Kentucky women’s choir to debut work by Oxford composer

An Oxford composer’s most recent work, inspired by Japanese poetry, will be performed locally by a women’s choir this month.

Robert Benson worked as an architecture and interior design professor at Miami University for 30 years and has been a composer since 1985.

On March 21, Dolce Women’s Ensemble, a choir from Thomas More University in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, will be premiering Benson’s most recent work, “Poems of Dwelling,” at 1 p.m. at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on 25 E. Walnut St., conducted by Sara Cahall.

Benson’s newest composition will memorialize a colleague of his who died in 2001.

His colleague, Ann Cline, taught architecture alongside him at Miami. 

She also studied Japanese culture and traveled to Japan, where she learned tea study by a tea master in a tea hut. 

When Cline came back to the United States, she created an architectural theory based on the hut, as well as an American counterpart to the Japanese tea ceremony.

Benson took a leave of absence and was given a grant by Miami to study haiku poetry after Cline’s death. Inspired by Cline’s dedication and interest in Japanese culture, he composed “Poems of Dwelling” in her honor.

“I have found four poems whose messages poetically spoke to me, and I wanted to respond to them with how I felt with the content of the poems,” Benson said. “And that’s what I’ve written and what the (Dolce Women’s Ensemble) will be singing.”

Benson based his composition on haiku poems by Matsuo Bashō, a famous Japanese poet. Each poem represents a different season.

The first poem, called “The Frog,” represents summer; the second, called “Plantain in an Autumn Storm” represents autumn; the third, called “A Silhouette,” represents winter; the fourth, called “Cherry Blossoms,” represents spring. 

The ensemble will sing these poems in interwoven Japanese and English in three to six voice parts with a piano accompaniment. Chie Tomoyasu, another Oxford local, worked with Benson to teach the ensemble Japanese words and pronunciation.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how people react to this,” Benson said. “I know that there are quite a few people who are Japanese who will be there, so I'm interested in finding how people will feel about Japanese and American music composed by an American man who’s never been to Japan.”

The concert offers free admission and will last about an hour. The program will provide translations and transliterations. The ensemble will perform a variety of choral music in addition to Benson’s composition.

“I think people should come because they’re probably not going to be hearing something like this soon again,” Benson said.