Immunity Digital Booklet

JOSHUA ROMAN

JOSHUAOMAN R

Joshua Roman, cello, guitar, and vocals. Tessa Lark, violin and vocals (Tracks 6 & 12)

Produced by Adam Abeshouse and Joshua Roman

Engineered and Mastered by Adam Abeshouse. Assistant Engineering by Doron Schachter

Photography by Shervin Lainez

Recorded at Elmwood Road Studio, South Salem, NY - 2023

Unauthorized replication & distribution prohibited

Joshua Roman is a cello soloist and composer, hailed for his “effortlessly expressive tone… and playful zest for exploration” (New York Times), as well as his “extraordinary technical and musical gifts" and “blend of precision and almost improvisatory freedom… that goes straight to the heart" (San Francisco Chronicle).

His genre-bending programs have grown out of an “enthusiasm for musical evolution that is as contagious as his love for the classics" (Seattle Times), and he has collaborated with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, DJ Spooky, Tonywinner/MacArthur Genius Bill T. Jones, Grammy Award-winning East African vocalist Somi, and Tony Awardnominated actor Anna Deavere Smith.

Immunity’s conception came from the music that grounded me over the last three years as I faced the most difficult challenge of my life. Each piece represents a moment that has colored my experience with long COVID and the profound personal lessons and reflection it has inspired. My first solo album, the collective effect of these pieces, echoes the sentiment of music as a tool for healing and taps into our innate and boundless energy to create and share

- Joshua Roman.

PROGRAM NOTES

So here we are. Rather than hide my struggle, I’ve chosen to do the hard work of changing deeply ingrained habits and letting go of my attachment to an identity that prioritized perfection over connection. It took a debilitating condition for me to confront myself and embrace a perspective that allows me to not only give, but to also receive the gift of music. I’m now committed to sharing the vulnerability that takes me out of my comfort zone, and that makes music an art not of perfection, but of humanity.

THE JOURNEY

powerfully expressive outlet, even when grappling with some of the darkest aspects of the human experience. I’ve always appreciated the soulful depth of the cello, and the range of emotions it can embody is where I find that it still has the ability to surprise.

So after delving deep, we turn to Mark Summer for his unbridled enthusiasm and tuneful catchiness in Julie-O, one of my most requested encores and the piece I paired with Bach for my friend’s solstice party. It is the kind of joyful tour de force that always provides the lift that I need after moments of darkness.

Where the organic rhythms of Julie-O drive forward and up, in manus tuas is grounded in emotion and meditation, with a presence and comfort that have helped ease me back into the physicality of playing. Taken from “Into your hands, I commend my spirit”, its name evokes the act of radical acceptance that has become one of my most challenging and important practices. Living with long COVID has highlighted the difficulty of maintaining structure around a condition that is wildly unpredictable and simultaneously learning to let go of control, and this paradoxical state is captured in the wild music of Penderecki.

While Capriccio may seem completely chaotic on the surface, just like in nature there is a beautiful underlying structure giving it shape. This piece is probably the most virtuosic of the album, requiring the broadest range of techniques and demanding an incredible amount of physical and mental coordination, which I now consider a fun test of my cognitive condition.

Easing from frenetic virtuosity to wistful loneliness, Duet was composed during the initial COVID lockdowns as I sat with nothing but cello and microphone, wishing for someone to make music with. My first time meeting Tessa Lark was also the first chamber music I played with others after my time with long COVID began, and we had an immediate music connection. She brings a human depth to the melodic line that far exceeds what I imagined while composing alone in the studio.

The Sonata of George Crumb has long inspired a different, primal kind of human energy through its haunting colors and clarity of form.The process of reworking my relationship with the cello has brought me to the point where performing this challenging work is musically and technically satisfying for the first time.

HALLELUJAH

Well I heard that there’s a secret chord

That David played and it pleased the lord

But you don’t really care for music, do you?

Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth,

The minor fall and the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya’

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne and she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain

Well I don’t really know the name

But if I did, well really, what’s it to you

There’s a blaze of light in every word

It doesn’t matter which you heard

The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn’t much

I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch

I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool ya’

And even though it all went wrong

I’ll stand before the lord of song

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

DUST IN THE WIND

I close my eyes

Only for a moment and the moment’s gone

All my dreams

Pass before my eyes a curiosity

Dust in the wind

All they are is dust in the wind

Same old song

Just a drop of water in an endless sea

And all we do

Crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see

Dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind

Now don’t hang on

Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky

It slips away

And all your money won’t another minute buy

Dust in the wind

All we are is dust in the wind

Dust in the wind

Everything is dust in the wind

SPECIAL THANKS

Thank you to Adam Abeshouse for being with me in the ups and downs of my first album here at home, and never losing faith. Andrew Ousley, your encouragement and expertise are the reason Immunity is. Tessa Lark, from the moment we made music together I knew there was something special, thank you for being a bright light in my musical life. Lori Schiff, you have given me the tools to play, to live, to be aware. I would be so alone if not for Mount Sinai’s Long COVID Team, thank you for your constant searching, listening, sharing, and humility. Fay Leshner, you made me look good! Thank you so much to those who have supported the album financially: the Hostetlers, the Minegishis, Taylor Milsal and Danny Hillis, the Zimmermans, and Adriane Blaesing. To the Bensons, you have supported me through this in so many ways, including an idyllic setting outside of the city to compose in, and a guitar that somehow ended up on the album! Moose, you’re such a good boy, and you’re so handsome. And Anna-Luisa, words do not capture what you have done to support, encourage, and love me through this all.

- Joshua Roman, cello

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