Saturday October 5, 2019, 7:30pm First Plymouth Congregational Church Cherry Hills Village Sunday October 6, 2019, 3:00pm Wellshire Presbyterian Church Denver
MADRIGALI: Six “Fire Songs” on Italian Renaissance Poems
Morten Lauridsen (b.1943)
1. Ov’è, Lass’, Il Bel Viso?
3. Amor, Io Sento L’alma
5. Luci Serene E Chiare
2. Quando Son Più Lontan
4. Io Piango
6. Se Per Haveri, Oime
EARTH SONG
Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)
BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTER WIND
John Rutter (b.1945)
Alicia Rigsby, piano
WATER NIGHT
Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)
FIRE
Katerina Gimon (b. 1993)
---------------------------------------------------- INTERMISSION ---------------------------------------------------
PHOENIX: Agnus Dei (2019)
Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978)
TUNDRA (2019)
Ola Gjeilo, piano; Orchestra Sara Michael, soprano
THE ROAD
Ola Gjeilo, piano; Orchestra
World premiere; commissioned for Kantorei and Artistic Director Joel Rinsema by Keith and Sue Ferguson. 1. Hallingskarvet
3. Hardangerfjorden
2. Hardangervidda
4. Husedalen
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PROGRAM NOTES Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) is among the most prominent American composers for the voice, particularly choir. Since 1967 he has served on the faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he founded the Advanced Studies Program in Film Scoring and is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Composition. Honored as an “American Choral Master” by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2005, he was awarded the 2007 National Medal of Arts, the highest artistic award in the United States, by the President in a White House ceremony “for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power, and spiritual depth.” A native of the Pacific Northwest, he divides his time between Los Angeles and a remote island off the coast of Washington where he draws inspiration from the beauty and serenity of nature. The musicologist Byron Adams counts Lauridsen’s 1987 Madrigali: Six “Firesongs” on Italian Renaissance Poems among five choral cycles “at the heart of his achievement” as a composer. Praised by the Los Angeles Times as “stunningly crafted,” the songs share poetic references to fire, as well as features typical of Italian Renaissance madrigals: word painting, modality, bold harmonic shifts, intricate counterpoint between voices, and Augenmusik (“eye music” that graphically represents a musical theme, like a love song scored in the shape of a heart). However, Lauridsen freely infuses his Renaissance soundworld with bitingly dissonant 9th and 13th chords, refocusing 500-year-old techniques through a 20thcentury harmonic lens. Inspired by the sacred works of Josquin and Palestrina and the secular madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo, Lauridsen approached the Madrigali as a unified work. He writes: “I wanted the music to emanate (like ripples from a pebble thrown into a pond) from a single, primal sonority—one dramatic chord that would encapsulate the intensity of the entire cycle and which would provide a musical motivic unity to complement the poetic. This sonority, which I’ve termed the ‘Fire-Chord,’ opens the piece and is found extensively throughout all six movements in myriad forms and manipulations.” Lauridsen designed the Madrigali in arch form, so listen for similarities between songs one and six, two and five. The cycle’s dramatic apex comes in song four (‘Io Piango’), where, as the composer explains, “the music gradually builds from pianissimo to a fortissimo, seven-part explosion of the ‘Fire-Chord’ before settling into a quiet return of the opening measures.”
Notes by Dr. Leah Weinberg
Frank Ticheli (b. 1958) is a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, and was the Composer-in-Residence for the Pacific Symphony from 1991–98. Although he is best known for his works for concert band and orchestra, his choral pieces are popular for their beauty and emotional appeal. The Los Angeles Times describes Ticheli’s music as “optimistic and thoughtful,” and his 2007 Earth Song for a cappella mixed choir embodies both of these descriptors. His original text presents “music and singing” as “refuge” and “light” in the midst of “darkness, pain and strife,” while his musical setting infuses tonal harmonies with just enough dissonance to tug at the heartstrings. As the piece opens, listen to how warmly the word “See” resounds in the wake of the unresolved musical tension (major second intervals) that builds across the opening words “Sing, Be, Live.” English composer, conductor, and editor John Rutter (b. 1945) is probably the most popular and widely performed choral composer of his generation, celebrated for his skilled craftsmanship and gift for memorable turn of phrase. The pianist and contemporary music advocate Matthew Greenall describes Rutter’s style as indebted equally to the British choral tradition and the harmonic and melodic language of late 19th- and early 20th-century composers like Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Duruflé. Both influences can be heard in Blow, blow thou winter wind, Rutter’s setting of a song from the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It, and originally published as part of the cycle When Icicles Hang (1973). Rutter writes: “This bitter-sweet song is sung in the final scene of Act II of As You Like It by Amiens, a follower of the exiled Duke Senior who is living a Robin Hoodlike life in the Forest of Arden having been robbed of his rightful dukedom by his usurping brother. The duke tells Amiens ‘Give us some music; and, good cousin, sing,’ but the song must inevitably remind him of the betrayal he has suffered. Amiens’s imagery of winter does however echo the positive feelings expressed at the beginning of Act II by the duke, who prefers his simple outdoor life with all its hardships to the intrigue and falsity of the court.” The Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre (b. 1970) is alongside Morten Lauridsen, the most popular choral composer to come of age in the late 20th century. His works have been programmed worldwide by millions of amateur and professional
performers, while his Virtual Choirs have brought together singers from over 120 countries. Whitacre received his MM in composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano and David Diamond, and is presently Artist in Residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. He composed Water Night while still a student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, adapting Muriel Rukeyser’s translation of Octavio Paz’s poem Agua nocturna. Of the work’s serendipitous origins, Whitacre writes, “In January of 1995 I spent the day with Dr. Bruce Mayhall, and in one amazing four-hour conversation he basically convinced me to stay in school, finish my degree, and continue my life as a professional artist. Heavy stuff. I wanted so much to show my appreciation to him, to write him a piece worthy of his wisdom and understanding. I got home, opened up my book of Octavio Paz poetry, and started reading. I can’t really describe what happened. The music sounded in the air as I read the poem, as if it were a part of the poetry.” Speaking directly to his creative process, he writes, “The poetry of Octavio Paz is a composer’s dream. The music seems to set itself (without the usual struggle that invariably accompanies this task) and the process feels more like cleaning the oils from an ancient canvas to reveal the hidden music than composing. Water Night was no exception, and the tight harmonies and patient unfolding seemed to pour from the poetry from the first reading, singing its magic even after the English translation.”
Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978) is one of the most frequently performed composers in the choral world. An accomplished pianist, improvisations over his own published choral pieces have become a trademark of his collaborations. Although Norwegian by birth, it is perhaps Ola’s adopted country of America that has influenced the composer’s distinctive soundworld the most, evolving a style that is often described as cinematic and evocative, with a lush, harmonious sound. Ola grew up in a musically eclectic home listening to classical, jazz, pop and folk, a broad background he later incorporated into his classical composition studies at The Juilliard School, the Royal College of Music in London, and currently as a New York City-based freelance composer. He is especially inspired by the improvisational art of film composer Thomas Newman, jazz legends Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny, glass artist Dale Chihuly and architect Frank Gehry.
Ontario-born Katerina Gimon (b. 1993) is a composer, improvisor, and experimental vocalist whose works have been performed and broadcast across North America. Her 2013 multimovement work Elements colorfully depicts earth, air, fire, and water, and won top prizes at the 2014 IAWM Search for New Music Competition, the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s 2015 Young Composers Competition, and the 2016 SOCAN Young Composers Competition. According to Gimon, “Fire” from Elements is “a fun, lively and energetic work incorporating vocal percussion, body percussion, nasal singing, calls, nonsense syllables as well as optional percussion.” Among the movement’s unique conceits is an icon in the shape of a fireball whose appearance in the score cues singers to “Randomly intersperse calls: yips, shouts, ominous laughs, etc.”
Ola’s music is published by Walton Music and Boosey & Hawkes. For more information, please visit olagjeilo.com, or find Ola on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. (© 2019 by Ola Gjeilo)
Ola’s albums include the bestselling Ola Gjeilo and Winter Songs on the Decca Classics label, featuring Tenebrae, Voces8 and the Choir of Royal Holloway. He also has two piano albums on the 2L label; Stone Rose and Piano Improvisations. All four recordings are available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, and all major platforms. In 2015, the Choir of King’s College Cambridge performed Ola’s Serenity (O Magnum Mysterium) at the annual BBCtelevised Christmas Eve service. He is currently composerin-residence with DCINY and Albany Pro Musica.
American poet, author, composer, and speaker Charles Anthony Silvestri (b. 1965) has worked with other artists from all over the world to create texts tailor-made for their commissions and specific artistic needs. He enjoys the challenge of solving these creative problems and has provided custom choral texts, opera libretti, program notes and other writing for composers including Eric Whitacre, Ola Gjeilo, Kim Arnesen, and Dan Forrest, and for ensembles ranging from high schools to the Houston Grand Opera, from the King’s Singers to the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, from Westminster Choir College to Westminster Abbey. As a clinician, Silvestri speaks to
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choirs, classes, and concert audiences about his works, the creative process, the marriage of words and music, and about his collaborative relationships with composers. He is the author of three books, including A Silver Thread (GIA 2019), a retrospective of almost 20 years of his lyric poetry. He teaches Ancient and Medieval History at Washburn University and lives in Lawrence, Kansas. (© 2019 by Charles Anthony Silvestri) Ola Gjeilo’s Phoenix (Agnus Dei), an a cappella setting of the Latin “Agnus Dei” (Lamb of God) text, was commissioned by and dedicated to the Phoenix Chorale of Phoenix, Arizona in honor of its 50th anniversary. Inspired by the composer’s first visit to the desert of the American southwest, the work gives voice to the quiet beauty of the landscape in the form of a prayer for mercy and peace. In the newly revised version of the work that Kantorei is performing, the opening musical idea returns at the end, recalling the cyclical character of both the natural world and prayer.
Among Ola Gjeilo’s earliest collaborations with poet Charles Anthony (Tony) Silvestri is the elemental Tundra, a musical portrait of the vast Norwegian mountain plateau of Hardangervidda. The composer writes, “It’s pretty close to where my father grew up, a ski resort town called Geilo, in the mountains between Oslo and Bergen. This area is quite barren, and intensely beautiful. It is easy to feel that you are treading on sacred land, which Tony so wonderfully expresses in the text.” Of this relationship between music and words, Silvestri describes a synergistic union whose “effect is to create the starkness of the landscape.” Rather than follow along with the text as the choir sings, the poet suggests taking in the words at the beginning, and then allowing your attention to become fully immersed in the evocative soundscape. Gjeilo originally composed Tundra in 2011 for women’s choir, and Kantorei has the distinction of premiering the composer’s newly expanded arrangement for mixed choir.
Commissioned by longtime Kantorei member Keith Ferguson, The Road (world premiere) for choir and string orchestra is a musical portrait of Ola Gjeilo’s homeland, Norway. The work unfolds as an actual and emotional journey along the road between four places of deep personal significance to the composer: the mountain Hallingskarvet, the plateau of Hardangervidda, the still water of Hardangerfjorden, and the flowing water of Husedalen. These places (or stations) divide the work into four sections, within which nine movements, punctuated by occasional instrumental interludes, immerse listeners in concentrated soundscapes. The creative journey behind this musical one was highly collaborative: Gjeilo provided Silvestri with inspirational materials, ranging from photographs to personal recollections, and in return, the poet provided the composer with original text for each of the four stations of the piece. Gjeilo then began the sculptural process of recording improvisations and developing these ideas, whittling away until he found the essence of each movement and the work as a whole, including thematic bridges between movements and interludes. Throughout, composer and poet made textual adjustments to fit the shape of the emerging music, some as radical as a distillation in the last movement from sixteen lines to a concentrated five. “Collaboration between composer and poet is magic,” Silvestri writes of this process. “It opens for the composer opportunities for organic and dynamic creation not possible with previously published poetry and gives the poet the thrill and responsibility that his words will be sung not read – and will be heard attached to an emotional soundtrack. There’s magic and power in the marriage of words and music.”
Hallingskarvet Ola Gjeilo’s family has a multigenerational connection to the towering yet accessible mountain of Hallingskarvet, which rises above the town of Geilo (of which Gjeilo is a variant), his father’s hometown. Although Gjeilo was not raised there, it remains a favorite place in his native country, the
mountain a bedrock of his identity. Appropriately, this place that feels most like home to the composer is also his point of geographical and musical departure. Three compact movements offer shifting perspectives on the mountain’s multifaceted presence as sentinel, protector, and “king.”
Hardangervidda The next station on the road is the plateau of Hardangervidda, which the composer describes as a study in contrasts – “desolate but also with patches of life, big sky, horizon” – and the music animates these contrasts. Listen for the presence (and absence) of a whirling accompanimental figure that rises and falls like the wind. Hardangervidda is the same natural feature at the heart of Tundra (2011), but as Silvestri has explained, for The Road, the composer asked him to approach the plateau afresh. The poet thus focused
on crafting rich verbal imagery to evoke not the barrenness of the landscape, but rather the traveler’s wonder at its vastness. This station, like the first, is presented in three parts: haiku-like outer movements contrast the fragility of a trembling flower with the broad shoulders of the earth. Between these natural sensory impressions, the traveler wanders the plateau experiencing, as the text describes, solitude and the opening of the “waiting soul.”
Hardangerfjorden Descending from the high plateau to sea level, the traveler next passes through the shadows of a long, narrow valley to the still waters of Hardangerfjorden, expressed as one musical movement. As the traveler reaches the literal and figurative ground of the journey, the music and poetry give voice to this arrival. From active, forward motion – winding,
descending, revealing, emerging – the movement pauses with the traveler to drink in the tranquility of the fjord as the way “is opened to the view.” A hymn-like choral melody set against swirling instrumentals articulates the winding journey down to the fjord, where a sudden textural shift conveys a “sense of having arrived, and of new potential.”
husedalen The flowing water of Husedalen (Huse Valley) takes the traveler back up from the fjord to the plateau, but rather than a grueling climb, the composer describes this hike as “the champagne, the celebration, the dessert – four stunning waterfalls in succession, of immense beauty and ruthless power.” Silvestri’s poetry animates the perpetual motion of these waterfalls, offering images of “clouds . . . breaking,” “light . . . gleaming,” and “water . . . falling” as Gjeilo’s steadily churning accompaniment, murmuring harmony, and crystalline melody Notes by Dr. Leah Weinberg
capture the effervescent beauty of the falls. Although the road from Geilo to Husedalen does not loop back upon itself, Gjeilo nonetheless notes that a hidden circularity defines the journey, for the top of the Huse Valley is actually a different part of the Hardangervidda plateau. “So in a sense,” he explains, “you’re back to where you were before, but richer from having gone through that profound journey along a mesmerizing road in Norway.”
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NOV 2 & 3, 4 PM Boulder Concert Chorale First United Methodist
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APR 26, 4 PM Boulder Children’s Chorale Boulder Church
FEB 15, 7:30 PM Boulder Chamber Chorale w/ Boulder Chamber Orchestra Boulder Church
MAY 17, 3:30 PM Boulder Concert Chorale w/ Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra Macky Auditorium
Mahler Symphony Cherubini Requiem No. 2
Visit our website for full season details
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Managing Artistic Director Joel M. Rinsema joined Kantorei in 2014, becoming the second conductor in its history. During his tenure, Kantorei has experienced tremendous growth of its audiences, nearly tripled its budget size, and launched an ambitious recording strategy. A frequent collaborator and champion of new works for chorus, Joel has commissioned and premiered work of many of today’s leading composers including Kim André Arnesen, Mason Bates, René Clausen, Ola Gjeilo, Mark Hayes, Cecilia McDowall, David Montoya, Jake Runestad and Eric Whitacre. In the summer of 2018, Joel conducted the Central American premiere of Ola Gjeilo’s “Dreamweaver” in Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala with Capella Cantorum de Guatemala. Joel is a passionate advocate for the professional choral art form, and he frequently consults with other choral arts organizations around the country. Because of his leadership in his field, he received the Louis Botto Award for “Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal” from Chorus America, the industry’s advocacy, research, and leadership development organization for choruses, choral leaders, and singers.
JOEL M. RINSEMA Managing Artistic Director
He is an accomplished conductor of major works for choir and orchestra and was one of eighteen conductors chosen nationally through audition to participate in master classes and workshops presented by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and Chorus America. As a tenor soloist, Joel performed across the United States, in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Joel serves as the North American Choral Promotion Manager for Oxford University Press based in Oxford, England and Music Director at First Plymouth Congregational Church in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado. He holds music degrees from Arizona State and Whitworth Universities and is a member of the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammys), American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and Colorado Music Educators Association (CMEA). Joel came to Kantorei from the Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale. Throughout his 23-year tenure with the Phoenix Chorale, he served in nearly every capacity with the organization including the last 15 years as President & CEO and Assistant Conductor. He negotiated an ongoing recording contract with the prestigious U.K.based Chandos Records, and Phoenix Chorale recordings earned a total of eight Grammy nominations and two Grammy wins during his tenure. Joel appears on all of the Phoenix Chorale recordings and was a soloist on the Grammy Award-winning “Spotless Rose: Hymn to the Virgin Mary.” In addition to his work with the Phoenix Chorale, Joel served as the Director of Music at Church of the Beatitudes United Church of Christ in Phoenix for 15 years, and was the founding chorus master of the Arizona Musicfest Chorus.
Kantorei is a Denver-based, choral ensemble comprised of volunteer singers under the direction of Artistic Director Joel M. Rinsema. Kantorei’s choral artists have studied at schools with strong music programs across the United States such as Baylor University, Brigham Young University, Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, St. Olaf College, Wartburg College, and Westminster Choir College. Kantorei’s singers reside throughout the greater Denver area. Some serve as choral music educators, church choir conductors, and vocal instructors. Others are doctors, social workers, optometrists, counselors, clinical psychologists, accountants, realtors –all brought together in weekly rehearsals for shared artistic excellence and community. Kantorei frequently performs at major choral conventions across the U.S., has toured around the world, and works with composers and conductors of international renown. Kantorei has sung under the batons of René Clausen, Simon Carrington, Eric Whitacre, Karen Kennedy, and Anton Armstrong. Kantorei has commissioned and premiered new choral works from renowned composers including Kim André Arnesen, Eric William Barnum, Abbie Betinis, René Clausen, Ola Gjeilo, Jake Runestad, Joshua Shank, and Eric Whitacre. Its first international released recording in January 2018, “Infinity: Choral Works of Kim André Arnesen” on the Naxos label climbed to the #2 best-selling classical album on iTunes, #6 on the Traditional Classical Billboard Charts and #19 on the overall Classical Billboard charts. In May 2019, Kantorei recorded the music of Jake Runestad, anticipating release in the spring of 2020. Santa Barbara Music Publishing Inc., publishes the Kantorei Choral series. Formed in 1997 under the leadership of six friends and artistic director Richard Larson, Kantorei has established itself as one of the nation’s premier choral ensembles and has performed for the American Choral Directors Association National Conferences in 2003, 2011 and 2019. Kantorei’s mission is “to elevate the human experience through choral excellence.”
“…This is an impressive ensemble, always precise and always well-blended.” Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare Magazine, July, 2018
“Maestro Rinsema’s Kantorei sounds gorgeous here.” Philip Greenfield, American Record Guide, July, 2018
“What finer advocates for his music could a composer have than these excellent singers of Kantorei?” David Vernier, Classics Today, April, 2018
THE CHOIR SOPRANO
ALTO
TENOR
BASS
Victoria Bailey Kimberly Dunninger Beryl Fanslow Wilson Christina Graham Heather Gunnerson Stacie Hanson Jade Howard Shannon Lemmon-Elrod Paige Lewkow Sara Michael * Erin Pettitt Alicia Rigsby Pearl Rutherford Christianna Sullins
Emily Alexander Lindsey Aquilina Lyn Berry-Helmlinger Sarah Harrison * Chelsea Kendall Melissa Menter Erin Meyerhoff Jennifer Moore Kali Paguirigan Tegan Palmer Allison Pasternak Emma Tebbe Andrea Ware-Medina
Kai Berry-Helmlinger * Matthew Eschliman Keith Ferguson Mason France Matthew Gierke Keith Harrison Steve Howie Bryce Kennedy Samuel Low Alex Menter Jonathan Meyer Jonathan Von Stroh
John Bartley Michael Bizzaro Michael Boender Michael Bradford Garth Criswell Andrew Halladay Scott Horowitz Brad Jackson Karl Johnson Brad Larson John Ludwig Marc Petersen John Schaak Kirk Schjodt * Griffin Sutherland
* Section Leader
THE STAFF Sarah Harrison
Sara Michael
Alicia Rigsby
Lizabeth Barnett
Assistant Conductor Accompanist
Business Manager House Manager
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Keith Ferguson
Mark Aquilina
Jennifer Moore
Matthew Gierke
President
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
MEMBERS AT LARGE Michael Bizzaro Kevin Gunnerson Susan Lewkow
Melissa Menter
Development Committee Chair
OLA GJEILO
Spotlight Composer
Ola Gjeilo is one of the most frequently performed composers in the choral world. An accomplished pianist, improvisations over his own published choral pieces have become a trademark of his collaborations. Although Norwegian by birth, it is perhaps Ola’s adopted country of America that has influenced the composer’s distinctive soundworld the most, evolving a style that is often described as cinematic and evocative, with a lush, harmonious sound. Ola grew up in a musically eclectic home listening to classical, jazz, pop and folk, a broad background he later incorporated into his classical composition studies at The Juilliard School, the Royal College of Music in London, and currently as a New York City-based freelance composer. He is especially inspired by the improvisational art of film composer Thomas Newman, jazz legends Keith Jarrett and
ORCHESTRA
Pat Metheny, glass artist Dale Chihuly and architect Frank Gehry. Ola’s albums include the bestselling Ola Gjeilo and Winter Songs on the Decca Classics label, featuring Tenebrae, Voces8 and the Choir of Royal Holloway. He also has two piano albums on the 2L label; Stone Rose and Piano Improvisations. All four recordings are available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, and all major platforms. In 2015, the Choir of King’s College Cambridge performed Ola’s Serenity (O Magnum Mysterium) at the annual BBC-televised Christmas Eve service. He is currently composer-in-residence with DCINY and Albany Pro Musica.Ola’s music is published by Walton Music and Boosey & Hawkes. For more information, please visit olagjeilo.com, or find Ola on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
(“Tundra” and “The Road”)
VIOLIN 1
VIOLIN 2
VIOLA
Sarah Whitnah – Concertmaster Autumn Pepper Ben Tomkins Regan Kane Yerim Kim Stacey Brady
Brune Macary – Principal Emily Holmstead Morganne McIntyre Mackenzie Gault
Barbara Hamilton – Principal Megan Edrington Alex Vittal
CELLO
BASS
HARP
Jake Saunders – Principal Andrew Brown Phil Norman
Andy Sproule – Principal
Janet Harriman
TONY SILVESTRI Spotlight Poet/Author
Poet, author, composer, and speaker Charles Anthony Silvestri has worked with other artists from all over the world to create texts tailor-made for their commissions and specific artistic needs. He enjoys the challenge of solving these creative problems and has provided custom choral texts, opera libretti, program notes and other writing for composers including Eric Whitacre, Ola Gjeilo, Kim Arnesen, and Dan Forrest, and for ensembles ranging from high schools to the Houston Grand Opera, from the King’s Singers to the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, from Westminster Choir College to Westminster Abbey. As a clinician, Silvestri speaks to choirs, classes, and concert audiences about his works, the creative process, the marriage of words and music, and about his collaborative relationships with composers. He is the author of three books, including A Silver Thread (GIA 2019), a retrospective of almost 20 years of his lyric poetry. He teaches Ancient and Medieval History at Washburn University and lives in Lawrence, KS.
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TEXT & TRANSLATIONS Madrigali: Six “Fire Songs” on Italian Renaissance Poems Translations by Erica Muhl 1. Ov’è, lass’, il bel viso? ecco, ei s’asconde. Oimè, dov’il mio sol? Lasso, che velo S’è post’inanti Te rend’oscur’il cielo? Oimè ch’io il chiamo et veggio; ei non risponde. Deh, se mai sieno a tue vele seconde Aure, dolce mio ben, se cangi pelo Et loco tardi, et se’l signor di Delo Gratia et valor nel tuo bel sen’asconde, Ascolta i miei sospiri et dà lor loco Di volger in amor l’ingiusto sdegno, Et vinca tua pietade il duro sempio. Vedi qual m’arde et mi consuma fuoco; Qual fie scusa miglior, qual maggior segno Ch’io son di viva fede et d’amor tempio! - From a madrigal by Henricus Schaffen
2. Quando son più lontan de’ bei vostri occhi Che m’han fatto cangiar voglia et costumi, Cresce la fiamma et mi conduce a morte. Et voi, che per mia sorte, Potreste raffrenar la dolce fiamma, Mi negate la fiamma che m’infiamma. - Ivo de Vento
3. Amor, io sento l’alma Tornar nel foco ov’io Fui lieto et più che mai d’arder desio. Io ardo e ‘n chiara fiamma Nutrisco il miser core; Et quanto più s’infiamma, Tanto più cresce amore, Perch’ogni mio dolore Nasce dal fuoco ov’io Fui lieto et più che mai d’arder desio. - Jhan Gero
4. Io piango, chè’l dolore Pianger’ mi fa, perch’io Non trov’altro rimedio a l’ardor mio. Così m’ha concio’ Amore Ch’ognor’viv’in tormento Ma quanto piango più, men doglia sento. Sorte fiera e inaudita Che’l tacer mi dà morte e’l pianger vita! - Ruffo
5. Luci serene e chiare, Voi m’incendiate, voi; ma prov’il core Nell’incendio diletto, non dolore. Dolci parole e care, Voi mi ferite, voi; ma prov’il petto Non dolor né la piaga, ma diletto. O miracol d’amore! Alma ch’è tutta foco e tutta sangue, Si strugge e non si duol, mor’e non langue. - Ridolfo Arlotti
6. Se per havervi, ohimè, donato il core, nasce in me quell’ardore, donna crudel, che m’arde in ogni loco, tal che son tutto foco. E se per amar voi, l’aspro martire mi fa di duol morire, miser, che far debb’io privo di voi che sete ogni ben mio? - From Primo Libro de Madrigali, by Claudio Monteverdi
1. Alas, where is the beautiful face? Behold, it hides. Woe’s me, where is my sun? Alas, what veil Drapes itself and renders the heavens dark? Woe’s me, that I call and see it; it doesn’t respond. Oh, if your sails have auspicious winds, My dearest sweet, and if you change your hair And features late, if the Lord of Delos Hides grace and valor in your beautiful bosom, Hear my sighs and give them place To turn unjust disdain into love, And may your pity conquer hardships. See how I burn and how I am consumed by fire; What better reason, what greater sign Than I, a temple of faithful life and love
2. When I am farther from your beautiful eyes That made me change my wishes and my ways, The flame grows and leads me to my death; And you, who for my fate Could restrain the sweet flame, Deny me the flame that inflames me.
3. Oh love, I feel my soul Return to the fire where I Rejoiced and more than ever desire to burn. I burn and in bright flames I feed my miserable heart; The more it flames The more my loving grows, For all my sorrows come From out of the fire where I Rejoiced and more than ever desire to burn.
4. I’m weeping, for the grief Makes me cry, since I Can find no other remedy for my fire. So trapped by Love am I That ever I lie in torment But the more I cry the less pain I feel. What cruel, unheard-of fate That silence gives me death and weeping life!
5. Eyes serene and clear, You inflame me, but my heart must Find pleasure, not sorrow, in the fire. Words sweet and dear, You wound me, but my breast must Find pleasure, not sorrow, in the wound. O miracle of love! The soul that is all fire and blood, Melts yet feels no sorrow, dies yet does not languish
6. If, alas, when I gave you my heart, There was born in me that passion, Cruel Lady, which burns me everywhere So that I am all aflame, And if, loving you, bitter torment Makes me die of sorrow, Wretched me! What shall I do Without you who are my every joy?
TEXT & TRANSLATIONS Earth Song
Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
Sing, Be, Live, See… This dark stormy hour, The wind, it stirs. The scorched earth cries out in vain:
Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man’s ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude.
O war and power, You blind and blur. The torn heart cries out in pain.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then, heigh-ho, the holly! This life is most jolly.
But music and singing Have been my refuge, And music and singing Shall be my light.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, That dost not bite so nigh As benefits forgot: Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remembered not.
Frank Ticheli
A light of song Shining strong: Alleluia! Through darkness, pain, and strife, I’ll Sing, Be, Live, See…
William Shakespeare
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly: Then, heigh-ho, the holly! This life is most jolly.
Peace.
Phoenix
From Agnus Dei, liturgical text from the Roman Catholic Latin Mass Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis. Agnus Dei, dona nobis pacem. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us. Lamb of God, grant us peace.
Tundra
Charles Anthony Silvestri Wide, worn and weathered, Sacred expanse Of green and white and granite grey; Snowy patches strewn, Anchored to the craggy earth, Unmoving; While clouds dance Across the vast, eternal sky.
Water Night
Agua nocturna
Night with the eyes of a horse that trembles in the night, night with the eyes of water in the field asleep is in your eyes, a horse that trembles, is in your eyes of secret water.
Le noche de ojos de caballo que tiemblan en la noche, la noche de ojos de agua en el campo dormido, está en tus ojos de caballo que tiembla, está en tus ojos de agua secreto.
Eyes of shadow-water, eyes of well-water, eyes of dream-water.
Ojos de agua de sombra, ojos de agua de pozo, ojos de agua de sueño.
Silence and solitude, two little animals moon-led, drink in your eyes, drink in those waters.
El silencio y la soledad, como dos pequeños animals a quienes guía la luna, beben en esos ojos, beben en esos agua.
If you open your eyes, night opens, doors of musk, the secret kingdom of the water opens flowing from the center of the night.
Si abres los ojos, se abre la noche de puertas de musgo, se abre el reino secreto del agua que mana del centro de la noche.
And if you close your eyes, a river fills you from within, flows forward, darkens you: night brings its wetness to beaches in your soul.
Y si los cierras, un ríote inuda por dentro, avanza, te hare oscura: la noche moja riberas en tu alma.
Translation: Muriel Rukeyser
Octavio Paz (adapted by Eric Whitacre)
The Road
Charles Anthony Silvestri 1. HALLINGSKARVET
2. HARDANGERVIDDA
Rising under brooding sky Unmoved by wind or rain A sentinel
A single flower, fragile, white, Trembles in the whistling wind.
Watching over lesser hills The valley of his open hands In deeping shadow Like a king, strong and grounded Heart of silent stone Still he stands
Wandering through this barren realm Of beauty, and of magnificence. To be in utter solitude Here, among the lichened stones Ice-hewn and gale-graven, The waiting soul is opened wide. For here there is a broader force, Shoulders of the earth.
TEXT & TRANSLATIONS The Road
Charles Anthony Silvestri 3. HARDANGERFJORDEN
4. HUSEDALEN
A narrow valley winding to the sea, A steeply downward pathway falling, Revealing there a sacred genesis.
Clouds above the rapids breaking, Light through misty prisms gleaming.
My heart, descending once again to ground, A deep tranquility desiring, Emerging there to behold a new dawn.
Water from the highland falling, Dancing to the sea below, Passing through this hallowed land.
The labored way is opened to the view Of waters wide and light unceasing. The road becomes a path to unknown realms.
EXPERIENCE EXTRAORDINARY
Mozart and Haydn OCT 19 - 20 Opera - Dido & Aeneas JAN 11 - 12 Bach Goldberg Variations FEB 29 - MAR 1 Vivaldi’s Four Seasons MAY 14 - 17 Plus three Confluence concerts.
Tickets
BCOcolorado.org
First Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ 3501 South Colorado Blvd., Englewood www.firstplymouthchurch.org
YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS YOUR SUPPORT MAKES A DIFFERENCE Over two-thirds of our revenue comes from support like yours. Thanks to you, we’re able to bring exemplary performances to the Denver region and enrich our communities. Kantorei is a 501(c)(3) organization, and contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. WAYS TO DONATE TO KANTOREI • Mail a check made out to “Kantorei” and address to: 3501 S Colorado Blvd, Englewood, CO 80113 • Donate online! You can easily make a one-time donation or a recurring donation. Choose a recurring gift for easier budgeting each month. Our online donation partner, ColoradoGives.org, offers easy recurring gifts: weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, or anything in between! To start, visit our donation page, click “Donate Now” and select “Recurring”. • Write a check and place in a donation envelope at our concerts. • Interested in making a gift of stock? Contact Melissa Menter, Development Committee Chair, at kantorei@kantorei.org for more information. CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS Give your company greater visibility by supporting Kantorei! Plenty of underwriting opportunities are available. Benefits include: Ad space in our programs, Recognition signage at events, complimentary tickets, and more! Contact Melissa Menter, Development Committee Chair, at kantorei@kantorei.org for information on how to begin a partnership with Kantorei.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS KANTOREI’S 2019-2020 SEASON FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2019
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2019
Treble Choir High School Festival, 7:30 pm Christ Episcopal Church
“Star in the East – A Kantorei Christmas,” 3:00 pm Christ Episcopal Church
SATURDAY OCTOBER 5, 2019
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020
“Fire and Ice,” 7:30 pm First Plymouth Congregational Church
“Mass Appeal,” 7:30 pm First Plymouth Congregational Church
SUNDAY OCTOBER 6, 2019
SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2020
“Fire and Ice,” 3:00 pm Wellshire Presbyterian Church
“Mass Appeal,” 3:00 pm Christ Episcopal Church
FRIDAY DECEMBER 6, 2019
SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2020
“A Winter’s Night” with the Cherry Creek High School Meistersingers, 7:30 pm Bethany Lutheran Church
Salon – “One Night Only,” 7:00 pm First Plymouth Congregational Church
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2019 “Star in the East – A Kantorei Christmas,” 7:30 pm Lone Tree Arts Center (tickets available through lonetreeartscenter.org)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2019 “Star in the East – A Kantorei Christmas,” 7:30 pm Saint John’s Episcopal Cathedral
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2019 “Star in the East – A Kantorei Christmas,” 7:30 pm First Plymouth Congregational Church
SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2020 “Vox Femina,” 7:30 pm First Plymouth Congregational Church
SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2020 “Vox Femina,” 3:00 pm Christ Episcopal Church