In fall 2023, Anne Harley completed the first semester of her year as Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) during her professional leave. During her first semester there, she taught a group workshop called “Voice as Muscle of the Self” and premiered and recorded the new commission by Knehans setting Sumerian texts from the world’s first named author and composer, the priestess Enheduana of Ur. She also returned to Scripps to premiere and record the NEA-awarded commission Qazal by Iranian-American female composer Aida Shirazi (in Farsi), and also new works by Israeli-American composer Moshe Shulman, Six Songs in Ukrainian (in Ukrainian) and Lament for a Dead Child (in Russian). She also performed and recorded the hourlong semi-staged oratorio in English and Farsi by Fahad Siadat, The Conference of the Birds, in which she performed the lead role of the Hoopoe Bird. These works are all scheduled to be edited, mastered and released for global digital distribution on her label Voices of the Pearl.
