Acclaimed composer Sheila Silver’s new song cycle, Songs of Resilience, will receive its world premiere on World Refugee Day, Saturday, June 20 at 7:00 p.m. at St. George's Episcopal Church in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Songs of Resilience will feature soprano Melissa Citro, soprano Teresa Castillo, and pianist Francesco Barfoed. Silver’s powerful new song cycle gives voice to individuals confronting urgent social, political, and humanitarian crises — a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist witnessing starvation in South Sudan; a parent discovering banned books in Florida; a Palestinian-American poet who documents displacement, lineage and homemaking away from home; a Turkish Ph.D. student arrested and jailed for writing an Op-Ed in her school newspaper; a mother and daughter experiencing the loss of a free society; a rallying cry, "Don't comply in advance!"; and a prayer yearning for a kinder, more loving world, "May we be saved by what we save." The songs embody a plea for sanity, empathy, healing, and renewal and speak to courage, conscience, and the weight of moral reckoning. Each is penned by a different author: Nicholas Kristof, Sara Abou Rashed, Ann Ellsworth, Victor Feldman, Stephen Kitsakos, Rob Lewis, and Lucile Lichtblau.

In addition, flutist Juan Carlos Narváez and pianist Francesco Barfoed will perform Borderless Dreams, a new work by composer Arturo Rodriguez. This passionate work explores the interior narrative many immigrants experience when contemplating emigration, spanning from hope to trepidation, and from home toward the unknown.

The concert is co-produced by Melissa Citro, Sheila Silver, and PROTESTRA.

All proceeds from ticket sales will benefit organizations supporting immigrants and families of immigrants detained at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey. Beneficiaries include First Friends of New Jersey and New York and Cosecha,

St. George's Episcopal Church is located at 550 Ridgewood Road, Maplewood, NJ, just a two-block walk from Maplewood’s NJ Transit station. Parking is available in the church lot and on nearby side streets. The concert will run approximately 80 minutes, with a reception to follow.

If you are unable to attend the concert but would still like to contribute to the crowdfunding campaign for immigrant aid and defense, you may do so here.

Feautured Artwork:

Emgiration, 2025

Mary Frank

Oil and acrylic on panel

Courtesy of the Artist

Contact the host of Songs of Resilience: Benefit Concert for Immigrant Aid & Defense