the foundation. Allow this part time to develop and flourish. The piece is especially effective when coupled with dance and body percussion.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\"><span lang=\"DE\" style=\"color: black;\">The first incarnation of the piece\u00a0 &#8220;My Journey Yours&#8221; was recorded in June 2004 at Sound and Fury Studio in Pine Lake GA, with my voice on all the vocal parts and a variety of percussion instruments. The recording was used in the exhibition\u00a0 &#8220;My Journey Yours&#8221; at the Youth Arts Connection in Atlanta, celebrating the culmination of the first segment of the visual arts projects at Refugee Family Services in Clarkston GA. The CD played continuously while visitors viewed art projects of painting, sculpture, sewing, and multi-media works created during the 3 year project at Refugee Family Services with artists from many cultures and disciplines.<\/span><\/span>As I was writing the piece, I workshopped it with members of the Bobby McFerrin &#8220;Spontaneous Invention&#8221; workshop at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck NY (June 2004), with members of my workshop &#8220;Multi-Lingual Songs&#8221; at the People&#8217;s Music Network Gathering in Woodstock NY (June 2004), and at my &#8220;Harmony: An Unorthodox Approach&#8221; class at the Swannanoa Gathering at Warren Wilson College in Asheville North Carolina (July 2004).&#8221;My Journey Yours&#8221; was the centerpiece of a collaborative performance and residency with the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aysc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Young Singers of Callanwolde<\/a>\u00a0directed by Paige Mathis and \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.movinginthespirit.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Moving in the Spirit<\/a>\u00a0(Coming Up Taller Award of the President\u2019s Committee for the Arts and Humanities). It has been performed by many choral groups including Not What You Think (Washington DC), Womansong (Asheville NC), Brattleboro Women&#8217;s Chorus (Brattleboro VT), Artemis Singers (Chicago IL), Sound Circle (Boulder CO), Singing A_Z (Washington DC), Echoes of Peace Choir (Duluth MN), and Just Voices (Atlanta GA).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>And on Thanksgiving 2013, &#8220;My Journey Yours&#8221; was featured on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org\/classical\/holidays\/display\/web\/2013\/11\/11\/thanksgiving-with-cantus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR&#8217;s Thanksgiving program<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cantussings.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cantus<\/a>, one of the premiere men&#8217;s vocal ensembles.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Multi-lingual vocal collage in Amharic, Arabic, Bosnian, English, Kurdish, Mano, Somali, &amp; Vietnamese<\/p>\n<p>Featured on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org\/classical\/holidays\/display\/web\/2013\/11\/11\/thanksgiving-with-cantus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR&#8217;s 2013 Thanksgiving program<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cantussings.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cantus<\/a>, one of the premiere men&#8217;s vocal ensembles.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a9 Elise Witt, Non Si Sa Mai Music ASCAP<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>recorded on<a href=\"http:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/product\/were-all-born-singing\/\"> We&#8217;e All BORN SINGING<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a9EM World Records 2015<\/p>\n[playlist artists=\"false\" images=\"false\" ids=\"3681,6932\"]\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11163,"template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[138],"product_tag":[147,148,331,149,140,150,151,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-3626","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","5":"product_cat-choral-series","6":"product_tag-elders","7":"product_tag-home","8":"product_tag-immigrationrefugees","9":"product_tag-justice","10":"product_tag-language-2","11":"product_tag-peace","12":"product_tag-regeneration","13":"product_tag-struggle","14":"product_shipping_class-choral","15":"entry","17":"first","18":"instock","19":"taxable","20":"shipping-taxable","21":"purchasable","22":"product-type-variable","23":"has-default-attributes"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside.png",850,1100,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside-232x300.png",232,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside-768x994.png",768,994,true],"large":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside-791x1024.png",791,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside.png",850,1100,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside.png",850,1100,false],"square-entry-image":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside.png",309,400,false],"vertical-entry-image":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside.png",400,518,false],"horizontal-entry-image":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside.png",425,550,false],"mailpoet_newsletter_max":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside.png",850,1100,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside-500x500.png",500,500,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside-655x848.png",655,848,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/My-Journey-Yours_SATB_outside-100x100.png",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jessica Lily","author_link":"https:\/\/elisewitt.com\/web\/author\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Multi-lingual vocal collage in Amharic, Arabic, Bosnian, English, Kurdish, Mano, Somali, &amp; 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