David Dalle
Thursday September 4th, 2025 with David Dalle
Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko, music of our deepest humanity and the eternal cosmos.

An extraordinary new album, "Hildegard", by Ukrainian composer Heinali and Ukrainian folk singer Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko forms the foundation of today's program. This album was born out of the trauma of the war in Ukraine and features two works based on compositions by 12th century abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Heinali describes its inception: "When a Russian missile struck the ground not far from my studio in Kyiv, I vividly remember how my body reacted to the explosion, milliseconds before my mind did. That traumatic explosion reduced my essence to a primal state. There existed nothing but dread—the kind that, in scripture, accompanies the appearance of angels announcing, ’Be not afraid’." Heinali accompanies Saienko's fiercely powerful singing with drones and improvisations on modular synths. Siaenko's solitary voice screams out our humanity, our suffering, our hopes against the overwhelming indifference of the cosmos. The modular synths are full of light, not as a comfort, but echoing the intense light experienced by Hildegard von Bingen during the visions which afflicted her whole life. We will hear both pieces bookending a set with some of the most intense, powerful female voices I know full of the deepest humanity and the light of the cosmos.