Oratorio draws inspiration from Navajo traditions

The Salt Lake Choral Artists, joined by the Salt Lake Choral Artists Orchestra, will close out their season Saturday with the local premiere of Mark Grey's "Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio."

"It's quite an amazing piece," SLCA director Brady Allred told the Deseret News. "The score is really beautiful, and choir members have said they've been very moved by it."

The work was premiered in February 2008 by Michael Christie and the Phoenix Symphony. Allred, who also directs the choral program at the University of Utah, became aware of it through a former member of the U. Singers. "He went to Arizona for his master's and joined the Phoenix Symphony Chorus, where he was involved with the premiere," Allred said.

The former student contacted him and told him to consider programming the work. "I found the subject matter appropriate and decided to do it."

"Enemy Slayer" is a modern retelling of the Navajo story of creation, revolving around the cleansing ceremony which rids warriors of all the events they had been through in their lives.

In the oratorio, the Seeker (sung by baritone Gary Sorenson) comes home to his people from the war in Iraq. "He comes from the desert of chaos to the desert of peace," Grey said in an interview with the Deseret News. "He enlisted with his brother, who was killed in the war."

Once home, the images of war start to haunt the Seeker. "He's suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder," Grey said. "And the way the Navajos deal with it is to go through this cleansing ceremony."

The work is divided into the four cardinal points, which are sacred to the Navajos: east (birth), south (youth), west (adulthood) and north (death). "The Seeker starts in the east and goes towards darkness and gloom and death, but breaks through and ends in the east again, where he is ultimately cleansed," Grey said.

"The 'enemy' are the demons inside of us," Allred said. "And by the end of the work, everything is resolved, and the Seeker returns to peace and harmony."

The choir acts as a Greek chorus and adds commentary to the story, Grey said. "They are the ancestral voice, the voice of the community, the voice of the gods." "They encourage and give the Seeker hope," Allred said.