NEW CLASSIC SINGERS Lee R. Kesselman, Music Director William Buhr, Accompanist 29th Concert Season 2010-2011 Aaron & Lenny Saturday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m., St. Petronille Church, Glen Ellyn Sunday, Nov. 7, 3 p.m., Plainfield United Methodist Church, Plainfield In the Sweet Mid-Winter Friday, Dec. 10, 8 p.m., Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Arlington Heights Sunday, Dec. 12, 4 p.m., McAninch Arts Center, Glen Ellyn the little match girl passion Saturday, March 5, 8 p.m., Glen Ellyn Evangelical Covenant Church, Glen Ellyn Sunday, March 6, 3 p.m., St. Peter’s Church in the Loop, Chicago Boys & Girls Saturday, May 7, 8 pm, McAninch Arts Center, Glen Ellyn
New Classic Singers 425 Bonnie Brae Rd. Hinsdale, IL 60521 www.newclassicsingers.org (630) 654-9717 Ticket office for McAninch Arts Center concerts: (630) 942-4000 www.AtTheMac.org New Classic Singers celebrates its 29th season in residence at College of DuPage. Members include conductors, educators, and soloists from throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. The Singers have been praised for their imaginative programs and performing excellence. New Classic Singers has performed three times for conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and frequently commissions and performs new works. NCS has performed with the Kronos Quartet and Nexus Percussion Ensemble and has recorded new issues for Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers. New Classic Singers 1
F R O M T H E M U S I C D I R E C TO R Welcome to our 29th season! When New Classic Singers was founded in 1982, careful attention was given to the name of this new group. With all the possible names, what would best express the who and why we would be and would become? “New Classics” has been one important part of our mission – that music which is recently composed, but which deserves to become ‘a classic’. In particular, the music of the 20th-century has always been central to our programs, even as we are now well into the 21st-century. Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein are so central to American music that even just their first names tell us who’s on the program. Say “American composer” and these two names top the list. Throughout our history, NCS has sung much of the choral music of both giants, including complete performances of Candide, MASS, Chichester Psalms, On the Town, as well as many of the shorter works of both composers. Born 20 years apart, close friends and colleagues throughout their lives, both men died in 1990, twenty years ago. Copland was always the composer first, though he stood tall as a man of letters and grew to conduct many of his own works. The younger Bernstein was the quintessential Renaissance man among musicians— internationally renowned conductor, composer, pianist, lecturer, author, teacher. Bernstein leaned toward Broadway, Copland toward the concert hall. Copland encouraged younger composers, Bernstein nearly invented the Young People’s Concerts. Both men were authors, both were heavily involved in the politics of their day. While both men were fully of New York and the East Coast, they each represented American music in their own way. Copland delved deeply into the sounds and traditions of American folk music, and Bernstein into the music which derived from the African-American experience, both jazz and rock. We who love choral music are lucky to have so much from the pens of both Copland and Bernstein. And we’re thrilled to share this music with you, our audience. Thanks for being a part of our audience. Sincerely, Lee R. Kesselman Founder and Music Director New Classic Singers
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M U S I C D I R E C TO R B I O G R A P H Y Founder and Music Director Lee R. Kesselman has been Director of Choral Activities at College of DuPage since 1981. Conductor, pianist, teacher and award-winning composer, in New Classic Singers he has created an ensemble from his love for the vocal art and interest in a wide variety of literature. A member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and recipient of 17 consecutive ASCAP awards. Mr. Kesselman’s compositions have been published by Boosey & Hawkes, Roger Dean Music Co., Colla Voce and Kesselman Press. He co-founded the Choral Music Experience Institute for Choral Teacher Education with Doreen Rao and has served on its faculty since 1986. He is in frequent demand as a guest conductor, lecturer and clinician and as a composer-in-residence throughout the United States and abroad. Kesselman is well-known as a composer of vocal works, including opera, music for chorus, and solo songs. Large works include the operas The Bremen Town Muscians and The Emperor’s New Clothes, Love Phases for baritone voice and piano, Nights in Armor for mixed chorus, Shona Mass for voices and African percussion, and Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand, a symphony for treble chorus and orchestra. His works for children’s choirs have brought him national attention and he has been commissioned to write for children’s choirs, middle school, junior school, high school, college, community, church, and professional ensembles.
AC C O M PA N I S T B I O G R A P H Y Enjoying a national reputation as an accompanist, chamber musician, adjudicator and clinician, William Buhr’s work as a collaborative pianist has taken him to performing engagements in over thirty countries on six continents. Buhr has served on the accompanying staff of the Chicago Symphony Chorus at the invitation of founder/director Margaret Hillis, and has accompanied James Levine, Michael Tilson Thomas, Yo-Yo Ma, June Anderson, Berndt Weikl and others at the Ravinia Festival. He has also worked with Stephen Sondheim, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald and Michael Cerveris in the Ravinia Festival productions of Sunday In The Park With George and Anyone Can Whistle. Holding degrees from the University of Illinois and DePaul University, Mr. Buhr has appeared in many international festivals as well as numerous national and regional conventions of major musical and educational organizations. Mr. Buhr has served on the faculty of the Choral Music Experience Institute for Choral Teacher Education with Doreen Rao since its inception in 1986, and has played for the national touring companies of numerous Broadway musicals including Showboat, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and The Phantom of the Opera. He has served as the Associate Director and accompanist of the New Classic Singers since 1986, and has enjoyed an association with Anima - Young Singers of Greater Chicago (formerly the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus) since 1984.
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PROGR A M NEW CLASSIC SINGERS Lee R. Kesselman, Music Director William Buhr, Accompanist Aaron & Lenny Saturday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m., St. Petronille Church, Glen Ellyn with Glenbard West Chamber Choir, Andy Jeffrey, Director Sunday, Nov. 7, 3 p.m., Plainfield United Methodist Church, Plainfield with Plainfield United Methodist Church Chancel Choir, Jon DeGroot, Director (The audience is requested to kindly hold applause until each section break.)
I. Four Motets (1921).................................................................................................Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Thou, O Jehovah, Abideth Forever Help Us, O Lord Have Mercy on Us, O My Lord Sing Ye Praises To Our King Copland wrote these four motets in 1921 when he was studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris as a 21 year-old. All of Boulanger’s students were required to write 4 motets and a passacaglia under her tutelage.
II. In the Beginning (1947)........................................................................................Aaron Copland Dottie Williames, mezzo-soprano In the Beginning was commissioned for a Symposium on Music Criticism at Harvard in May 1947. It does not incorporate folk or jazz elements, but creates a unique structure for depicting the Genesis story of Creation. The mezzo soloist and the chorus describe each day of creation, with a chordal frame of each day, “…and the evening and the morning were the (first) day.” The fourth day (“Let there be lights”) provides a rhythmic, syncopated center section to the work. The work builds to the creation of the human race in day six, followed, of course, by the God’s Sabbath rest. But the coda is devoted to the verses in which God breathes the breath of life into Man’s nostrils, and it’s here that Copland exercises the greatest drama and passion of the piece.
III. Glenbard West Chamber Choir—Saturday Plainfield United Methodist Church Choir—Sunday Old American Songs, Set 2 (1952)..................................................................... Aaron Copland At the River (Saturday & Sunday) Ching-a-ring-chaw (Saturday only) Zion’s Walls (Sunday only)
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P R O G R A M ( c o n t .) The Old American Songs were composed for baritone William Warfield and have become much-loved as choral pieces. They were written at a time when the composer was consumed with using American folk materials as the cornerstone of his style. The 1940’s gave birth to Fanfare for the Common Man, The Lincoln Portrait, and Appalachian Spring. The Old American Songs were followed immediately by his opera, The Tender Land.
IV. Two Choruses from The Tender Land (1954)..................................................Aaron Copland The Promise of Living Stomp Your Foot While recognized for much of his life as the leading composer of his time, The Tender Land represents Copland’s only opera. He wrote, “In writing The Tender Land, I was trying to give young American singers material that they do not often get in the opera house; that is, material that would be natural for them to sing and perform. I deliberately tried to combine the use of traditional operatic set pieces – arias, duets, choruses, etc. – with a natural language that would not be too complex for young singers at opera workshops throughout the country. I wanted simple rhetoric and a musical style to match.”
INTERMISSION
V. Plainfield United Methodist Church Chancel Choir (Sunday only) Gloria in Excelsis .....................................................................................................Antonio Vivaldi The First Word from The Seven Last Words of Christ................................ Theodore Dubois Baritone soloist: Mark Demmin Tenor soloist: Larry Stephens Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring................................................................................................ J. S. Bach Flute soloist: Sherry Lenning Bashana Haba’ah........................................................................................................... Nurit Hirsh Cello soloist: Mark Liu Arr. John Leavitt Wait On the Lord............................................................................................Rosephanye Powell Witness..............................................................................................................Traditional Spiritual Arr. Jack Halloran Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit................................................................................... William Dawson
VI. Selections from MASS (1971)..................................................................... Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) Warm-up Simple Song Almighty Father Sanctus New Classic Singers 5
P R O G R A M ( c o n t .) Bernstein’s large-scale ‘theatre piece for singers, players, and dancers’ was created for the opening of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in September 1971. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, it included liturgical texts as well as other lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and Bernstein himself. MASS is Bernstein’s most ambitious concert work, and displays his facility in rock, jazz, serious and theatrical music.
VII. French Choruses from The Lark (1955)..................................................... Leonard Bernstein Spring Song “Again comes the spring! Praise God! Alleluia!” Court Song “ Fie, husband, on your love, for I have a friend! He’s handsome and nobly attired. He serves me night and day; for that I love him so. Fie, husband!” Soldier’s Song “Long live Jeanne, pretty Jeanne!” Bernstein wrote incidental music for this play, originally by Jean Anouilh and adapted by Lillian Hellman, about the life of Joan of Arc. Bernstein used an early music ensemble of seven singers, New York Pro Musica, for the pre-recorded music. The first song is an adaptation of the Renaissance chanson Revoici venir du printemps by Claude Le Jeune. The music and the play evoke the medieval era of Joan of Arc’s life and the persecution of the McCarthy Era of the 1950’s.
VIII. Suite from West Side Story (1957).............................................................. Leonard Bernstein Arr. William Buhr Few musicals are better known than West Side Story. It should be noted that Bernstein wrote the music for The Lark, Candide, and West Side Story in a period of less than two years. The Sharks, The Jets, Jerome Robbins’ magical choreography, Arthur Laurents’ book, the lyrics of a young Stephen Sondheim, and Bernstein’s score are indelibly stamped on the consciousness of the theatre-going public.
IX. Selections from Candide (1956)................................................................. Leonard Bernstein Arr. Robert Page Life is Happiness Indeed It Must Be So The Best of All Possible Worlds Make Our Garden Grow Based on Voltaire’s novel, Candide shows Bernstein at his compositional best, attached to words by Richard Wilbur, Lillian Hellman, John LaTouche, and Stephen Sondheim. Candide, like its hero, has survived multiple misadventures, re-writes, and unusual productions. But through it all, Bernstein’s magical score survives intact.
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N C S 2 010 - 2 011 Lee R. Kesselman, Director Bill Buhr, Accompanist Soprano Elise Calhoon.....................................................................................................................Naperville Mona Jethmalani...............................................................................................Glendale Heights Leah Kamm..............................................................................................................................Batavia Beth Majerszky...............................................................................................................New Lenox Megan Marshall.................................................................................................................Lombard Lauren Moore-Dowd..........................................................................................................Chicago Madeline Morris.................................................................................................................Deerfield Karen Owen.....................................................................................................................Warrenville Gabriela Sevilla.................................................................................................................Naperville Susan Van Ordstrand................................................................................................................ Elgin Sadie Wynne................................................................................................................. Bolingbrook Alto Julie Dee........................................................................................................................................ Volo Marcia Ecker........................................................................................................South Barrington Pam Eiten..............................................................................................................................Wheaton Jean Follett............................................................................................................................Hinsdale Mele Howland....................................................................................................... Downers Grove Maureen Lyons........................................................................................................................Darien Arlayne Pekofske....................................................................................................................Darien Amanda Sirvatka.................................................................................................. Downers Grove Dottie Williames...........................................................................................................Sugar Grove Angela Zawada....................................................................................................................Chicago Tenor Niall Casserly.......................................................................................................Rolling Meadows Sean Doty.......................................................................................................................... Burr Ridge Brett Goad........................................................................................................................Woodridge Andrew Johnson................................................................................................... Downers Grove Jay Kessen.............................................................................................................................Oak Park Dennis Schafer...........................................................................................................................Joliet Paul Sirvatka...................................................................................................................... Glen Ellyn Larry Stephens...................................................................................................................Plainfield John Whittington................................................................................................. Downers Grove Jim Yarbrough..................................................................................................................... Elmhurst Bass Ben Adair..........................................................................................................................Woodridge Jon Bacon.............................................................................................................................Lombard Jack Dare................................................................................................................. Downers Grove Paul Drennan......................................................................................................Glendale Heights Mark Materna..................................................................................................................Woodridge Al Pedersen............................................................................................................Western Springs Dan Saathoff...................................................................................................................Warrenville Dave Saunders................................................................................................................Woodridge David Scott........................................................................................................................Naperville Doug Thompson.................................................................................................................Hinsdale New Classic Singers 7
GUEST ARTISTS Saturday night The Glenbard West Chamber Choir is one of three auditioned curricular ensembles at Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn. Glenbard Township High School was established in the 1922-1923 school year when students began their first full year of attendance on this campus. It has a teaching staff of 140 who work with approximately 2,100 students. Glenbard Township High School District 87 is the third largest high school district in Illinois. The communities of Glen Ellyn, Carol Stream, Glendale Heights and Lombard lie within the district’s boundaries, along with portions of Bloomingdale, Hanover Park, Addison, Downers Grove, Wheaton and unincorporated areas. The district includes four high schools. Andy Jeffrey is in his 11th year of teaching and his third as choir director at Glenbard West. He came to Glenbard West from Frontier High School in Bakersfield, CA where he was the choir director and built a program that included 215 students in 5 curricular choirs. Previous to his time in California, Mr. Jeffrey was the head of music at Rossington All Saints School in Rossington, England for a year. He has also taught choir at Lyons Township High School in La Grange, IL and spent four years at Westminster Christian School in Elgin, IL where he taught K-12 music and drama. He has also taught private voice lessons over the last 10 years and served as adjunct music faculty at Bakersfield College in Bakersfield, CA. Mr. Jeffrey has been active as a clinician at junior high choral festivals in Illinois and California in addition to acting as a judge in high school level solo and ensemble festivals in these states. He has also served as a worship leader in various churches in the Chicago area. Mr. Jeffrey holds a bachelor of music degree in education from Taylor University in Upland, IN and a master of music degree in education from Northern Illinois University. He is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association and the Illinois Music Educators Association. Andy currently serves on the state board of the ACDA as the editor of the publication, The Podium. He is also a member of the St. Charles Singers. Glenbard West Chamber Choir Andy Jeffrey, Director Tom Pfaff, Accompanist Alyssa Bach John Baldwin Mary Elizabeth Barker Phoebe Borkowski Madeline Brady Kyle Dahlgren Katherine Dorn Robert Garvey Nathan Hall Alyson Huppertz Lina Lash Teresa Novak Danielle Post Robert Racska Madeline Raube Mylo Reyes Ann Russell Kevin Vondrak Ellen Wendte Joseph Williamson 8 New Classic Singers
G U E S T A R T I S T S ( c o n t .) Sunday afternoon Plainfield United Methodist Church In 1823, a Methodist circuit rider named Jesse Walker established a purpose in the land along the DuPage River in what is now northern Illinois - to bring Christianity to the Pottawatomie people of Illinois. When the first permanent white residents came to this area in 1829, Jesse’s son-in-law James Walker was one of them. The settlers formed the first Methodist class in so-called “Walker’s Grove,” now known as Plainfield. In 1832 Rev. S.R. Beggs, known affectionately as “Father Beggs,” became the circuit rider to serve what was to become Plainfield. Rev. Beggs oversaw construction of the congregation’s first church, located on Route 59 and the west corner of Ottawa Street. During the week, the building was the local school. In 1866, the first portion of the current building was constructed. At the time, Father Beggs commented that “it was a great undertaking for Plainfield, but all lending a helping hand, it came to a completion.” The stone for the building came from a nearby quarry. The church has expanded and improved its facilities many times in the ensuing years. In 1907, the church received the gift of a ten bell carillon from James Beggs and John Shreffler. The carillon has recently been expanded. Children and adults play the bells on Sundays and other special days. PUMC is presently shepherded by Pastor Craig Miller, Senior Pastor, and Pastor Sherry Scates, Director of Christian Education, assisted by Pastor John Wilterdinck, Director of Youth Ministry. PUMC Chancel Choir Plainfield United Methodist Church has a rich history of embedded music ministry that supports and sustains our worship experiences, as well as providing musical outreach. The Chancel Choir, Bell Choir, and Children’s Choirs have each added significantly to the substance and affect of this church’s ministry. Small ensembles, most recently the Men’s Quartet, act as musical ambassadors beyond the confines of the church and the community, representing the personality, purpose and outcomes of the music ministry at PUMC. Chancel Choir welcomes non-auditioned singers of high school age and older. Under the direction of John DeGroot, the choir rehearses on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 - 8:15 PM, and prepares anthems that include diverse styles of music. John DeGroot earned his Bachelors degree in Music Education from Western Illinois University and the Master of Music degree from Northern Illinois University. He served as Director of Choral Music at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, IL from 1976 until 2005, where he guided the development of the curriculum, and created the structure and nomenclature of the choral program that functions as the template for three high schools currently representing District 204. John now serves as an adjunct staff member of Millikin University and Northern Illinois University, supervising student teachers in music education. In addition to guest conducting choral festivals, and adjudicating for I.H.S.A. and I.G.S.M.A., he directs the Chancel Choir at Plainfield United Methodist Church, a position he has held since 1990.
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G U E S T A R T I S T S ( c o n t .) Director of the Greater Chicago Youth Chorale in eight European Chorale tours, Mr. DeGroot has served on the American Choral Directors’ Association (ACDA) Executive Board as the Repertory and Standards Chair from 1997 – 2005, and has served the Fox Valley Music Educators Association as President, Vice President, and Choral Division Chair. In addition, he has served the Illinois Music Educators’ Association as Choral Division Chair for IMEA Districts VII and IX. While teaching in District 204, Mr. DeGroot was repeatedly honored as a “Most Influential Educator”, a recognition of teaching excellence generated by student nominations, sponsored by the Indian Prairie Educational Foundation. He was honored as a recipient of ACDA’s coveted “Harold Decker Choral Award” in July of 2008, in recognition of lifetime contributions in the field of choral music. John has lived in Plainfield, Illinois for the past 34 years. He and his wife Debby recently celebrated their 38th anniversary, and have raised three (now-adult) children. Plainfield United Methodist Church Chancel Choir Organist: Kathleen Hermansen Director: John DeGroot Videography: Mike Obrecht, Don Markwell Soprano I Fern Angelos Debby DeGroot Marilyn Williams Heidi Van De Voort Soprano II Pat Decker Melanie Dale Veray Mackley Carol May Jennie Patkowa Sherry Scates Kim Stephens Alto Karen Cowan Sue Hasenyager Sharon Kinley Sherry Lenning
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Carol Markwell Sharon O’Donnell Rena Snyder Marcia Vaughan Courtney Walton Aura Wynn Tenor Jason Hawkins Larry Stephens Bass Jim Cowan Ken Decker Mark Demmin Phil Glotfelty Don Habersberger Kelly Markwell Dan O’Donnell Bob Snyder
O U R T H A N K S TO T H E F O L L OW I N G S U P P O R T E R S McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage Michelle & Thomas Braxton John D. Breen Mary Burkhardt Jack & Laura Dare Paul Drennen Michael & Daniela Folker Fifth Third Bank Follett Corporation Franciscan Friars, Joliet Barbara Geis Harris Bank Hinsdale Georgia K. Hamilton Victoria Hellyer & Jonathan Siegel Mele Howland & Timothy Krauskopf Andrew & Cynthia Johnson Lee R. Kesselman Robert & Durema Kohl Beth Majerszky Marilyn McCormick Linda Motz
Drs. Don & Mary Ellen Newsom Karen Webb Owen Allen & Patricia Pedersen Arlayne & Robert Pekofske Ruth & Stephen Pordes Diane Ragains Slawin Gabriela Sevilla & Jaime MontoyaRobles David H. Shaftman Sigma Alpha Iota, LaGrange Alumnae Chapter Florence R. Slavick Larry Stephens Allen Sterwalt & Gerald Spearman Douglas Thompson & Jean Follett Richard M. Traut Jim Tucker & Neil Lucchese Jim Kempfer & Susan Van Ordstrand Ray & Lois Voss Donald G. & Helen Westlake Prudy Widlak Ann Field Williams
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FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Friends of New Classic Singers, Welcome to the start of our 29th season. It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to our opening program. Last year at this time we were singing Brahms, which to a musician is like coming home. For American singers, performing Copland and Bernstein has much the same quality—it is music that becomes wonderfully embedded in your psyche. As a result, many of the pieces you will hear tonight will be familiar to us and to you. We are very proud to be entering our third season as an independent arts organization. We continue to learn how best to make it all work: the logistics, the finances and the management. Happily, our patron list continues to grow and you, our wonderful audience, manages to find us as we move our performances around the city and the suburbs. We thank you! Be sure to visit our website, www.newclassicsingers.org, for more information on our singers and audio clips of our work. You will also find there the most up-todate information on concert locations, ticket prices and parking. Unlike most other choral groups, we continue to present a four-program season. You will not want to miss ‘In the Sweet Mid-Winter’ in December, the little match girl passion in March or ‘Boys & Girls’ in May. We look forward to seeing you again. Thank you for coming—we sing for you. Jean Follett President
It’s never too early.... to buy NCS’ FAMILY CHRISTMAS ALBUM CD. Let it warm your spirit -- and get a head start on that holiday shopping! Our CD is available at the Arts Center Ticket Office, at all of our concerts, and on our web-site.
In the Sweet Mid-Winter, NCS’ next concert, will be a free-flowing evocation of the holiday season, featuring familiar carols, beautiful sacred texts, small ensembles, sing-alongs and improvisations. Get ready for a concert of old, new and ‘never before’ as Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice and Winter join hands in song. Join us on Sunday, December 12 at 4 p.m., at the McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage. Guest artists will include jazz tenor saxophonist Mark Colby and flutist Sherry Kujala. Tickets are available at the Arts Center Ticket Office, 630-942-4000 or on our website. www.newclassicsingers.org 12 New Classic Singers