Pacific Choirs
University Chorus
Monica Adams, director
Michelle Han, collaborative piano
Pacific Singers
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, director
Patricia Grimm, collaborative piano
Friday, December 6, 2024
7:30 pm
Faye Spanos Concert Hall
(2002/2004)
University Chorus
James MacMillan (b. 1959)
Todd Smith arr. Brad Holmes
Leah Trout, Olivhea Ross, Michelle Miracle, Vanessa Lopez, sopranos
Pete Norman, Casey Kim, Hunter Campbell, Ryan Eads, percussion
C. Johnson (b. 1978)
Vanessa Lopez, Leah Trout, Isabella Andino, Michelle Miracle, sopranos
DECEMBER 6, 2024, 7:30 PM
The Hymn of Acxiom (2013)
Vienna Teng (b. 1978)
arr. Henrik Dahlgren
Bell Souza, conductor Intermission
The Parting Glass (2015)
Pacific Singers
Grace Coon, flute
Luminous Night of the Soul (2012)
Irish Folk Song arr. Audrey Snyder
Emma Young, Erick Sariles, violins
Kylie Trenhaile, viola
Hasina Torres, cello
Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978)
Gaudete! (2015)
Traditional arr. Michael Engelhardt
Pete Norman, Casey Kim, Hunter Campbell, Ryan Eads, percussion
Away in a Manger (2012)
William J. Kirkpatrick (1838–1931) arr. Ola Gjeilo
Combined Choirs
Wanting Memories (1980)
Ysaÿe M. Barnwell (b. 1946) Pause
PROGRAM NOTES
MacMillan: O Radiant Dawn
Sir James MacMillan is one of today’s most successful composers and performs internationally as a conductor. His musical language is flooded with influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social conscience and close connection with Celtic folk music, and is distinctive for its rhythmic excitement and powerful emotional communication.
O Radiant Dawn is an adaptation of the Advent antiphon O Oriens. It is part of a set of compositions, The Strathclyde Motets, that MacMillan gifted to the University of Strathclyde Chaplaincy. It was premiered by the choir of St. Columbia’s RC Parish Church in Glasgow on December 2, 2007.
—intermusica.com
Smith/Holmes: Noel
Todd Smith is a singer and songwriter best known as a founding member of the band Selah. Born in Michigan, Smith spent his early childhood in Detroit. His parents moved the family to Central Africa for missionary work when he was five years old, not returning to the States until he was in his teens. After attending Belmont University in Nashville, Smith formed the Dove Award-winning Selah in 1997 with his sister Nicol Smith and friend Allan Hall. The band's first album, Be Still My Soul, appeared in 1999. Their updates of traditional hymns and popular religious songs sometimes revealed African choral influences. In 2004, Todd released his solo debut, a Christian rock album titled Alive.
—adapted from Marcy Donelson, allmusic.com
Johnson: Have You Seen the Newborn King?
Victor C. Johnson, a native of Dallas, Texas, is the School Choral Editor for SING!, the educational publishing division of Choristers Guild. A prolific composer and arranger, he has over 350 choral works, vocal solo books, and keyboard collections currently in print. Johnson attended the University of Texas at Arlington where he majored in music education with a concentration in organ. From 2000-2018, he was the choral director at the Ft. Worth Academy of Fine Arts. Johnson is in demand as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician for music educators and students throughout the United States. He currently serves as Minister of Worship and Arts at Shiloh Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, a position he has held since 2007.
—adapted from victorjohnsonmusic.com
Carnahan: Mary Had a Baby
Craig Carnahan is an American composer whose music has been commissioned and performed by prestigious ensembles throughout North America. Carnahan received his BA from Concordia College and did graduate studies in composition with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler at the University of Minnesota. In 1998 he was composer-in-residence for the American Composers Forum’s Faith Partners Residency Project, and, in 2008, 2012, and 2019, he received Artist Initiative Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. His music has been described as “absorbing, richly textured and emotionally stirring.”
This gentle spiritual from St. Helena Island is often associated with the Christmas season, rich with images of the manger and the star illuminating the skies over Bethlehem. But a unique turn is found in the final line of each stanza: “People keep a-comin’ but the train done gone.” Train imagery is often found in spirituals dating from this ear. For the slaves, trains were synonymous with freedom and escape—whether spiritual freedom is represented by the Gospel Train, or the literal freedom the Underground Railroad provided. The metaphor adds a poignant and uniquely human exclamation point to the celebration of the birth of the one who came to set us free.
—adapted from vocalessence.com, Craig Carnahan
Teng/Dahlgren: The Hymn of Acxiom
Vienna Teng’s adventurous chamber-folk songwriting has drawn praise from the likes of National Public Radio and David Byrne, and garnered a loyal following across North America, Europe and beyond. Currently she also organizes music fans to take action on climate, in collaboration with groups like Climate Changemakers and Music Declares Emergency.
The Hymn of Acxiom is about the multinational marketing company Acxiom, which collects data about people to sell to retailers for targeted advertising. The song's lyrics explore how this data collection affects people and whether consumerism has replaced deeper meaning and spirituality.
—adapted from Vienna Teng, Spotify
Snyder: The Parting Glass
Audrey Snyder is a professional composer and arranger with several hundred choral titles currently in print and millions of copies sold worldwide. A recipient of numerous awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), she is widely recognized as one of the top educational choral writers today. Her original choral compositions and arrangements span the entire spectrum of choral music, from Medieval and Renaissance transcriptions to current pop, from music for children's and middle school choruses to full concert choir, jazz and pop groups. She has appeared internationally as clinician and choral educator, and at the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association of Music Education, and music dealer sponsored workshops for many years.
—adapted from audreysnyder.com
Gjeilo: Luminous Night of the Soul
Ola Gjeilo was born in Norway in 1978 and moved to the United States in 2001 to begin his composition studies at the Juilliard School in New York City. He currently lives in Laguna Beach, California.
Gjeilo is an exclusive Decca Classics artist, and his Decca choral albums include Ola Gjeilo, Winter Songs, and Dreamweaver, featuring Tenebrae, Voces8 and the Choir of Royal Holloway, as well as the solo piano albums Night and Dawn.
Luminous Nightof the Soul is the sequel to Dark Night of the Soul, which was published in 2011. Both are independent pieces that can be performed separately, but they were also conceived as two movements of one work. Luminous Night is set to words by Charles Anthony Silvestri, plus a stanza from St. John of the Cross’s poem Dark Night of the Soul. It has a brighter, sunnier atmosphere than its predecessor, but with both I wanted to feature the piano heavily in a choral work, as an equal partner to the choir and unified by the string quartet sound. Luminous Night of the Soul was commissioned by Cantare Houston and conductor Kevin Riehle.
—Ola Gjeilo Engelhardt: Gaudete!
Michael Engelhardt is a choral and pop music artist whose work has been featured on ABC, NBC, PBS, and NPR broadcasts, the Carnegie Hall stage, and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association, the
National Association for Music Education, and the Jazz Education Network. He has numerous choral works published by Walton Music and Hinshaw Music in addition to his self-published catalog.
Gaudete! was originally arranged for the Millikin University Women’s Choir in celebration of the 50th annual “Vespers at Millikin: From Generation to Generation” before being adapted for SATB [soprano, alto, tenor, and bass] voices for the 2014 South Dakota All-State Choir under the direction of Henry Leck. This ancient Christmas carol from Piae Cantones (1582) is set in a very progressive style. The tune of the carol remains completely intact, with only slight rhythmic variations from the original. It is the harmonic, percussive, and electronic elements (optional) that regenerate this simple medieval tune into a post-modern, quasi-industrial groove anthem.
—Michael Engelhardt Gjeilo: Away in
a Manger
This arrangement of Away in a Manger is one of four carols in volume two of a collection called Christmas Carols, commissioned by Kammerkoret Nova.
—adapted from Ola Gjeilo
Barnwell: Wanting Memories
Ysaÿe M. Barnwell is a commissioned composer, arranger, author, actress and former member of the African American female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock. She was a professor at Howard University College of Dentistry for over a decade and for thirty years has led the workshop Building a Vocal Community—Singing In the African American Tradition, which utilizes oral tradition, an African world view and African American history, values, cultural and vocal traditions to build communities of song among singers and non-singers alike.
Wanting Memories is one of Ysaÿe Barnwell’s most frequently performed and best-known compositions. Her words speak to the power of relationships and how those relationships form and shape who we become as people. Those who we call friends, including our parents, influence us in ways that shape a new perspective through which we can view the world if we can only take the time to look.
—adapted from ecspublishing.com, Ysaÿe M. Barnwell
MacMillan: O Radiant Dawn
O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn, Splendor of eternal light, Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice, Come, come, come, come, come, come, Shine on those who dwell in darkness And the shadow of death.
Isaiah had prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom A light has shone.
O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn, O Radiant Dawn, Splendor of eternal light, Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice, Sun of Justice, Come, come, come, come, come, come, Shine on those who dwell in darkness And the shadow of death.
—Antiphon for 21 December O Oriens
Smith/Holmes: Noel
Noel, noel, noel, noel Jesu me kwisa ku zinga ti beto.
Kana nge zola ku zaba mwana Nge fwiti kwisa ku fukama.
—Kituba dialect
Smith/Holmes: Noel
Noel, noel, noel, noel Jesus has come to live with us.
If you want to know the Child You have to come kneel.
—trans. Todd Smith
Johnson: Have You Seen the Newborn King?
Have you seen the newborn king, Born, born, born in a manger?
Have you seen the newborn king, Born today in Bethlehem?
Come and See the Newborn King! Both, born, born in a manger?
The child of whom the angels sing! Born today in Bethlehem? Wise man journeyed just to see him. Both, born, born in a manger? A shining star that night did lead them! Born today in Bethlehem?
Have you seen the newborn king, Born, born, born in a manger?
Have you seen the newborn king, Born today in Bethlehem?
Have you seen the newborn king? Have you seen the tiny little baby? Glory, glory hallelujah!
Come, see the time little baby. Born today in Bethlehem!
Carnahan: Mary Had a Baby
—Victor C. Johnson
Mary, oh Mary. Mary had a baby, oh, Lord, Mary had a baby, oh my Lord. People keep a-comin’ but the train done gone.
What did she name him? Oh, Lord, She named him King Jesus, People keep a-comin’ but the train done gone. Where did she lay him? Oh my Lord, Laid him in a manger, People keep a-comin’ but the train done gone.
Star keeps shinin’, Shine, shine, shine, shine, Oh, Star keeps shinin’, Shine, shine, shine, shine, People keep a-comin’ but the train done gone.
Mary had a baby, oh, Lord, Mary had a baby, oh my Lord. She named him King Jesus, mashed him King Jesus, People keep a-comin’ but the train done gone. Mary had a baby, oh my Lord.
—Traditional St. Helena Island Spiritual
Teng/Dahlgren: The Hymn of Acxiom
Somebody hears you, you know that, you know that. Somebody hears you, you know that inside. Someone is learning the colors of all your moods, To say just the right thing and show that you're understood Here you're known.
Leave your life open, you don’t have, you don’t have. Leave your life open, you don't have to hide. Someone is gathering every crumb you drop, These mindless decisions and moments you long forgot Keep them all.
Let our formulas find your soul
We'll divine your artesian source in your mind, Marshal feed and force, our machines will To design you a perfect love
Or better still, a perfect lust.
O how glorious, glorious: a brand new need is born.
Now we possess you, you’ll own that, you’ll own that. Now we possess you, you'll own that in time. Now we will build you an endlessly upward world, Reach in your pocket, embrace you for all you're worth. Is that wrong?
Isn't this what you want?
Amen.
—Vienna Teng
Snyder: The Parting Glass
Of all the money that e'er I had I have spent it in good company
Oh and all the harm I've ever done Alas, it was to none but me.
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be to you all.
Of all the comrades that e'er I had They're sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had They would wish me one more day to stay.
But since it fell into my lot
That I should rise and you should not I'll gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be to you all.
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be to you all.
—Irish Folk Song
Gjeilo: Luminous Night of the Soul
Long before music was sung by a choir, Long before silver was shaped in the fire, Long before poets inspired the heart, You were the Spirit of all that is art.
You give the potter the feel of the clay; You give the actor the right part to play; You give the author a story to tell;
You are the prayer in the sound of a bell.
Praise to all lovers who feel your desire!
Praise to all music which soars to inspire!
Praise to the wonders of Thy artistry
Our Divine Spirit, all glory to Thee.
O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united the Lover with his beloved, transforming the beloved in her Lover.
—Charles Anthony Silvestri, St. John of the Cross
Engelhardt: Gaudete!
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria Virgine: gaudete!
Tempus adest gratiae, Hoc quod optabamus; Carmina laeticiae
Devote reddamus.
Deus homo factus est, Natura mirante; Mundus renovates est A Christo regnante.
Ergo nostra concio Psallat jam in lustro; Benedicat Domino: Salus Regi nostro.
—Piae Cantiones
Engelhardt: Rejoice!
Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born Of the Virgin Mary: rejoice!
It is now the time of grace, That we have desired; Let us devoutly return Songs of rejoicing.
God has become man, And nature marvels; The world has been renewed By Christ who is King.
Therefore let our song, Now resound in purification; Let it give praises to the Lord: Salvation to our King.
—trans. Michael Engelhardt
Gjeilo: Away in a Manger
Away in a manger
No crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky
Looked down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay.
The cattle are lowing
The Baby awakes
But little Lord Jesus No crying He makes.
I love You, Lord Jesus Look down from the sky And stay by my side Until morning is nigh.
Be near me, Lord Jesus
I ask You to stay Close by me forever And love me I pray.
Bless all the dear children
In Your tender care And fit us for heaven
To live with You there. —Traditional
Barnwell: Wanting Memories
I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty of the world through my own eyes.
You used to rock me in the cradle of your arms, You said you’d hold me till the pains of life were gone. You said you’d comfort me in times like these and now I need you, And now I need you, and you are gone.
And I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty of the world through my own eyes. I thought you were gone, but now I know you’re with me, You are the voice that whispers all I need to hear.
I know a “please,” a “thank you,” and a smile will take me far, I know that I am you and you are me and we are one, I know that who I am is numbered in each grain of sand, I know that I’ve been blessed again and over again.
—Ysaÿe M. Barnwell
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Monica Adams has worked as a collaborative pianist at University of the Pacific since 1995. She currently serves as assistant professor of practice and directs the University Chorus.
Adams holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance, voice, from University of the Pacific, where she studied piano with Frank Wiens, voice with William Whitesides, George Buckbee, and John DeHaan, and conducting with William Dehning and Robert Halseth.
Adams has performed as a pianist with the Stockton Symphony Orchestra and sang the roles of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Old Maid in Old Maidand the Thief, and has served as Musical Director and conductor at Pacific for Pajama Game (Fallon House), Paint Your Wagon (Fallon House), You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Apple Tree, Falsettoland, Assassins, and 1940's Radio Hour. Adams has also musicdirected Oliver, La Cage aux Folles, Babes in Arms, Footloose (conducted, also), Beauty and the Beast (Santa Rosa Repertory Theater), The Full Monty (Santa Rosa Repertory Theater) and Godspell for various theatres. In 2004 Adams participated in the summer SongFest program, which included coachings with Martin Katz, Graham Johnson, D'Anna Fortunato, John Hall, Judith Kellock and John Harbison, and performing in multiple recitals.
Valérie Sainte-Agathe is a guest conductor at University of the Pacific for 2024-25. She has conducted the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) since 2013, including performances with renowned ensembles throughout the United States and beyond. Through transformative choral music training, education, and performance, SainteAgathe empowers young women and champions the music of today throughout the choral world.
At the SFGC, Sainte-Agathe welcomes collaborators including the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer, Opera Parallele, and folk sensation Aoife O’Donovan. She joined Philharmonia Baroque as their chorale director in 2022 and was featured in the 2022 book Music Mavens: 15 Women of Note published by the Chicago Review Press.
Further highlights of her illustrious career include her Carnegie Hall and Barbican Center debuts with the Philip Glass Ensemble, conducting the SFGC for the New York Philharmonic Biennial Festival at Lincoln Center, and collaborating with The Knights for the SHIFT Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She has made two recordings as the SFGC’s Music Director, Final Answer (2018) and My Outstretched Hand (2019).
Sainte-Agathe served as Music Director for the Young Singers program of the Montpellier National Symphony and Opera in France from 1998 to 2011 and participated in eight recordings with the Montpellier National Orchestra and the Radio France Festival.
Patricia Grimm currently serves as organist at Fremont Presbyterian Church in Sacramento. At Pacific she teaches sight-singing and collaborative piano, and also serves as a collaborative pianist. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in sacred music from Duquesne University, a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from Kent State University, and a Master of Music degree in collaborative piano from the Hartt School of Music.
Michelle Han is a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Music in piano performance under Natsuki Fukasawa at University of the Pacific. She has previously served as the accompanist of the University of Utah’s A Cappella Singers & Women's Choir, and as the pianist and choral conductor at the Korean Presbyterian Church of Utah. At Pacific, she performs in a piano trio and accompanies the University Choir. Han currently leads youth chamber groups at the Hana-El Presbyterian Church in Dublin and is a student member of the Music Teachers Association of California (MTAC), teaching young pianists in Pleasanton.
PACIFIC CHOIRS
University Chorus
University Chorus is a large, mixed chorus that performs both a cappella and choral-orchestral works in a wide variety of genres, often collaborating with other ensembles at Pacific.
Sopranos
Isabella Andino
Maya Chung
Rachel Cross
Michelle Kan
Vanessa Lopez
Michelle Miracle
Raquel Reginato
Olivhea Ross
Leah Trout
Vanessa Vasquez-Bartolo
Altos
Evelyn Aburto
Jade Anderson
Liza Bagdasarian
Katie Carlos
Huey Chan
Natalie Gong
Jean Halstead
Judy Kim
Jingling Li
Grace Liaw
Tenors
Patrick Bartholomy
Andrew Le
Davis Robinson
Basses
Connor Hsu
Michael Shove
Dan Urban
Jason Wu
PACIFIC CHOIRS
Pacific Singers
Pacific Singers is a select, mixed-voice chamber choir who collaborate with the University Chorus for two choral concerts each semester and perform at major university events and ceremonies. They also work with Pacific Orchestras and Stockton Symphony to perform major choral and orchestral pieces.
Sopranos
Magdalena Bowen
Rose Krueger
Shannon Lyons
Amber Medlen
Ria Patel
Katie Pelletier
Charlize Price
Shannon Shepherd
Bell Souza
Altos
Evelyn Aburto
Miranda Duarte
Jordan Hendrickson
Mia Janosik
Zoie Macapanpan
Stella Mahnke
Elizabeth Neumeyer
Tenors
Leo Hearl
Leo Hogan
Michael Megenney
Ian Orejana
Basses
Daniel Campbell
Jordan Reece Guitang
Landon Horstman
Ernesto Pena
Pacific Voice and Opera Theatre Faculty
Daniel Ebbers, program director
Eric Dudley
James Haffner
Heidi Moss Erickson
Emma Wade
Jonathan Latta, ensembles program director
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