Spire Chamber Ensemble

Human hands, when used together and for good, offer a glimpse at a better future. This program features the beauty of Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands, which implores us, “Let us open our hands to those of others…walls are not the answer." History has also demonstrated that human hands can be used to cause anger, fear, confusion, and pain which is explored in the extremely poignant contemporary piece, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed by Joel Thompson, depicting the last words and/or correspondences of seven unarmed black men each killed by police or authority figures. This compelling program travels from calm to unsettling, thoughtful to explosive, and invites the listener to join hands – only together can we rise to create a brighter world.