THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC, THEATRE, AND DANCE PRESENTS
AWAKEN THE SPIRIT CONCERT CHOIR CONCERT
NOVEMBER 10, 7:30 P.M. | GRIFFIN CONCERT HALL
DIRECTED BY NATHAN PAYANT
CONCERT CHOIR AWAKEN THE SPIRIT! DR. NATHAN PAYANT, conductor DR. JOOYEON CHANG, collaborative pianist
Program / Concert Choir WAKE UP, MY SPIRIT / ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK ALMA AFFLITTA, CHEF AI, SWV 4 / HEINRICH SCHÜTZ VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS / ANTHONY BERNARDUCCI Hyemi Woo, GTA conductor Jalen Thompson, djembe
Individual / Small Group Performances NATALIE "BUCKY" BUCHHOLZ / ORIGINAL COMPOSITION, GLAD ALESSANDRO HERNANDEZ / NOT AFRAID FROM "EASTER RISING" Hyemi Woo, piano SARAH SMITH / DISCONNECTED BY JAZZ MORLEY MIKA BRADDY & JOHN FRISKNEY / GLORIA BY THE LUMINEERS
Concert Choir IN THE MIDDLE / DALE TRUMBORE SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY / KEVIN MEMLEY WILD FORCES (FROM THE HOPE OF LOVING) / JAKE RUNESTAD
NOTES, TEXTS, & TRANSLATIONS Adolphus Hailstork is a prolific American composer having written over 250 works ranging from piano sonatas and syphonies to African American spirituals and larger works for chorus and orchestra. His compositional style brilliantly infuses traditional African American ideas with classical European techniques. At the age of 80, he isn’t slowing down. He is currently working on his Fourth Symphony, A Knee on a Neck (a tribute to George Floyd), for chorus and orchestra. Wake Up, My Spirit Wake up, my spirit! I, myself, will waken the dawn. Exalt Yourself above the heavens, O God, and Your glory over all the earth. Awake, lute and harp. I will sing praise to You among the nations. I will sing melody, I will sing alleluia! –Psalm 57:6-9 German composer and organist, Heinrich Schütz, first studied composition in Venice with some of the great Italian composers of the time. Because of this early training, the first known works we have from Schütz are Italian madrigals that he composed in his early twenties. After these early secular madrigals, almost all of his remaining works are German sacred vocal works. Alma afflitta, che fai is a wonderful example of one of his first madrigal compositions. Alma afflitta, che fai Italian English Translation Alma afflitta che fai? Chi ti darà più vita, Se colei, per cui vivi, oggi è partita? Ah, son ben folle, e cieco Con l’alma a ragionar, che non e meco. –Giambattista Marino (1569–1625)
Soul afflicted, what are you doing? Who will give you more life If she, for whom you live today, has left? Ah, I am very foolish and blind with the soul to reason, that which is not mine.
In his arrangement of Veni Creator Spiritus, Anthony Bernarducci gives us a modern take on the 9th century Gregorian chant. His exciting arrangement incorporates djembe, mixed meters, and even features the original chant tune sung by the sopranos in the middle of the piece. Veni Creator Spiritus Latin English Translation Veni, Creator Spiritus Mentes tuorum visita Imple superna gratia, Quae tu creasti pectora
Come, Creator Spirit Visit the souls of your devoted; With your divine grace fill The hearts which you have created.
Accende lumen sensibus Infunde amorem cordibus Infirma nostril corporis Virtute firmans perpeti
Enkindle your light in our minds, Infuse your love into our hearts; Strengthen the frailties of our flesh By your perpetual power.
–9th Century Chant In the Middle was composed by one of the choral world’s “rising stars,” Dale Trumbore. With this work, Trumbore won the first ACDA Brock Competition for Professional Composers in 2019. She says, “Barbara Crooker's poem In the Middle describes our need to connect in the rush of ordinary life. In this setting, the piano serves as an unreliable time-keeper, ebbing and flowing as our perception of time does. The word ‘time’ itself occurs over and over within the piece, serving as a sort of refrain, a reminder to slow down. It is so easy to forget, in the context of everyday life, that time will ultimately catch up with all of us. There's no antidote, but in the meantime, we should ‘take off our watches’ more often, finding ourselves ‘tangled up in love’ with another or just with this life, and granting time permission, if not to stop, then to slow.” In the Middle In the middle of a life that's as complicated as everyone else's, struggling for balance, juggling time. The mantle clock that was my grandfather's has stopped at 9:20; we haven't had time to get it repaired. The brass pendulum is still, the chimes don't ring. One day I look out the window, green summer, the next, the leaves have already fallen,
and a grey sky lowers the horizon. Our children almost grown, our parents gone, it happened so fast. Each day, we must learn again how to love, between morning's quick coffee and evening's slow return. Steam from a pot of soup rises, mixing with the yeasty smell of baking bread. Our bodies twine, and the big black dog pushes his great head between; his tail, a metronome, 3/4 time. We'll never get there, Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urging us on faster, faster, but sometimes we take off our watches, sometimes we lie in the hammock, caught between the mesh of rope and the net of stars, suspended, tangled up in love, running out of time. –Barbara Crooker, from Radiance. Kevin Memley offers us a beautiful musical interpretation Lord Byron’s timeless poem, She Walks in Beauty like the Night. Oddly, it is said Byron’s inspiration for this poem comes from when he met his cousin and was stricken by her beauty. He was so troubled through the night that he drank a tumbler of brandy and retire in a sad state. The next day he wrote these words. Memley does his best to depict the desperation meant to describe Byron’s struggle. Listen to how the piece builds to a heart-wrenching climax. She Walks in Beauty She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express, How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! –Lord Byron (1788–1824) Wild Forces is the second movement from Jake Runestad’s work, The Hope for Loving. In this six-movement work, Runestad takes inspiration from the poetry of Daniel Ladinsky He says, “I have endeavored to capture various ways we, as humans, respond to and act on our idea of love; hopefully creating opportunities for introspection and realization…May you consider these texts and this music with an open mind and ask yourself, ‘to whom can I give more love in my life?’” Wild Forces There are beautiful, wild forces within us. Let them turn millstones inside filling bushels that reach to the sky. –St. Francis of Assisi, translated by Daniel Ladinsky
BIOGRAPHIES DR. NATHAN PAYANT is a devoted conductor, educator, and professional singer who strives to cultivate long-lasting connections with others through the choral arts. He has choral teaching and conducting experience at the middle school, high school, college, and professional levels. Currently, Nathan is an Instructor of Music at Colorado State University, where he directs the Concert Choir, is the Director of the Summer Master of Music Education–Conducting Specialization degree program for working music educators, mentors student teaching candidates, and teaches Voice Skills for Music Therapists and Foundations of Music Education. He is also on the choral faculty at the University of Denver and conducts the Lamont Women’s Chorus and works with graduate conducting students. A dedicated advocate for choral music education, Nathan is fervently involved in NAfME, CMEA, ACDA, and CoACDA, placing special emphasis on encouraging lifelong singing. He is frequently invited to present lectures and reading sessions at state conferences, as well as visit and clinic at local high schools throughout the Front Range in Colorado. He has served on the Colorado All-State Choir Board, the Vocal Music Council of CMEA, and the Colorado ACDA Council as the Women’s Choir R&R Chair. He fully believes in promoting standards of the choral repertoire, as well as discovering and supporting newly composed works. Nathan is a very active member of the professional choral community in Colorado. He is the Music Director of Fort Collins community choir, Laudamus Chamber Chorale, the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Anima Chamber Ensemble, General Manager of Colorado Bach Ensemble, and sings professionally with St. Martin’s Chamber Choir and Colorado Bach Ensemble. Most recently, he discovered a new passion for composing/arranging and was honored to have his first several choral arrangements published through Hal Leonard Publishing. A native of South Dakota, Nathan is a proud alumnus of Northern State University in Aberdeen, SD, where he earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree. He received his Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Colorado State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting and Literature from University of Colorado, Boulder. Outside of his professional responsibilities, Nathan enjoys traveling and spending time with his beautiful wife, Natalie, and three daughters, Faythe, Ava, and Lilian.
DR. JOOYEON CHANG is an active collaborative pianist, embracing a massive variety of repertoires including winds, strings, opera, musical theatre, and large ensembles. She has worked as a collaborative pianist in Korea, France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, Luxemburg, and the USA. She has performed with world-renowned brass musicians such tuba greats as Øystein Baadsvik, Roland Szentpali, Thomas Lulu, and Euphonium players Steven Mead, Anthony Caillet, and Bastien Baumet. For many years, she has been official staff pianist for the Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival, Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris, and a guest accompanist of Musique de Armée de l'Air de Paris. She also served the 2012 ITEC (International Tuba Euphonium Conference) at Linz. Born in Seoul, Dr. Chang earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano at the University of Texas at Austin in 2019. She holds Master of Arts at the Royal Academy of Music in London, a Diplôme d'Études Musicales at the Conservatoire national de région de Paris, and an Artistic Diploma at the Korean National University of Arts in piano accompaniment. She also received a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the Korean National University of Arts in 2003. Her major teachers include Bangwon Han, Anne Epperson, Collet Valentine, Andrew West, James Baillieu, Michael Dussek, Claude Collet and Jongphil Lim. Dr. Chang served on the keyboard faculty at the SungShin Women’s University, Chung-Ang University, Seoul Jangsin University, SungShin Women’s University, and Chungkang College of Cultural Industries. She has lectured about "Technique (sight-reading and transposition) of Piano Accompaniment" at SungShin Women’s University. Dr. Chang has recently joined as a member of collaborative piano faculty at the Colorado State University.
PERSONNEL SOPRANO Kinsey Anderson Cassandra Brandriff Natalie Buchholz Haley Candelario Jane Dangerfield Lauren Haid Kylie Krick Sofia Liwanes Lily Malone Meryn Martinchick Sonia Martinez Sophie Matthews Katie McCarty Reagan Rademacher Sara Jo Reeder Alyssa Schaefer Sarah Skiles Aspen Ulibarri TENOR Lincoln Brandt Noah Burge Seth Burkhart Luke Marshall Andrew Spencer
ALTO Maddy Ashton Mika Braddy Hannah Brink Gail Chaim-Weismann Elizabeth Gumper Laura Hirn Lauren Lang Nina Mast Kaelin McClure Kaylea Menon Margarita Piskunova Kaitlyn Saunders Hannah Sarine Sarah Smith Alaina Tennison Hayley Wood Hyemi Woo BASS Steven Ames Andy Firebaugh Connor Flaherty John Friskney Alessandro Hernandez Austin Lowder Max Nieberger Ellis Schaefers
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