The Lost Birds

03.04.2023

S ATURDAY @ 7:30 PM

Wellshire Presbyterian Church, Denver

03.05.2023

S UNDAY @ 3:00 PM

F irst Plymouth UCC, Cherry Hills Village

BE LIKE THE BIRD

DAWN & DUSK (FAJAR DAN SENJA)

Erin Pettitt, soprano

IL BIANCO E DOLCE CIGNO

ABBIE BETINIS (B. 1980)

KEN STEVEN (B. 1993)

JACQUES ARCADELT (1505 - 1568)

THE BIRDS ’ LULLABY SARAH QUARTEL (B. 1982)

THE LOST BIRDS

Sarah Whitnah, violin I; Brune Macary, violin II; Allyson Stibbards, viola; David Short, cello; Peter Huffaker, bass; Tonya Jilling, harp; Dan Kent, percussion

I. FLOCKS A MILE WIDE

II. THE SADDEST NOISE

III. BIRD RAPTURES

IV. A HUNDRED THOUSAND BIRDS

V. WILD SWANS

VI. INTERMEZZO

VII. THUS IN THE WINTER

VIII. THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS

IX. ALL THAT COULD NEVER BE SAID

Benjamin Corwyn, tenor; Sara Michael, soprano

X. I SHALL NOT SEE THE SHADOWS

Christina Graham, soprano

XI. IN THE END

Laura Tribby, mezzo-soprano

XII. HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS

CHRISTOPHER TIN (B. 1976)

PROGRAM NOTES

Be Like the Bird was composed in 2009, just after I completed cancer treatment for the second time. My parents and I sent it out as our Christmas card that year which continued a tradition started in 1922 by my greatgrandfather, Rev. Bates G. Burt, who then passed it to his son, my great-uncle Alfred Burt, now famous for carols like "Caroling, Caroling" and "Some Children See Him." This particular canon, inspired by my own struggle, is dedicated to High Rocks for Girls, an innovative school for middle and high school girls founded by Susan Burt in the mountains of rural West Virginia. May High Rocks continue to educate, empower, and inspire each student to know that "she hath wings." –

Abbie Betinis

Text by Victor Hugo

Be like the that, pausing in her flight awhile On boughs too slight, Feels them give way beneath her, And sings knowing she hath wings.

Dawn and Dusk (Fajar dan Senja) is inspired by this short poem that I wrote:

It was a quiet night - When a glimpse of light slowly gazed upon the sky

Awakening the sleeping souls - Joyfully singing - Dancing in the ray of light - And slowly It will descend again from its mighty throne

This piece is an exploration of sounds with the human voice. I intended to capture the magical moments as expressed by the poem itself through the variety colors of vocal quality produced by the ensemble. Based on the Indonesian exotic Melayu scale, the music portrays the folk life atmosphere in a vibrant sound experience. The words have no exact meaning, rather they are just playful syllables to bring the poem to life.

Ken Steven

The text of Jacques Arcadelt’s Il bianco e dolce cigno plays on the adage that the swan, silent throughout its life, only sings in the final moments before its death. Using the euphemism of death for orgasm, the speaker of the text compares the swan’s actual death against his euphemistic one. Although the expression “swansong” only came into

being in the eighteenth century, the legend of the mute swan dates back to antiquity. Despite being completely untrue, as a poetic image it is certainly very powerful and has remained so to the present day.

Texturally, all the voices move more or less together in all but two significant places. First, on the word “beato;” the break in the texture adds a flourish to emphasize the word “blessed.” Then, at the end, the voices all sing in their own time, imitating each other to emphasize the repetition of “mille mort’ il di ” (a thousand times a day). Overall, the music and its harmonies are simple and allow the words to speak for themselves. This proved popular and the madrigal was a favorite of the sixteenth century. – Joseph Knowles

Text by Giovanni Giudiccioni

Il bianco e dolce cigno cantando more, ed io piangendo giung' al fin del viver mio. Stran' e diversa sorte, ch'ei more sconsolato ed io moro beato. Morte che nel morire m'empie di gioia tutto e di desire. Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento, di mille mort' il di sarei contento.

The white and sweet swan dies singing, and I, weeping, reach the end of my life. Strange and different fate, that he dies disconsolate and I die a blessed death, which in dying fills me full of joy and desire. If in dying, were I to feel no other pain, I would be content to die a thousand deaths a day.

In “ The Birds’ Lullaby,” inspired by the text of poet E. Pauline Johnson, Sarah Quartel has created an energetic and fun piece with playful, swinging syncopations and melodic elements and counter melodies shared between the voices in a conversational style. This piece was commissioned by Andrew Potter as a gift for his wife, Jan Spooner Swabey, and her choir “JuSSt Voices” in 2020.

PROGRAM NOTES

Text by E. Pauline Johnson

Sing to us, cedars; the twilight is creeping With shadowy garments, the wilderness through; All day we have carolled, and now would be sleeping, So echo the anthems we warbled to you; While we swing, swing, And your branches sing, And we drowse to your dreamy whispering.

Sing to us, cedars; the night-wind is sighing, Is wooing, pleading, to hear you reply; And here in your arms we are restfully lying, And longing to dream to your soft lullaby; While we swing, swing, And your branches sing, And we drowse to your dreamy whispering.

Sing to us, cedars; your voice is so lowly, Your breathing so fragrant, your branches so strong; Our little nest-cradles are swaying so slowly, While zephyrs are breathing their slumberous song. And we swing, swing, While your branches sing, And we drowse to your dreamy whispering

The Lost Birds

The sky was once full of birds. Magnificent flocks so enormous that they would darken the skies for days as they flew overhead. The most awe-inspiring of these flocks belonged to a bird called the passenger pigeon. At their height, they were the most numerous bird species in North America, with a population estimated at 5 billion. But over the course of a few decades, we eradicated them for food, using nothing but the crudest 19th-century hunting technology. With callous indifference, we simply shot them out of the sky, one by one, until their songs were never heard again.

The Lost Birds is a memorial for their loss, and the loss of other species due to human activity. It’s a celebration of their beauty—as symbols of hope, peace, and renewal. But it also mourns their absence—through the lonely branches of a tree, or the fading echoes of distant bird cries. And like the metaphor of the canary in the coal mine, it’s also a warning: that unless we reverse our course, the fate that befell these once soaring flocks will be a foreshadowing of our own extinction.

To pay proper tribute to these birds, I adopted a distinctly 19th-century musical vocabulary: one based on the tunefulness of folk songs, with a string orchestra accompaniment that’s both soaring and melancholy. And to put their story into words, I turned to four 19th-century poets—Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Sara Teasdale.

These women saw their world transform from a pastoral society to an industrial one—one in which humans, for the first time, began disastrously reshaping the environment. And the poems which I selected depict an increasingly fraught world: first without birds, and ultimately without humans. We are now in the 21st century, and our tools for affecting the world around us—emissions, pesticides, deforestation—are more indiscriminate and cruelly efficient. As bird, fish, animal, and insect populations crash around us, we increasingly find ourselves in a silent world—one in which the songs of birds are heard less and less. We hope that the silence can be filled by more voices speaking up on behalf of these lost birds—for their sake, and for ours.

—Christopher Tin

1: Flocks a Mile Wide

"Flocks a Mile Wide" is an ode to the passenger pigeon, a bird that was once so numerous that giant flocks would blacken the skies for days as they flew overhead. Their migrations were a breathtaking sight for the 19th-century traveler— large clusters would form undulating masses that swooped and swerved across the sky, much like the murmurations of starlings still visible today. That magnificent spectacle—of hundreds of thousands of birds carving out organic forms in the sky—serves as the inspiration for the "Flocks a Mile Wide" theme, and the entire story arc of The Lost Birds.

The passenger pigeon flourished until the end of the 19th century, when advancements in technology—notably the railroad and refrigerated boxcar—turned these bountiful flocks into a ready supply of cheap meat that could be hunted almost anywhere and shipped to rapidly growing urban centers. Within a few short decades, through a combination of deforestation and good old fashioned hunting rifles, their population crashed. What was once the most numerous bird in the world—with some estimates placing their numbers as high as 5 billion—rapidly went extinct, and the last wild passenger pigeon was shot and killed by a boy with a BB gun in 1900.

The saga of the passenger pigeon, as well as the extinctions of four other North American bird species, is the basis for a series of bronze statues by sculptor Todd McGrain entitled The Lost Bird Project, along with an accompanying documentary by Deborah Dickson. Alongside the album

The Lost Birds, these form an interconnected suite of artistic works that explores extinction through the three disciplines of sculpture, film, and music.

2: The Saddest Noise

"The Saddest Noise" is a setting of Emily Dickinson's poem "The Saddest Noise, the Sweetest Noise". It begins the story of The Lost Birds in spring: the season of birth and renewal, and a time of year when bird songs flood the skies. But what is ordinarily a joyous sound is now riddled with sorrow, as the songs of the remaining birds remind us of the ones we've already lost. Dickinson's reflections on the birds' songs—at once tuneful, but tainted with melancholy— inspired my musical language for The Lost Birds. Heavily influenced by the vernacular of the 19th-century, the work is both pastoral and romantic, with lyrical melodies and soaring strings. But for all its romanticism and loveliness, there remains a sense of loss that permeates the music: for though the melodies we can still hear are sweet, it is the ones that are lost which we truly wish to hear.

Text adapted from a poem by Emily Dickinson

Between the March and April line—

That magical frontier

Beyond which summer hesitates, Almost too heavenly near.

The saddest noise, the sweetest noise, The maddest noise that grows and grows,—

The birds, they make it in the spring, At night’s delicious close.

The saddest noise I know.

It makes us think of all the dead

That sauntered with us here, By separation’s sorcery

Made cruelly more dear.

It makes us think of what we had, And what we now deplore.

We almost wish those siren throats

Would go and sing no more.

An ear can break a human heart

As quickly as a spear,

We wish the ear had not a heart

So dangerously near.

3: Bird Raptures

One of the most common pairings of birds in literature is the lark and the nightingale. The lark, with its cheery morning song, represents day—while the nightingale's lonesome song summons the night. But while most 19thcentury poets chose to exalt the radiant skylark, Christina Rossetti fixated instead on the nightingale. And in her poem "Bird Raptures", she envelops it in language of nocturnal sensuality. Awakened by the moon (a symbol of femininity), with repeated entreaties to forestall the dawn, Rossetti adopts the voice of lovers who want the night to never end. (See: Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 5.)

But Rossetti's Anglo-Catholic faith was never far in her writings, especially in her latter years. And the title of her poem—"Bird Raptures"—imparts a touch of religious ecstasy to her worship of the nightingale. For this reason, my setting of her poem starts as a hymn—a simple chorale, where all the singers' voices move in tandem to harmonize a melody. But as the song progresses, the voices become less synchronized, and gradually start to resemble the individualized movements of birds in a flock. Voices begin lingering, singing a few extra melismatic notes after the rest of the ensemble lands on a resolved chord. Individual singers break from the ensemble, tugging at their nearest neighbors to follow, as if by magnetic attraction. Soon, the entire chorus and orchestra starts to resemble a murmuration—where individual birds have their own flight paths, but the overall movement of the flock stays contained as a harmonized organism. This flock circles and circles, building in intensity until climaxing on the words 'silent, sweet and pale'—a rapturous exaltation of the night.

Text adapted from a poem by Christina Rossetti

The sunrise wakes the lark to sing, The moonrise wakes the nightingale. Come darkness, moonrise, every thing

That is so silent, sweet, and pale:

Come, so ye wake the nightingale. Make haste to mount, thou wistful moon, Make haste to wake the nightingale: Let silence set the world in tune

To hearken to that wordless tale

Which warbles from the nightingale

O herald skylark, stay thy flight

To-morrow thou shalt hoist the sail; Leave us to-night the nightingale.

For a nightingale floods us with delight.

PROGRAM NOTES

4: A Hundred Thousand Birds

Sprightly and magical, "A Hundred Thousand Birds" is a setting of Christina Rossetti's poem by the same name. It's a celebration of the nightingale: the bird most adored by Romantic era writers as a symbol of mother nature herself. A summer bird, its nocturnal song was imbued with mystical qualities, both transformative and intoxicating. And in Rossetti's poem, which contrasts the single nightingale with the hundred-thousand daylight birds, its lonesome qualities epitomize the Romantic idea of the solitary artist in nature. My setting of the piece is inspired by English folk song, employing both the simple melodic structure and modal harmonies associated with pastoral music. Using the vernacular of folk songs helps place The Lost Birds firmly in the context of the late 19th-century: a golden age of folk music preservation, when musicologists in England and North America criss-crossed their countrysides, transcribing and cataloging folk songs in towns and villages everywhere. It is this same era when rapid industrialization and the rise of cities first started reshaping the natural environment with disastrous consequences, leading us down our current path of widespread loss of biodiversity.

Text adapted from a poem by Christina Rossetti

A hundred thousand birds salute the day: —

One solitary bird salutes the night: Its mellow grieving wiles our grief away, And tunes our weary watches to delight; It seems to sing the thoughts we cannot say, and to set them right; Until we feel once more that May is May, And hope some buds may bloom without a blight. A hundred thousand birds salute the day: —

One solitary bird salutes the night: This solitary bird outweighs, outvies, The hundred thousand merry-making birds

Whose innocent warblings might make us wise Would we but follow when they bid us rise, Would we but set their notes of praise to words And launch our hearts up with them to the skies.

5: Wild Swans

The Lost Birds is a musical memorial to extinct bird species. But it also carries a darker message: like the metaphor of the canary in the coal mine, the extinction of birds is a

preface to the extinction of humans. And thus, the album is split into two halves: the story of the loss of birds, followed by the story of the loss of humankind.

"Wild Swans", a setting of a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, ends the first half of The Lost Birds. Told from the point of view of the poet, it starts with the sound of bird cries: gradually approaching from a distance, until they pass overhead, triggering feelings of longing. After an instrumental interlude, and the narrator's impassioned declaration of freedom, the song ends as it started— with the cries of wild swans receding into the distance, foreshadowing their demise.

The migration of swans signifies autumn; and in turn, autumn signals the gradual fading of nature. But beyond their seasonal association, swans themselves have a storied place in literature, often imbued with magical properties. Across myths and legends from every culture, no other bird is transformed into a human as frequently as a swan is— thereby reinforcing the notion that the extinction of birds is synonymous with the extinction of humans. But folklore has also given us the metaphor of the 'swan song'—the final work of an artist or musician before their death.

It comes from the ancient belief that the swan stays silent its entire life, only to sing a beautiful song just before it dies. "Wild Swans" is thus the emotional heart of The Lost Birds— one final, impassioned cry, before the birds' songs recede into the long silence of extinction.

Text adapted from a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Cry...

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over. And what did I see I had not seen before? Only a question less or a question more; And what did I see? No less, no more, and Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying wild. Come over the town again, trailing your legs and crying!

I looked inside my Tiresome heart, forever living, forever dying, House without air, I leave and lock your door. Forever more I leave you.

Wild swans, come over the town again, trailing your legs and crying

6: Intermezzo

Reprising the theme of Flocks a Mile Wide, "Intermezzo" is an ode to the last passenger pigeon to die in captivity. Named "Martha", she lived in a Cincinnati zoo all by herself until her death in 1914. Her story, and the stories of many similar birds who were the last of their kind, follows a familiar trajectory: the lone survivor of the species sings their song, desperately searching for a response, only to be greeted by silence. And as she gives her final performance, her melancholy song trails away, diminishing with anguish, and ultimately fading into an eternal silence. The song is now lost forever.

Today the passenger pigeon is one of the most spectacularly tragic examples of human-induced ecological collapse. It serves as a warning that if we could wipe out the most populous bird in the world with nothing by 19th-century hunting technology, how much damage can we now do in the 21st century? "Intermezzo" marks the start of the second half of The Lost Birds—one in which the focus is no longer on the extinction of birds, but instead on the extinction of humankind.

7: Thus in the Winter

We are now in a cold, bleak winter, and the absence of birds is best expressed through the lens of the lonely tree, who witnessed the gradual disappearance—one by one—of the birds that used to sing from its boughs. To capture the desolation of this imagery, taken from Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why", I adopted a musical approach inspired by the simple monophony of plainchant. Stark, isolated melodies gradually evolve and intertwine, until their woven layers adopt the contrapuntal shape of a Renaissance madrigal. More and more voices join the chorus, their motion overlapping like birds forming a flock, until all at once their calls reach a climax on the word 'cry'—a plaintive echo of the final bird cries in "Wild Swans".

The movement finishes with harmonic ambiguity, followed by an immediate, uninterrupted transition into the next movement. In the same way that species die out in the real world, the end chapters often come in quick, brutal succession.

Text adapted from a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, Yet knows its boughs more silent than before: I cannot say what loves have come and gone,

I only know that summer sang in me

A little while, that in me sings no more. But the rain is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh upon the glass and listen for reply,

And in my heart there stirs a pain For unremembered birds again That will not wake at midnight with a cry

8:

A setting of one of my favorite childhood poems, "There Will Come Soft Rains" is inspired both by the apocalyptic WWI context in which it was originally written, but also by Ray Bradbury's short story of the same name. Originally published by Sara Teasdale in 1918, it was introduced to a world in which humans, for the first time, could see palpable examples of their own extinction—both through the terrible human cost of the Great War, but also from the 1918 flu pandemic.

The poem portrays a post-human world: one in which society has crumbled, and mother nature has established a new order, indifferent to the extinction of humankind. It is only in such an imagined world where robins and swallows might still sing their songs, which suggests the unthinkable—that perhaps the earth can only thrive in the absence of humans. Following a thunderous instrumental interlude representing an extinction event, we have a 'transfiguration' moment: where echoes from previous movements drift through in a primordial state, like a feverish dream on a dying person's deathbed. The movement ends on a wispy, minor-key evocation of the "Flocks a Mile Wide" theme; a distant memory of the life that once thrived around us.

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white, Robins will wear their feathery fire

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

Not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree

If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone.

(The sunrise wakes the lark to sing…

There Will Come Soft Rains

Text adapted from a poem by Sara Teasdale

PROGRAM NOTES

Between the March and April line…

One solitary bird salutes the night…

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over… Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree…)

9: All That Could Never Be Said

With a simple melody inspired by children's songs, "All That Could Never Be Said" is a setting of Sara Teasdale's poem "In the End". Showcasing her signature pairing of nihilism and pastoral beauty, the poem is an exploration of regret: it suggests that the consequences of our inaction are final and absolute. There are no second chances to speak up or to act, and all our missed opportunities will be lost to us until we're reunited with them in death. In the context of extinction, it mirrors the concept of 'tipping points' in environmental science—thresholds that, should we cross them, will be irreversible.

My setting re-imagines the text as a simple children's melody, recasting the entirety of The Lost Birds as a fable. And just like in the story of "The Grasshopper and the Ant", the moral of the story is that our inaction in the face of slow extinction will ultimately doom us.

Text adapted from a poem by Sara Teasdale

All that could never be said, All that could never be done, Wait for us at last

Somewhere back of the sun; All the heart broke to forego Shall be ours without pain, We shall take them as lightly as girls Pluck flowers after rain.

All that could never be said, All that could never be done, Wait for us at last

By the sun.

10: I Shall Not See the Shadows

"I Shall Not See the Shadows" is based on Christina Rossetti's poem "When I Am Dead My Dearest". It portrays death at its most indifferent—unnoticed, unheralded, unremembered. It also suggests that forgetting is a form of extinction, too—that the finality of species lies not in the death of its last remaining members, but in the failure to preserve their memory.

We are currently in an epoch known as the sixth mass extinction—and estimates show that the current rate of extinction, caused almost wholly by manmade factors, is anywhere from 100 to 1,000 times faster than the normal baseline. And despite the high-profile collapse of many species like the passenger pigeon, the majority of extinctions happen quietly.

Text adapted from poems by Christina Rossetti and Emily Dickinson

When I am dead, my dearest, Sing no sad songs for me; Plant thou no roses at my head, Nor shady cypress tree: Be the green grass above me With showers and dewdrops wet; And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget. I shall not see the shadows, I shall not feel the rain; I shall not hear the nightingale Sing on, as if in pain: And dreaming through the twilight That doth not rise nor set, Haply I may remember, And haply may forget. Between the March and April line— That magical frontier Beyond which summer hesitates, Almost too heavenly near. The saddest noise, the sweetest noise, The maddest noise that grows and grows,— The birds, they made it in the spring, At night’s delicious close. The saddest noise I know.

11: In the End

"In the End" serves as a coda to the story of The Lost Birds, and is a reprise of "All That Could Never Be Said". This time, however, the musical range of the piece contracts, and one by one the singers stop singing until we're left with a solitary voice trailing out to silence. If The Lost Birds is a fable—where the moral of the story is a warning against inaction in the face of extinction—then the ending of the story is now ambiguous. It remains to be seen whether we will be able to forestall our own demise.

Text adapted from a poem by Sara Teasdale

All that could never be said, All that could never be done, Wait for us at last Somewhere back of the sun; And when they are ours in the end Perhaps after all The skies will not open for us Nor heaven be there at our call. After all that was never done.

12: Hope Is the Thing with Feathers

"Hope Is the Thing with Feathers" is a setting of the Emily Dickinson poem by the same name. It serves as an epilogue—a final reprise of the "Flocks a Mile Wide" theme, but now set for voices. It suggests that while the passenger pigeon's song may be lost forever, we can at least honor and preserve its memory with our own songs. We thus end The Lost Birds on a note of hope.

Text adapted from a poem by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I’ve heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.

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Christopher Tin is a two-time Grammy-winning composer of concert and media music. Time Magazine calls his music 'rousing' and 'anthemic', while The Guardian calls it 'joyful' and 'an intelligent meeting of melody and theme'. His output is strikingly diverse: ranging from lush symphonic works, to world-music infused choral anthems, to electro-acoustic film and video game scores.

His song "Baba Yetu", a Swahili setting of The Lord's Prayer, is a modern choral standard, fusing together infectious melody and gospel rhythms with complex modulations and soaring orchestration. It was the winner of the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals, and is one of the all-time best-selling choral octavos for Alfred Publishing, as well as being one of the most frequently performed contemporary choral pieces. Originally written as the theme song for the video game Civilization IV, its place in history

was cemented when the Guinness Book of World Records recognized it as the first piece of music written for a video game ever to win a Grammy. It's also one of the only pieces of video game music, or contemporary choral music, to transcend into pop culture. It's been licensed for use by groups ranging from Premier League Football to the Vatican. Two different contestants performed it in the same season of America's Got Talent. It was even a question on the legendary game show Jeopardy!

Tin's self-released albums have also achieved considerable acclaim. His debut album, the multilingual song cycle Calling All Dawns, won him a second Grammy in 2011 for Best Classical Crossover Album, and his follow-up release The Drop That Contained the Sea debuted at #1 on Billboard's classical charts, and premiered to a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. His third album To Shiver the Sky also debuted at #1, and was funded by a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign that raised $221,415, smashing all previous classical music crowdfunding records.

His fourth album, The Lost Birds, is a collaboration with acclaimed British vocal ensemble VOCES8, and is currently nominated for a Grammy Award. He is also an in-demand collaborator, working with musicians across a wide-range of genres: Lang Lang, Danielle de Niese, Alan Menken, BT, and Danny Elfman, to name a few.

Tin is signed to an exclusive record deal with Universal under their DeccaGold and Decca Records US labels, and is a Yamaha Artist. His publishing is represented by Concord, and his sheet music is represented by Boosey & Hawkes. He works out of his own custom-built studio in Santa Monica, CA.

Photo courtesy of Andy Wilkinson

CHRISTOPHER TIN Featured Composer

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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, Jocelyn Hagen, Mark Hayes, Cecilia McDowall, David Montoya, Sarah Quartel, Jake Runestad and Eric Whitacre. Joel conducted the Central American premieres of Ola Gjeilo’s “Dreamweaver” (2018 with Capella Cantorum de Guatemala) and Jake Runestad’s “El Ultimo Hilo” (2022 with Kantorei and Vocalis) in Guatemala City and Antigua, 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. 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 is also the Director of Music and Technology in Worship at First Plymouth Congregational Church in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado and served from January 2017 to July 2020 as the North American Choral Promotion Manager for Oxford University Press based in Oxford, England. 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 his final 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.

JOEL M. RINSEMA Managing Artistic Director

Kantorei is a Denver-based, choral ensemble comprised of volunteer singers under the direction of Artistic Director

Joel M. Rinsema

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. Our 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 has performed for major choral conventions across the U.S., toured the world, and has commissioned and premiered new choral works from such renowned composers as Kim André Arnesen, Eric William Barnum, Abbie Betinis, René Clausen, Ola Gjeilo, Jocelyn Hagen, Sarah Quartel, Jake Runestad, Joshua Shank, and Eric Whitacre. In the summer of 2022, Kantorei performed the Central American premiere of Jake Runestad’s “El Ultimo Hilo” in Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala, along with Guatemelan choir Vocalis. In the fall of 2021, Kantorei began its three-year collaboration with M. Roger Holland, II as Artist-inResidence.

Kantorei has released two recordings on the Naxos label. “Sing, Wearing the Sky” (2020) choral music of Jake Runestad reached the #3 best-selling classical album on iTunes, #4 on the Traditional Classical Billboard Charts, and the top ten in both the best-selling classical album and new classical release categories on Amazon. “Infinity: Choral Works of Kim André Arnesen” (2018) 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. Santa Barbara Music Publishing Inc. publishes the Kantorei Choral series.

-Brian

Choir and

October 2020 (Read the full review here)

"Kantorei handle a wide variety of texts...with attentive simplicity... a wholly earned outbreak of joy and playfulness..."

Morton,

Organ,

“…Always engaging and colorful…sung with depth and conviction by Kantorei.”

– Karl W. Nehring, Classical Candor, December 2020 (Read the full review here)

Kantorei’s mission is “to elevate the human experience through choral excellence.”

THE CHOIR

SOPRANO ALTO TENOR BASS

Mary Christ

Kimberly Dunninger

Beryl Fanslow Wilson

Christina Graham

Heather Gunnerson

Stacie Hanson

Christina Heppermann

Becca Hyvonen

Shannon Lemmon-Elrod

Sara Michael *

Erin Pettitt

Martina Richardson

Alicia Rigsby ◊

Pearl Rutherford

Christianna Sullins

Emily Alexander

Lindsey Aquilina

Lizabeth Barnett

Lyn Berry-Helmlinger

Sarah Branton *

Desiree Deliz-Morales

Madeline Gardner

Melissa Menter

Erin Meyerhoff

Jennifer Moore

Allison Pasternak

Emma Tebbe

Laura Tribby

Andrea Ware-Medina

Jane Wright

* Section leader ◊ Collaborative Pianist

STAFF MEMBERS

Sarah Branton

A ssistant Conductor

Sara Michael B usiness Manager

Becca Hyvonen

Marketing & Communications Manager

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jennifer Moore President

John Bartley Vice President

MEMBERS AT LARGE

Judy Bloomberg Schenkein

Joshua Corwyn

Kai Berry-Helmlinger *

Benjamin Corwyn

Joshua Corwyn

Matthew Eschliman

Keith Ferguson

Mason France

Bryce Kennedy

Samuel Low

Alex Menter

Zachariah Smith

Jonathan Von Stroh

John Wright

Jeremy Yang

John Bartley

Michael Bizzaro *

Jordan Black

Michael Boender

Adam Cave

Garth Criswell

Ryan D. Garrison

Scott Horowitz

Brad Jackson

Brad Larson

John Ludwig

John Schaak

Kirk Schjodt

Griffin Sutherland

Matt Weissenbuehler

Alicia Rigsby

A ccompanist, Collaborative Pianist

Alison Roman H ouse Manager

Leslie Britton Treasurer

Melissa Menter Secretary

Desiree Deliz-Morales

Scott Horowitz

YOUR DONATIONS & SUPPORT

YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS, YOUR SUPPORT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

We rely on patrons like you to help us achieve our mission and goals and there are many ways that you can have an impact on Kantorei in addition to attending our concerts. Here are just a few ways you can help:

» Make a tax deductible contribution at www.kantorei.org/giving/individual/

» Donate stocks, securities and annuities

» Underwrite/sponsor a concert

» Commission a new choral work

» Place an ad in one of our concert programs

» Donate your used vehicle

» Donate airline miles

» Volunteer at a concert

Please contact us at kantorei@kantorei.org for more information

S TAY IN TOUCH!

Sign up for our e-mail list at: www.kantorei.org/contact

“Kantorei is a gem in the American choral scene. I love the passion of the singers and the familial quality of the group. They are continually working together to achieve a high level of musicality as well as deepening their personal relationships. I felt so welcomed into their family and this album was a beautiful collaboration in which every moment was handled with such care and such deep, spacious musicality.” -Jake Runestad, Explore Classical Music, August 2020

DONORS

Gold Baton ($15,000–$24,999)

Bonfils Stanton Foundation

Olson-Vander Heyden Foundation

Silver Baton ($10,000–$14,999)

Judy Fredericksen

Director’s Circle ($5,000-$7,499)

Keith* & Sue Ferguson

Virtuoso’s Circle ($2,500–$4,999)

Mark & Lindsey* Aquilina

Susan Lewkow~

John Ludwig*

Melissa*^ & Alex* Menter

Sarah Branton*^ & Joel Rinsema^

Soloist’s Circle ($1,000–$2,499)

Brad Jackson*

Brenda Bailey-Hainer

Jerry & Carol Mayer

David~ & Jennifer*^ Moore

Donna & Michael* Boender

Garth Criswell* & Mark Kraft

Jennifer & Jonathan* Von Stroh

Dr. Judy Bloomberg Schenkein^ & Ed Schenkein

Kevin & Heather* Gunnerson

Eric & Leslie Britton^

Lynn Hardcastle

Preston & Marjorie Hofer

Rev. Dr. S. Patrice Von Stroh

Ruth McCollum Huff

King Soopers

LibertyGives Foundation

Aria ($500–$999)

Alexandra Barba & Michael Bizzaro*

Lizabeth Barnett*

Kai* & Lyn* Berry-Helmlinger

Kathryn Bollhoefer

Justin Cave

Linda & Kees Corssmit

Matthew Eschliman*

Beverly & Bruce Fest

Chris Sexton

Don & Lil Filegar

Peter Fogg

Mary Beth & Roger France

Giving Basket

Google

Jim & Annette Gunnerson

Jason & Stacie* Hanson

C. Stephen Hooper

Alan & Shirley Horowitz

Brad Larson*

Sam Low*

Pamela Mahonchak

Kirsten Morgan

Allison* & Timothy Pasternak

J. Scott Pusey

Renee McClaugherty & John Schaak*

Barbara Stone

Jay & Michelle Tombre

Jack Trigg

Marjory Ulm

Christina Von Stroh

John* & Jane* Wright

Cantata

($200–$499)

Teresa Bacon

John Bartley*^

Brian & Elizabeth Bauer

Jill Beemer

Boyd & Sharon Berry

Jordan Black*

Paul Boulis

Judy Bowman

Howard & Kathleen Brand

Constance Branton

Carl Burgchardt

Lisa Cameron

Jeffrey Campbell

Mary O'Neill Christ*

Denver Arts & Venues Music

Advancement Fund

Desiree Deliz-Morales*^

Julie Durst

Kaye Edwards

Eide Bailly LLP

Scott Elrod & Shannon Lemmon-Elrod*

Larry Graham

Christina Graham* & Jason Merryman

Pamela Grange

Christine Greco

Christina Heppermann*

Scott Horowitz* & Leah Weinberg~

Dallas Ingold

Bryce Kennedy* & Joshua Larson

Marcia Jory & Ray Kennedy

Carol Lanaghen

Sue Lee

Ann Ludwig

Elaine Menter

Jonathan Meyer

Sara Michael*^

Teresa Morgan

Network For Good

Donald & Sharron Neufeld

Ladean Nuanes

Alicia Rigsby*^

Judd & Linda Rinsema

S & P Global

Lynn Selby

Lois Siegel~

Donald Branton & David Smith

Sam & Shelly Smith

Susan Spencer

Charles Sullins

Joanne Wandry

Andrea Ware-Medina*

Tammy Weatherly

Larry and Deb Weinberg

Joan Weinstein

Matt* & Annell Weissenbuehler

John Wilson

Mindi Wright

Nathan Wubbena

Operetta ($100–$199)

Amazon Smile

Emily Anderson

Mike Asarch

David Bailey

Jesse Barash

Krista Barker

Don & Karen Barnett

Jean Becker

Lisa & Tim Bizzaro

Robert Blauvelt & Michael Corrigan

Cher & Tom Borrelli

Whitney Boschen

Rachel Breen

Jill Burgchardt

Jim Calhoun, Jr.

Jim & Joanie Calhoun

Margie Camp

David & Bonnie Carlson

Julie Cates

Elizabeth Cave

Adam Cave*

George Chrest

Patti Cornelius

Benjamin* & Joshua* Corwyn

Kate Criswell

Marilyn Dana

Dwayne Dickerson

Jena Dickey

Kimberly* & Michael~ Dunninger

Donors who contributed between February 1, 2022 and January 31, 2023 are recognized in this program * Singers ^ Board & Staff ~ Volunteers

Ryan Durfee

David Johns & Jim East

Beryl Fanslow-Wilson*

Joy Fest

Eleanor Finlay

Karen Fisher

Mason France*

Kristin Gildersleeve

Mary Gill

Gill Foundation

Diane Goodwin & Rush Pierce

Jim Gordon

Nancy~ & Russ~ Gregory

Carol Hainsey

Ed & Jeanie Hardey

Penny Harrison

Kat & Stuart Haskins

Christopher Healey

Carole Hedrick

Jennifer A Heglin

Suzanne & Will Helmlinger

Don Heppermann

Larry & Susan Hoch

Robin & Faye Hood

Jade Howard

Antoinette Hubbard

Becca Hyvonen*^

Deanna & Karl Johnson

John Jones

Al & Barb Jongeneel

Chris Kane

Jeanne Kaplan

Lisa Kewish

Edi King

Mike Kitko

Tami Krichiver

Richard & Judy Larson

Anne Leichthammer

Mark Leichthammer

Ingrid Lindemann

Albert Link

Matt Lintvedt

Dennis~ & Nancy~ Lintvedt

Valerie Lunka

Tad Lyle

Andrew Madey

Grace Martin

Susanna Masoero

Laura McCleary

Nancy Mergler

Erin Meyerhoff*

Edie Mitchell

Paul Munsch

Lori Naes

Randy Nicholas

Oracle

Linda & Mark Pasternak

Marc Petersen

Mike Petraglia

Kate Raabe

Alice & Dan Robinson

Ann & Jerry Roemer

Pearl Rutherford*

Terry Saracino

Edmund & Jennifer Scheiber

Sarah Schenkein

Richard Schirrmacher & Tom Carlock

Debbie Schjodt

Kirk Schjodt*

Lynne Scholfield

Jodi Seidel

Erin Singrin

Keith Small

Edwin Smith

Jan Stickney

Melvin Stolzenburg

Sharyl Sullivan

Paul Sutherland & Steve Fischer

Jane Swalling

Jeff & Lisa Swenson

Liza Tamashunas

Horst & Lisa Tebbe

Amanda Torp

Patricia Tribby

DONORS

Robert & Jill von Trebra

Julia & Michael Wadle

Sally Waters

Lynn Wearden

Sarah Weissenbuehler

Pamela & Stanley Whitaker

Kathy Whitney

Julien Wiley

Clara Winter

Karen Witt

Karen & Scott Yarberry

Ensemble

($1–$99)

Diana Aberchah

Harry Adair

Emily* & Zach Alexander

Kimberlee Alexander

Frankie Anderson

Karen Antram

Anthony Aquilina

Deborah Arca

Craig Arnold

Millie Aulbur

Amy Aylward

Victoria Bailey*

Jeff Baker

Penny Bartko

Bill & Carol Bartley

Lindsay Bell

Geof & Mary Benson

Davis Benson

Dan Bergman

Susie Bernardi

Kelly Birner

Christina & Nick Bishop

Tanner Boesiger

Ariana Boggs

Jenni Bova

Susan Bowles

Michael Bradford

Anna Branton

Deby Brown~

Lara Bruce

Amy Buerge

Stacy Burd

Hayes Burton

Chance Busey

Sharon Busheff

Pat Babcock & Dianne Calhoun

Liz & Dmitri Calvert

Dustin & Stephanie Carr

John Celesky

Kelli Chan

Bob Chase

Derek Chisolm

Andrew Christ

Diana Ciancio

Dinah Claytor

Orrie Clemens

Mackenzie Cohen

Craig T Collins

Sara Collyar

Ruth Connors

Kevin Cook

Barbara Cornell

Cindy Correa

Kathleen Cribari

Todd Daquino

Sara Davis

Cathy Decker

Bob DeMasters

Linda Dey

Bob & Marcia Dodgion

Kenneth Donahue

Katie Donovan

Steve & Vicki Doty

Ladeana Dudley

Irma Dunninger

Jaci Durrie

Rex Eaton

Kendra Elrod

Marilyn Elrod

Stephanie Enright

William Erickson

Debra & Paul Eschliman

Julie Eschliman

James Esten

Mary Ann Evancheck

Marcia Ann Fahrenbach

Elizabeth Fallon

Robert & Ruth Fanslow

Charles Ferguson

Sara Ferguson

Mary Fischer

Dave Fischer

Lise Foyston

Mary & Jim Frinell

Kerry Fritz

Carolina Garcia

Ricardo Garcia

Elaine & Mike Gardner

Madeline Gardner*

Gerald Garland

Jacqueline Garner

Craig & Cindy Garrett

Ryan Garrison*

Barry Georgopulos

Paul Gilbertson

Stacey & Adam Green

Abraham Grijalva

Candace & Ken Grosz

Amanda Gurr

Stephanie Hale

Andrew Halladay

Nicholas Hamilton

Vaughn & Carolyn Hanson

Rachel Hanson

Alexis Haro

Keith Harrison*

Liam Harty

Megan Heath

Holly Hedegaard

Katie Heimbichner

Eric Heineman

Doug Heller

Jill Henton

Jo Ann Heppermann

Mary Herrin

Zach Hickman

Joshua Hillmann

Emily Hoagland

Michelle Hoffman

Connie Holtzen

Karen Hopper

Cathy Horvath

Kathryn Howard

Steve Howie

Catherine Hupp

Trudy & Patrick Boulter-Hynes

Peder Iverson

Michael & Virginia Jackson

Christopher & Jennifer Jackson

Brian Jackson

Linda Jackson

Paula Jaworski

Terry Lee Jeddeloh

Michael Jensen

Elizabeth Johnson

Paul & Cynthia Johnson

Geraldine Jones

Linda Jory

Shelley Kauffman

Krista Keogh

Mary Kay Kernan

David Kirkland

Austin Krist

Joe Kulikauskas

Colleen Lampron

Levone Larson

Julia Lazure

Eileen LeCluyse

Donnie Lemley

Cheryle Lemmon

Anthony Limon

Debi & Pete Ludwig

Sue Lutz

Deborah MacGilvray

Donors who contributed between February 1, 2022 and January 31, 2023 are recognized in this program * Singers ^ Board & Staff ~ Volunteers

Colin Mack

David Mackinnon

Deborah MacNair

Judy Macomber

Kristen Malecek

Hillary Marcus

Lauren Marietta

Caroline Martin

Anthony Martini

Tegan Masoero-Palmer*

Seán McArdle

Bob McCarroll

Pamela McClune

Janice McCoy

Bev & Ed McLaughlin

Elle McMahon

Katherine McMurrary

Jennifer McNeil Miller

Lisa Medina

Dennis & Barbara Medina

Mike & Ruth Mendoza

Mac Merchant

Renee Meriwether

Nancy Merrow

Cecilia Miller

Casey Miller

Karl Miller

Aaron Miller

Scott & Candice Minks

Emily Mizuki

Lesley Morgan

Michelle Morris

Daniel Moskowitz

Cathy Motter

Ruth Neil

Chad Nelsen

Steven Newell

Beth Newsom

Dave Noble

Juli Orlandini

Valorie Ottenbreit

Jennifer Ouellette

Jean Pancharoen

Daniel Paredes

Dakota Pariset

Jacob Patrick

James & Patricia Paull

Margo Pedrick

Roberta Pepper

Lee Perry

Alison Persons

Ruth Peterson

Andy & Marybeth Pettitt

James & Lillian Phelps

Aaron Phillips

Jennifer Pike

Laura Campbell

Brian Porzel

Barbara Poston

Gary Quamme

Jamie Quiros

Hillary Ramaker

Allegra Reiber

Sandra Rhodes

Laura Riccardo

Steven Riccobono

Martina Richardson*

Allison Richardson

Jera & Mike Robertson

Jennifer Robinson

Maggie Rogers

Carol Ruckel

Jake Runestad

Evan Rutherford

Marc Sammartano

Gary & Jasmine Sandusky

Heather Schenck

Terry Schlenker

Amy Schmuck

Susan Servin

Peter Severson

Rhonda Sherman

Amy Smith

Wendy Smith

DONORS

Shellie Smith

J Smith

Zachariah Smith*

Mitch Sonderfan

Kelley Southerland

State Farm Foundation

Arthur Kraus & Michelle Stone Kraus

Peter Strobel

Megan Stroup

Christianna Sullins*

Griffin Sutherland*

Sarah Sutherland

Natalie Swisher

Tonia Symensma-Cohen

Emma Tebbe*

Johnnie Terry

Mary Thompson

Jordan Tjaden

Tom Trenney

Laura Tribby*

Deborah Trissel

Lisa Ulmer

Eric Unger

Frank Valdez

Traci VanHyning

John Vega

Janice Vlachos

Beth Wadman

Ken & Lois Wadman

Joel Waggoner

Amber Waldorf

Matthew Ware

Cheryl Waskiewicz

Jarod Wenger

Melissa West

Mariko Wilcox

Kellan Willet

Dana Willett

Erin Williams

Cynthia Williams

Janet Willson

Eric Winterrowd

Stephen Winters

Amy Wrenn

Jeremy Yang*

Erin Yokomichi

Van Young

Courtney Zenner

Ken & Sue Zimmerman

Donors who contributed between February 1, 2022 and January 31, 2023 are recognized in this program * Singers ^ Board & Staff ~ Volunteers

In Memoriam and Honorarium

Krista Barker, in honor of Christina Graham

Penny Bartko, in honor of Joel Rinsema

Kelli Chan, in honor of the singers of Kantorei

Beverly and Bruce Fest, in honor of Christina Graham

Judy Fredericksen, in honor of Alex and Melissa Menter

Jim and Annette Gunnerson, in honor of Kevin and Heather Gunnerson

Andrew Halladay, in honor of Pepper Menter

Krista Keogh, in honor of Sarah Branton and Adam Cave

Roberta Larson, in honor of Bryce Kennedy

Edie Mitchell, in honor of Sarah Branton and Adam Cave

David and Jennifer Moore, in honor of Kantorei Board

Members

Donald and Sharron Neufeld, in honor of Judy Fredericksen

Randy Nicholas, in honor of Marcy Nicholas

Linda and Judd Rinsema, in honor of Joel Rinsema

Alice and Dan Robinson, in honor of Heather Gunnerson

Ann and Jerry Roemer, in honor of John Ludwig

Sarah Schenkein, in honor of Judy Bloomberg

Christina Von Stroh, in honor of Jonathan Von Stroh

Clara Winter, in honor of Sarah Branton

Michael Bizzaro, in memory of Bill and Gay Eustice

Patti Cornelius, in memory of Mike Ludwig

Kimberly and Michael Dunninger, in memory of Judith Scheiber

Peter Fogg, in memory of Nancy Nevell Fogg

Paul Gilbertson, in memory of Phyllis S Gilbertson

Bryce Kennedy, in memory of Laura Jean Jory

Teresa Morgan, in memory of Jack Fredericksen and Joy Post

Alicia Rigsby, in memory of Theodore Small

In Kind

Kai Berry-Helmlinger

Cherry Creek High School

First Plymouth UCC

Susan Lewkow

John Schaak Scholarship Fund

Sarah Schenkein

KANTOREI'S 2022-2023 SEASON MARK YOUR CALENDARS

SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2023

"25th Anniversary Gala" @7:00 pm | Knoebel Events Center

SATURDAY, MAY 20, 2023

"Walk Together, Children" @7:30 pm | Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral

SUNDAY, MAY 21, 2023

"Walk Together, Children" @ 3:00 pm | First Plymouth Congregational Church

To volunteer for Kantorei, please email us at volunteer@kantorei.org

KANTOREI WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR SPONSORS for your generous and ongoing support!