Adela Florence Nicolson (1865–1904), better known by her pseudonym Laurence Hope, was a British poet who spent much of her life in India. Writing under a male name, she became an international best-seller in the early 1900s. Her collection The Garden of Kama appeared in 1901 (retitled India’s Love Lyrics in its American edition), a book whose framing sometimes implied she was gathering “native” verses rather than writing them herself—what I think of as a kind of “pseudo-Indian” style.

“Kama” translates as “desire,” and I approached these poems through that lens. Their voices inhabit a strange spiritual landscape: at times hopeful and innocent, at others sharp with calculation or disillusionment. My own setting was written during a period of unease, shaped both by the global pandemic and the turbulence surrounding the 2020 U.S. presidential election. That atmosphere inevitably seeped into the music, coloring the way desire, longing, and loss find expression here.

4. As One May Sip a Stranger's Bowl

Graham Yates is an award-winning Canadian composer and pianist based in Austin, Texas. He is regularly commissioned to write works for choirs, soloists, and chamber ensembles, with performances of his music across Canada and the United States. In addition to his composing, Graham is active as a collaborative pianist and co-founded CTC Music Publishing to champion new music by emerging composers. He holds degrees in Piano Performance and Nonprofit Management from Brandon University and Trinity Western University.