12.7.2024
SATURDAY @ 7:30PM
First Plymouth UCC 3501 S Colorado Blvd, Cherry Hills Village
12.8.2024
SUNDAY @ 2:00PM
Parsons Theatre
1 E Memorial Pkwy, Northglenn
12.20.2024
FRIDAY @ 7:30PM
Saint John’s Cathedral 1350 N Washington St, Denver
12.21 .2024
SATURDAY @ 7:30PM
First United Methodist Church of Boulder 1421 Spruce St, Boulder
A WINTER DAY
SARAH QUARTEL (B. 1982)
Dylan Tyree, cello (Dec. 7 & 8); David Short, cello (Dec. 20 & 21); Alicia Rigsby, piano
1. A TIMID STAR
2. A WINTER DAWN Leah Tracy, soprano
3. INTO MORNING
4. A WINTER DAY
5. SNOW TOWARD EVENING
SEVEN COUNTRY SONGS BY ROBERT FROST RANDALL THOMPSON (1899-1984)
Alicia Rigsby, piano
1. THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
2. THE PASTURE
3. COME IN
4. THE TELEPHONE
5. A GIRL'S GARDEN
6. STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
7. CHOOSE SOMETHING LIKE A STAR -- INTERMISSION --
THE BOY WHO LAUGHED AT SANTA CLAUS
ERIC WHITACRE (B. 1970)
Treble ch orus: Riley Gallivan, Christianna Sullins; Emily Alexander, Stacie Hanson, Alicia Rigsby, piano
1. THE BOY WHO LAUGHED AT SANTA CLAUS
2. THE CHILDREN WEPT ALL CHRISTMAS EVE
3. THEN JABEZ FELL UPON HIS KNEES
To elevate the human experience through choral excellence
Our Mission:
Kantorei is an inclusive community of volunteer singers that invites audiences to experience the richness and diversity of the choral art form, joyously executed at the highest standard of musical excellence. We are innovators: we responsibly leverage our resources to commission work by living composers, perform music by underrepresented and emerging artists, encourage future talent through educational engagement, and nurture the choral community.
Our Values:
Musical Excellence – We maintain the highest possible standards. We hold ourselves and each other accountable for putting in the necessary effort. We take on artistic challenges that many choirs cannot. We provide our audiences with unique musical experiences performed with professionalism, accuracy, passion, and finesse. We are a volunteer choir with world-class aspirations and achievements.
Inclusion – We strive to create a singer community where individuals from all backgrounds and experiences can be their best. We celebrate and perform composers that have been underrepresented in the choral tradition alongside those who have historically enjoyed the spotlight. We amplify voices that should be heard, and seek to bring our voices to new places. We connect diverse audiences through the power of music.
Joy – We make music because it brings us joy and we are passionate about sharing that joy with others. Audiences feel our connection to each other and the music; through our work they experience intellectual and emotional expansion. Sharing this joy with each other and our audiences is a privilege.
Community – We provide an opportunity for singers, artists, students, and audiences from many different backgrounds and identities to share in musical experiences that allow us to transcend the world we live in. Our singers show up for each other, both musically and personally. We are in community with the composers who partner with us. We create nurturing relationships with other choirs so we can collectively thrive. We show young and emerging artists what their musical future can look like.
Innovation – As an organization, we are never stagnant. We feel a responsibility to use our funding to educate, delight, and amaze, which is evident through every aspect of our work: programming, recordings, concerts, and community impact. We move the art form forward by celebrating the full diversity of modern choral composition, and juxtaposing it with treasured work of the traditional canon. Our audiences can feel the musical past resonating with wisdom in the present, and the present reaching back to seek guidance from the past.
Land acknowledgement
Kantorei honors and acknowledges the Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) Tribes, and all of the original Indigenous peoples of the land upon which we rehearse and perform.
Sarah Quartel (b. 1982) is a Canadian composer and educator known for her choral works, as well as for her commitment to connecting exciting musical experiences with meaningful classroom learning. She divides her time between Ontario and Hawai’i, and regularly appears as a guest clinician at international music education and choral events. A Winter Day is a five-movement work for choir, piano, and cello with texts by Sara Teasdale, Lucy Maud Montgomery (best known for Anne of Green Gables), and Melville Cane. Quartel writes, “It was inspired by my tremendous affection for the snowy and icy winters I live each year as a resident of this part of the country. Each movement in the work illustrates a different time in a winter day. We begin, with ‘Timid Star,’ in the dark stillness before dawn, where ‘a shy white star’ shivers as it shines on frozen fields below. In ‘A Winter Dawn,’ color floods the sky and a triumphant sunrise rings through the music. ‘Into Morning’ takes me back to exciting childhood days out on the land in knee-deep snow, or outings with treasured family members where a great dark horse would pull our sleigh through the nearby woods; the ‘tang of frost’ in ‘A Winter Day’ would leave us refreshed and laughing. As the work comes to a close, so does the day. Stillness returns and falling snow covers any evidence of the day’s activities. The sky returns to darkness once more.” – Dr. Leah Weinberg
(celebrating the 150th anniversary of Robert Frost’s birth)
Since the early days of his publication, Robert Frost has been identified as a brilliant poet and teacher of wholly American creation. His collections of poetic works have achieved unparalleled heights in the literary canon, while his use of untraditional forms, colloquial language, and New England sensibilities helped to construct an entirely new genre of pastoral poetry. In 1959, Randall Thompson was commissioned by the town of Amherst to compose a choral work in honor of their two-hundredth anniversary. Because of Amherst’s close association with Frost (as well as Thompson’s friendship with the poet), the town decided that Thompson should set one of Frost’s poems to music for the event. The end result, entitled “Frostiana: Seven Country Songs,” is a seven-movement choral piece based on the text of seven of Frost’s poems: “The Road Not Taken,” “The Pasture,” “Come In,” “The Telephone,” “A Girl’s Garden,” “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and “Choose Something Like a Star.” Thompson made a palpable effort to match his music to Frost’s poetry, particularly in terms of the themes of everyday life, rural tradition, and nature that Frost highlights in his work. As a result, “Frostiana” has the same appealing, colloquial elements found in Frost’s poetry but with the additional layer of musical language.
Because Thompson composed the work while in Switzerland, Frost heard the piece for the first time at its premiere at the Amherst Regional High School in Amherst on October 18, 1959. Thompson conducted the premiere and used the Bicentennial Chorus, made up of local singers, and piano accompaniment. According to some reports, Frost was so delighted by the performance that, at the conclusion of the piece, he stood up and shouted, “Sing that again!” - Nikk Pilato
Nearly 20 years after first setting several of Ogden Nash’s short poems in his playful Animal Crackers Vols. I & II, Eric Whitacre once again put the poet’s famous wit and unconventional rhymes to use in The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus (2017). Whitacre says this setting “tells the story of Jabez Dawes (‘Jabez’ rhymes with ‘rabies’), a horrible little boy who doesn’t believe in Santa. It’s a fun, tongue-in cheek romp, written in a style I like to call ‘Mendelssohn meets Danny Elfman.’” With his signature blend of classical and contemporary styles, this oratorio is full of his own humor, theatrics, and Easter eggs in the form of familiar melodies peppered throughout.
An “arrangement” is when a composer takes a pre-existing melody and re-imagines it in a new way. Three such creations by English composer Alexander L’Estrange (b. 1974) will conclude Kantorei’s program. “Still, Still, Still” is an Austrian carol. Initially appearing in print in 1865, it reflects upon the quiet and stillness around the manger on that first Christmas night. Another vision of that evening appears with “In the Bleak Midwinter.” Originally published in 1872, the text by English poet Christina Rosetti, has been set by numerous composers wishing to provide their personal musical impressions of the scene. L’Estrange adds his own interpretation. ©Betsy Schwarm, author of the Classical Music Insights series
“Jingle Bells,” written in 1850 by James Lord Pierpont, has become a yuletide staple, despite having no original connection to Christmas; some historians claim it was written as a drinking song about picking up girls, drag-racing on snow, and a highspeed crash. In this whimsical arrangement, L’Estrange vividly depicts the sound of the bells that were added to horses’ harnesses to avoid collisions at blind intersections, and captures the fun of a snow-filled joy ride.
Compiled by Sara
Michael
Managing Artistic Director
Joel M. Rinsema joined Kantorei (Denver, Colorado USA) in 2014, becoming the second conductor in its 25-year history. During his tenure, Kantorei has experienced tremendous audience growth, nearly tripled its budget, and launched an ambitious recording strategy. A frequent collaborator and champion of new works for chorus, Joel has commissioned and premiered works by many of today’s leading composers, including Kim André Arnesen, Mason Bates, René Clausen, Jean Belmont Ford, Ola Gjeilo, Jocelyn Hagen, Mark Hayes, Cecilia McDowall, Sarah Quartel, Jake Runestad, Christopher Tin, and Eric Whitacre.
In the summer of 2022, Joel conducted the Central American premiere of Jake Runestad’s El Último Hilo (The Last Thread) in Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala with Kantorei and the Guatemalan choir Vocalis. He returned in May of 2023 to conduct Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil and serves as Artistic Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor of Vocalis.
Under Joel’s direction, Kantorei has released two recordings on the Naxos label. Sing, Wearing the Sky: Choral Music of Jake Runestad (2020) was the #3 best-selling classical album on iTunes, reached #4 on the Traditional Classical Billboard Charts, and was in 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 Joel Rinsema / Kantorei Choral series.
Joel led Kantorei in performances at the 2019 National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association, and has prepared Kantorei as the primary chorus for the Aspen Music Festival, with Maestro Robert Spano conducting, in the
summers of 2021 and 2022. More recently, he conducted Kantorei along with the Canadian Brass in December of 2022, andv commissioned and prepared Kantorei for the world premiere of the string orchestra version of Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil, conducted by the composer, and guest conducted The Sacred Veil with the Washington (DC) Choral Arts Society in May of 2023.
A passionate advocate for the professional choral art form, Joel frequently consults with 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 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 as well as in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.
Joel also serves as Director of Music and Technology in Worship at First Plymouth Congregational Church in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado. He was also the North American Choral Promotion Manager for Oxford University Press based in Oxford, England from 2017 to 2020, a tenure during which he worked closely with and represented roster composers John Rutter, Mack Wilberg, Bob Chilcott, Sarah Quartel, Cecilia McDowall, Gabriel Jackson, and Will Todd among others.
He holds music degrees from Arizona State University and Whitworth University and is a member of the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammys), and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).
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 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 received a total of eight Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards during his tenure. Joel appears on all 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 he was the founding chorus master of the Arizona Musicfest Chorus.
He and his wife Sarah Branton (Choir Director at Cherry Creek High School) and stepson Simon Harrison live in Centennial, Colorado along with their miniature Dachshund Lucia. They enjoy all that Colorado has to offer outdoors, including camping, fishing, golfing, and snow skiing.
Kantorei is a Denver-based, choral ensemble comprised of volunteer singers under the direction of Managing 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. and with The Aspen Music Festival, 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 Último Hilo” in Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala, along with Guatemalan choir Vocalis. In the fall of 2021, Kantorei began its three-year collaboration with M. Roger Holland, II as Artist-in-Residence.
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. In early winter 2025, Kantorei will once again join forces with Grammy-winning producers Soundmirror to record choral works of Grammy-winning composer Christopher Tin, this time on the Decca label.
Kantorei’s vision is “to elevate the human experience through choral excellence.”
“Thank you for the joy you have brought into my life.”
“I've been smiling all day long. I'm so glad I got to experience the beauty of Kantorei's performance. It was truly heartwarming.”
Beryl Fanslow Wilson
Riley Jayne Gallivan
Christina Graham
Heather Gunnerson
Stacie Hanson *
Shannon Lemmon-Elrod
Sara Michael *
Lexie Orvin
Martina Richardson
Alicia Rigsby ◊
Pearl Rutherford
Becca Schjodt
Christianna Sullins
Leah Tracy
Safia Ahmed
Emily Alexander
Lindsey Aquilina
Sarah Branton *
Desiree Deliz-Morales
Erin Greenfield
Chelsea Kendall
Tegan Masoero-Palmer
Melissa Menter
Erin Meyerhoff
Jennifer Moore
Allison Pasternak *
Kaleigh Sutula
Jane Wright
* Section leader ◊ Collaborative Pianist
Sarah Branton
Assistant Conductor
Alicia Rigsby Accompanist, Collaborative Pianist
Sara Michael Business Manager
Kai Berry-Helmlinger *
Ben Corwyn
Joshua Corwyn Matthew Eschliman
Keith Ferguson Mason France
Keith Harrison
Bryce Kennedy
Samuel Low
Alex Menter
Chad Nelsen
Seth O'Kegley *
Jonathan Von Stroh
John Wright
Becca Schjodt
John Bartley
Michael Bizzaro *
Jordan Black
Michael Boender
Adam Cave
Garth Criswell
Scott Horowitz
Brad Jackson
Brad Larson
Bryan Lastrella
John Ludwig
John Schaak
Kirk Schjodt *
Griffin Sutherland
Matt Weissenbuehler
Social Media Marketing & Communications Manager
Courtney Huffman Director of Community Engagement
Ximena Wheeler House Manager
Josh Corwyn
President
John Bartley
Vice President
MEMBERS AT LARGE
Mark Aquilina
Judy Bloomberg Schenkein
Desiree Deliz-Morales
Treasurer
Melissa Menter
Secretary
Matthew Eschliman
Scott Horowitz
Daniel Paredes
Making a gift to Kantorei through your will or estate is a beautiful way to create a lasting legacy and to ensure that our music and our mission will live on well into the future.
A bequest is generally a revocable gift, which means it can be changed or modified at any time. You can choose to designate that a bequest be used for a general or specific purpose so you have the peace of mind knowing that your gift will be used as intended. Bequests are exempt from federal estate taxes. If you have a taxable estate, the estate tax charitable deduction may offset or eliminate estate taxes, resulting in a larger inheritance for your heirs.
For questions, or to request a Bequest Intention Form, please contact Courtney Huffman, Director of Community Engagement, courtney@kantorei.org.
Joel Rinsema
Judd & Linda Rinsema
John Ludwig
Bryce Kennedy and Josh Larson
Andrea Ware-Medina
Lynn Hardcastle
Dylan Tyree is a cellist, composer, and conductor based in Denver, Colorado, passionate about exploring the boundaries between genres of music and creating an immersive experience for performers and listeners alike. Recognized as a soloist, he has been featured performing many works of both standard and contemporary repertoire, including Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in b minor, Korngold’s Cello Concerto, Schnittke’s Triple Concerto, Vivaldi’s Double Concerto in g minor for Two Cellos, Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil, and Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in e minor among others. Passionate about bringing new works to life as a composer/performer, he has worked closely with celebrated composers including Eric Whitacre, Ola Gjeilo, Caroline Shaw, Roger Holland, and Sarah Quartel among others. In October 2024, he was featured as a soloist in the world premiere of Christopher Tin’s new work “Song Offerings” for choir and small ensemble with Kantorei, set to be recorded on a new album of Tin’s work with Decca Records in January 2025. As a chamber musician, he plays in the Empyrean Quartet with Lucy Nemeth, Sarah Campbell, and Joshua Felser and is the lead electric cellist in Duality, a multi-genre ensemble/cover band with pianist Mitchell Galligan. A two-time Finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and Presser Award Scholar, Dylan has been commissioned by leading soloists, ensembles, and festivals, including the Suncoast Composer Fellowship Program, Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, Sunset Chamber Festival, Soaring Arts Music Collective, and the University of Denver; and soloists including Matthew Zalkind, Martin Kuuskmann, Joshua Felser, Zoe Weiss, and Danny McDonnall. An advocate for writing new music for electric cello, he was awarded a PinS grant from the University of Denver to compose and record a new large-scale work for the instrument with live electronics. Most recently, his piano quartet “Addendum” was premiered in Sarasota, FL as part of the Suncoast Composer Fellowship Program. In November 2024, his new work for viola and piano titled “Transient Glitch” will be premiered at the Cleveland Institute of Music by Joshua Felser and Harrison Benford. In 2023, he co-founded the Soaring Artists Music Collective (SAMC), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization focused on redefining the relationship between artists and their audiences. As a certified Suzuki teacher, he values that growing an appreciation for different kinds of music and understanding how they work is essential for learning an instrument and fostering a creative imagination. In addition to teaching the cello from a classical lens, he explores improvisation, music theory, and composition/arranging. Dylan has studied cello under Matthew Zalkind, Alice Yoo, and Evan Shelton; composition under Sean Friar, Stephen Coxe, Leanna Kirchoff, and Nathan Hall; and Suzuki Pedagogy under Heather Hadley.
David Short, cellist, is an active performer, arranger, and educator based in Denver, Colorado.
David is the cellist for the Playground Ensemble, a contemporary music ensemble serving underrepresented voices in classical music. He is a section member of Opera Colorado, and a freelancer who plays shows, sessions, and whatever unusual project that comes his way. David is a founding member of Sphere Ensemble, a 13-piece string orchestra, and formerly served as their artistic director. He remains one of Sphere’s principal arrangers, and his arrangements are featured on their album ‘Divergence’ selected as top album of 2016 by Colorado Public Radio. He is also a member of Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, a five piece chamber ensemble that revives the repertoire of silent film orchestras.
As an educator, David is a private teacher, coach and, clinician. He is a master mentor for the Denver School of the Arts, who were invited to perform at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, and were a finalist for the 2023 American Prize for Orchestral Performance. As part of the Playground Ensemble he is active in their Sound-painting and Young Composer programs, giving young people the opportunity to create music without the strictures of formal training. In 2023 David was selected as Private Teacher of the Year by the Front Range Youth Symphony.
When not performing, David is a dabbler in board games and game design, one who enjoys both the cooking and eating of food, and the petting of cats.
“Kantorei is an outstanding choir…excellent ensemble balance, fine intonation and musical expression…high level of energy.”
– Bruce McCollum, MusicWeb International, January 2021 (Read the full review here)
"...Always engaging and colorful...sung with depth and conviction by Kantorei."
- Karl W. Nehring, Classical Candor, December 2020 (Read the full review here)
Alicia Rigsby fell in love with choral music while singing in the St. Olaf Choir and earning a Bachelor of Music degree at Saint Olaf College. She moved to Colorado in 1997 after receiving her Master of Music degree in piano performance and music theory from Indiana University, Bloomington. She is one of the founding members of Kantorei and participates both as a singer and a collaborative pianist.
Alicia has attended and performed at the Aspen Music Festival and has also performed with the Estes Trio and the Boulder Chamber Orchestra. She owns Children’s Music Academy in Erie, Colorado, where she teaches group piano classes and shares the joy of music with her students. She is passionate about music as an art form, a teaching tool and an expressionistic medium, and is grateful to have so many musical opportunities in her life. In her free time, she likes to get outside in the mountains with her family.
A Winter Day
1. Timid Star
Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
Fields beneath a quilt of snow from which the rocks and stubble peep, And in the west a shy white star that shivers as it wakes from sleep.
2. A Winter Dawn
Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)
Above the marge of night a star still shines, and on the frosty hills the somber pines harbor an eerie wind that crooneth low over the glimmering wastes of virgin snow. Through the pale arch of orient the moon comes in a milk-white splendor newly-born, a sword of crimson cuts in twain the gray banners of shadow hosts, and lo, the day!
3. A Winter Day
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Wide, sparkling fields snow-vestured lie beneath a blue, unshadowed sky.
MARCH 8TH & 9TH, 2025
This unique program offers a rare opportunity to experience multiple double-choir works in a single concert, providing insight into how different composers through the ages have approached the spatial and textural possibilities of two choirs this challenging and rewarding format. Featured in this concert will be Colorado’s own Terry Schlenker's Mass for Double Choir, a modern masterpiece that pays homage to the great polychoral traditions of the past while infusing them with contemporary harmonic language.
We will also explore Johannes Brahms' F est- und Gedenksprüche (Op. 109) Healey Willan’s An Apostrophe to the Heavenly Hosts and Felix Mendelsohn’s Heilg. Whether you're a longtime choral music enthusiast or new to the world of antiphonal composition, this concert promises to be a memorable exploration of the rich possibilities of the human voice.
Life hath a jollity and zest, a poignancy made manifest; Laughter and courage have their way At noontide of a winter’s day.
A glist’ning splendor crowns the woods and bosky, whistling solitudes; In hemlock glen and reedy mere the tang of frost is sharp and clear.
Life hath a jollity and zest…
Faint music rings in wold and dell, the tinkling of a distant bell, Where homestead lights with friendly glow glimmer across the drifted snow.
Life hath a jollity and zest…
4. Snow Toward Evening
Melville Cane (1879-1980)
Suddenly the sky turned gray,the day, which had been bitter and chill, grew soft and still. Quietly from some invisible blossoming tree millions of petals cool and white drifted and blew lifted and flew, fell with the falling night.
Frostiana Robert Frost (1874-1963)
1. The Road Not Taken (1915)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth. Then took the other as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same. And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
2. The Pasture (1910)
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; I'll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I sha'n't be gone long. – You come too. I'm going out to fetch the little calf That's standing by the mother. It's so young, It totters when she licks it with her tongue. I sha'n't be gone long. – You come too.
3. Come In (1934)
As I came to the edge of the woods, Thrush music – hark! Now if it was dusk outside, Inside it was dark.
Too dark in the woods for a bird By sleight of wing
To better its perch for the night, Though it still could sing. The last of the light of the sun That had died in the west Still lived for one song more In a thrush's breast.
Far in the pillared dark
Thrush music went –
Almost like a call to come in
To the dark and lament.
But no, I was out for stars; I would not come in. I meant not even if asked; And I hadn't been.
4. The Telephone (1920)
“When I was just as far as I could walk From here today, There was an hour
All still When leaning with my head against a flower I heard you talk.
Don’t say I didn’t, for I heard you say –You spoke from that flower on the window sill –Do you remember what it was you said?”
“First tell me what it was you thought you heard.”
“Having found the flower and driven a bee away, I leaned my head, And holding by the stalk, I listened and I thought I caught the word –What was it? Did you call me by my name? Or did you say –
Someone said ‘Come’ – I heard it as I bowed.”
“I may have thought as much, but not aloud.”
“Well, so I came.”
5. A Girl’s Garden (1916)
A neighbor of mine in the village
Likes to tell how one spring
When she was a girl on the farm, she did A childlike thing.
One day she asked her father
To give her a garden plot
To plant and tend and reap herself, And he said, “Why not?”
In casting about for a corner He thought of an idle bit
Of walled-off ground where a shop had stood, And he said, “Just it.”
And he said, “That ought to make you
An ideal one-girl farm, And give you a chance to put some strength On your slim-jim arm.”
It was not enough of a garden, Her father said, to plough; So she had to work it all by hand, But she don’t mind now.
She wheeled the dung in the wheelbarrow
Along a stretch of road; But she always ran away and left Her not-nice load.
And hid from anyone passing.
And then she begged the seed. She says she thinks she planted one Of all things but weed.
A hill each of potatoes, Radishes, lettuce, peas, Tomatoes, beets, beans, pumpkins, corn, And even fruit trees
And yes, she has long mistrusted
That a cider apple tree
In bearing there to-day is hers, Or at least may be.
Her crop was a miscellany
When all was said and done, A little bit of everything, A great deal of none.
Now when she sees in the village How village things go, Just when it seems to come in right, She says, “I know!
It’s as when I was a farmer——”
Oh, never by way of advice!
And she never sins by telling the tale
To the same person twice.
6. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1922)
Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
7. Choose Something Like a Star (1916)
O Star (the fairest one in sight), We grant your loftiness the right To some obscurity of cloud –It will not do to say of night, Since dark is what brings out your light. Some mystery becomes the proud. But to be wholly taciturn In your reserve is not allowed. Say something to us we can learn By heart and when alone repeat. Say something! And it says, 'I burn.' But say with what degree of heat. Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade. Use language we can comprehend. Tell us what elements you blend. It gives us strangely little aid, But does tell something in the end. And steadfast as Keats' Eremite, Not even stooping from its sphere, It asks a little of us here. It asks of us a certain height, So when at times the mob is swayed To carry praise or blame too far, We may choose something like a star To stay our minds on and be staid.
The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
1. The Boy Who Laughed At Santa Claus
In Baltimore there lived a boy. He wasn't anybody's joy.
Although his name was Jabez Dawes, His character was full of flaws.
In school he never led his classes, He hid old ladies' reading glasses, His mouth was open when he chewed, And elbows to the table glued. He stole the milk of hungry kittens, And walked through doors marked NO ADMITTANCE.
He said he acted thus because There wasn't any Santa Claus.
Another trick that tickled Jabez Was crying 'Boo' at little babies. He brushed his teeth, they said in town, Sideways instead of up and down. Yet people pardoned every sin, And viewed his antics with a grin, Till they were told by Jabez Dawes, 'There isn't any Santa Claus!'
Deploring how he did behave, His parents swiftly sought their grave. They hurried through the portals pearly, And Jabez left the funeral early.
Like whooping cough, from child to child, He sped to spread the rumor wild: 'Sure as my name is Jabez Dawes There isn't any Santa Claus!'
Slunk like a weasel of a marten Through nursery and kindergarten, Whispering low to every tot, 'There isn't any, no there's not!'
2. The children wept all Christmas Eve The children wept all Christmas eve And Jabez chortled up his sleeve. No infant dared hang up his stocking For fear of Jabez' ribald mocking.
He sprawled on his untidy bed, Fresh malice dancing in his head, When presently with scalp-a-tingling, Jabez heard a distant jingling; He heard the crunch of sleigh and hoof Crisply alighting on the roof. What good to rise and bar the door? A shower of soot was on the floor.
What was beheld by Jabez Dawes? The fireplace full of Santa Claus!
3. Then Jabez fell upon his knees
Then Jabez fell upon his knees With cries of 'Don't,' and 'Pretty Please.' He howled, 'I don't know where you read it, But anyhow, I never said it!'
'Jabez' replied the angry saint, 'It isn't I, it's you that ain't. Although there is a Santa Claus, There isn't any Jabez Dawes!'
Said Jabez then with impudent vim, 'Oh, yes there is, and I am him! Your magic don't scare me, it doesn't' And suddenly he found he wasn't! From grimy feet to grimy locks, Jabez became a Jack-in-the-box, An ugly toy with springs unsprung, Forever sticking out his tongue.
The neighbors heard his mournful squeal; They searched for him, but not with zeal. No trace was found of Jabez Dawes, Which led to thunderous applause, And people drank a loving cup And went and hung their stockings up.
All you who sneer at Santa Claus, Beware the fate of Jabez Dawes, The saucy boy who mocked the saint. Donner and Blitzen licked off his paint.
Alexander L’Estrange, based on the 19th-century German; Traditional Austrian Carol
Still, still, still, Mein liebes Kindlein, still.
Die Englein leise für dich singen, Und ferne Glocken sanft erklingen. Still, still, still, Mein liebes Kindlein, still.
Sleep, sleep, sleep, The infant King is asleep.
His peace and stillness all around you, Heavenly rest and calm surround you. Sleep, sleep, sleep, The infant King is asleep.
Still, still, still, (stille Nacht,)
The babe is sleeping still. (heilige Nacht,) While angels all above are singing, (Alles schläft,) Peace to all the world He is bringing. (einsam wacht) Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh.
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
Angels and archangels may have gathered there, Cherubim and Seraphim thronged the air, But only His mother in her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved with a kiss.
What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb. If I were a wise man, I would do my part.
Yet what I can, I give Him: Give my heart.
Jingle Bells
James Lord Pierpont (1822-1893)
Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh, O'er the fields we go, Laughing all the way. Bells on bobtail ring, Making spirits bright, What fun it is to laugh and sing A sleighing song tonight.
Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way.
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh. Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way; Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.
Now the ground is white, Go it while you’re young, Take the girls tonight, And sing this sleighing song. Just get a bobtailed bay Two-forty for his speed, Then hitch him to an open sleigh And crack, you'll take the lead!
DIAMOND BATON
$50,000 - $99,000
Keith* & Sue Ferguson
SCFD - Arapahoe County
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GOLD BATON
$15,000 - $24,999
Judy Fredericksen
Olson-Vander Heyden Foundation
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$10,000 - $14,999
Lynn Hardcastle
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$7,500 - $9,999
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$2,500 - $4,999
Michael* & Donna Boender
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$1,000 - $2,499
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William Blyth
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Rev. Dr. S. Patrice Von Stroh
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ARIA
$500-$999
Safia Ahmed*
Donors who contributed $100 or more between November 1, 2023 and October 31, 2024
Kathy Bollhoefer
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Cave
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Esten
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Freeman
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Thank you to ALL of our donors! While we can’t name everyone individually, please know that your generous contributions mean the world to us. We truly appreciate your support!
Donors who contributed $100 or more between November 1, 2023 and October 31, 2024 are recognized in this progam* Singers ^ Board & Staff ~ Volunteers
Memoriam and Honorarium
Kelli Chan, in honor of Jennifer Moore
Mary H Fischer, in honor of Matthew Eschliman
Nancy Mergler, in honor of John Bartley
Dean Schramm, in honor of Judy Bloomberg Schenkein
Lois Siegel, in honor of Kai & Lyn Berry Helmlinger
Paul Sutherland, in honor of Griffin Sutherland
Michael Bizzaro, in memory of Bill & Gay Eusitce
Safia Ahmed
Kai Berry-Helmlinger
Steve Cearley
Cherry Creek High School
Joshua Corwyn
First Plymouth UCC
Susan Lewkow
John Schaak
Elevate Classroom Grant
Priscilla Adams
Robert Blauvelt & Michael Corrigan
Elizabeth Duke
Kimberly Dunninger
Leslie Eber
Judy Fredericksen
Barbara Garson
Kaycie Grigel
Jason Gruhl
C. Stephen Hooper, in memory of Karl Johnson
Eric Johnson, in memory of Karl Johnson
Deanna Johnson, in memory of Karl Johnson
Shelley Kauffman, in memory of Al & Grace Martin
Eric Martin, in memory of Grace Martin
Sara Michael, in memory of Grace Martin
Kathy Osvog, in memory of Karl Johnson
Alice Weydt, in memory of Karl Johnson
Lisa Hutchings
Gordon & Liz Anne Johnson
Jessica Johnson
Laura McCleary
Carol Roman & Robert Kihm
Christine Schaefer
Terry Schlenker
Shelly Smith
Judi Thomas
Treat Household
Shelly Winemiller
Alison N. Roman Memorial Scholarship
Victoria Bailey
William Blyth
Judy Douglass
Jamie Duncan
C. Stephen & Gracie Hooper
Carol Roman & Robert Kihm
Christine Schaefer
“Kantorei is an outstanding choir…excellent ensemble balance, fine intonation and musical expression…high level of energy.”
–Bruce McCollum, MusicWeb International, January 2021 (Read the full review here)
"...Always engaging and colorful...sung with depth and conviction by Kantorei."
-Karl W. Nehring, Classical Candor, December 2020 (Read the full review here)
“…one of the most incredible and spine-tingling concerts that I have heard in a long time. Looking forward to the rest of the season.”
“What an incredible experience…words cannot convey the magnitude of the program…spellbinding. Not soon to be forgotten.”
303.669.0252
garth.criswell@coloradohomes.com
garthcriswell.com
The members of Kantorei are still singing because we were fortunate to have received a solid choral foundation in high school and college. Kantorei’s vision is that one day every music student in Colorado will have this solid foundation. In order to help achieve this goal we have created the Elevate Classroom Grant and the Alison N. Roman Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Alison Roman was a beloved member of the Kantorei family and a fiercely dedicated music educator. She touched countless lives, and for this reason, with the blessing of Alison’s family, the Kantorei board of directors has named the Individual Scholarship the Alison N. Roman Memorial Scholarship.
In this spirit, the Alison N. Roman Memorial Scholarship is dedicated to assisting a talented senior BIPOC, Asian, or Latinx student in pursuing their musical dreams. This scholarship offers a minimum award of $1000 to cover expenses related to choral ensemble participation, such as membership fees, uniforms, and private lessons.
The Elevate Classroom Grant supports underfunded high school choral programs by offering classroom grants to teachers to be used for expenses such as sheet music, uniforms, festival attendance costs, etc.
