The texts of Alex Freeman's Calle sin nombre for mixed choir (2019) are drawn from quotations of families seeking asylum who are victims of the policies of family separation aggressively and abruptly enacted by the administration of President Donald John Trump. These desperate words tread with bare feet across shards of fragmented lines from Emma Lazarus's The New Colossus (the iconic poem enshrined at the base of The Statue of Liberty). A rehearsal reduction for piano is included in the publication.
Alex Freeman (b. 1972) grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Around the age of 13 he became interested in composing. In 1998 he moved to New York to begin his Doctoral studies at the Juilliard School, studying with Christopher Rouse. The focus of his doctoral document led him to Finland. The recipient of a Fulbright Full Fellowship, he moved to Helsinki in 2001 to research Sibelius's sketches and study composition with Eero Hämeenniemi at the Sibelius Academy. Dr. Freeman is currently composing full-time and lives with his wife and children in Finland.