Oliver Caplan (b. 1982) is a Boston-based composer of romantically-tinged music for all combinations of instruments and voices. He grew up in the Bronx, attending Stuyvesant High School, where he played piccolo in the band. He left in New York in 2000 for Dartmouth College, where the rich outdoor environment and mix of musical personalities (like the Dartmouth College Marching Band) inspired his interest in composition. He went on to graduate study at the Boston Conservatory. Caplan’s music has been performed all over the United States. He has received commissions from the Columbia University Wind Ensemble, the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, the Juventas New Music Ensemble, the Sinfonietta of Riverdale, and the Atlanta Chamber Players, among many others. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the American Prize in composition and annual ASCAP awards. In addition to composing, he is also the Artistic Director of the Juventas New Music Ensemble.
Read more about Caplan on his website, his Twitter feed, and his Facebook page.
Caplan’s The New Colossus uses the text of the sonnet of the same name by Emma Lazarus that is famously associated with the Statue of Liberty. Caplan’s program note illuminates his inspiration:
America was founded in 1776, a nation of immigrants. Now, we talk about walls, about here versus there, about fear, about sharing, about keeping, and keeping out. But over a century ago, in 1883, author Emma Lazarus penned a sonnet so powerful it would come to symbolize our nation’s place in the world for generations. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp,” she wrote. “Give me your tired, your poor.” What could be more patriotic then this poem inscribed on one of our greatest national icons, the Statue of Liberty? I set Lazarus’s words to music in honor of those who’ve found a home in America and those who wait yet “beside the golden door.”
The full text of the sonnet:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Here is the piano and vocal version, as presented by soprano Evangelia Leontis with Chelsea Whitaker on piano:
The wind band version has not yet been recorded, but I am thrilled to have been involved in its creation as its arranger. Watch this space for a recording in the future.