The Choral Hour

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university at albany State University of New York

2022-23

Cover photo: Urban Bush Women’s “Give Your Hands to Struggle” | Photo by Ian Douglas

Photo this page: UAlbany Performing Arts Center | Photo by Patrick Ferlo

Department of Music and Theatre

University at Albany presents:

The Choral Hour: Honor the Earth

UAlbany Chamber Singers

UAlbany Community Chorale

Michael Lister, director

Trevor Kahlbaugh, pianist

Samantha Streeter, choral assistant

Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 2pm

Main Theatre

UAlbany Performing Arts Center

Note from the Director

In a celebration of Earth Day, our Spring Choral Hour features music that focuses on the power and beauty of nature, our relationship to our planet, and its place in the greater universe. The music and texts presented offer a diversity of style and expression, from Classical Western European music, to music influenced by a multiplicity of traditions from different nations and peoples, to newer works from both established composers to new and exciting voices in the choral music arena, all representing the intimate and direct influence that humans have had with the world they inhabit.

From the Classical world, perhaps no single work for voices fully celebrates our theme more than Haydn’s great oratorio The Creation, which combined biblical tests with Milton’s Paradise Lost to describe in great metaphorical detail the creation of the earth and planets, providing full details of God’s forming light out of darkness, separating sea and land, and creating all of earth’s creatures. The chorus “The Heavens Are Telling” is sung as a joyous acclamation of the creation gift with chorus and a trio of soloists performing in grand style a song of great exuberance. John Rutter’s setting of the hymn poetry of For the Beauty of the Earth similarly reflects on the beauty of creation and gives honor to its architect. Contrastingly, Henry Purcell’s In These Delightful Pleasant Groves is a choral setting of his aria from his theatrical works, which invokes the coming of spring and celebrations that communities would partake in during May Festival and other such occasions, often in settings of nature, which in the spring represented new life and love. Similarly, the famous Barcarolle from Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman highlights the deep feeling of love and romance that night invokes.

Many of the more modern songs reflect on the connection of the earth and the human spirit, ins its desire to connect to something greater and vaster. Natural elements of nature, including the rolling sea and powerful storms are invoked to demonstrate the fullness of emotion that connecting to our world can create. This may be found in the songs Swept Away by modern composer Sarah Quartel and Cells Planets by Erika Lloyd, both of which allow the powerful representation of nature to guide their journey in life; with musical accompaniment of the choir imitating instrumental accompaniments throughout. Simi-

larly, the Venezuelan piece Mata Del Anima Sola has the chorus imitating a flamenco style guitar and percussion accompaniment while the soloist sings of the images of the night sky.

Other songs performed make direct connection to the world we live in and the community of which we are part, often in connection with love of life and others. Three standards presented by different performers highlight this very effectively: senior Jillian Sharp’s performance of Feeling Good, What a Wonderful World performed by our special guests, the barbershop ensemble Catalyst, and the Irving Berlin standard Blue Skies performed by University Chorale, each represent the power of feeling that comes from our interaction with the natural beauty of the world.

Another collection of songs reflects on the state of our world, both in our relationship with others and in our care of the planet itself. Famine Song takes its inspiration from the stories of Sudanese during the famine years of the 1980’s where they found a way to change their circumstances by weaving baskets as a means of survival. Earth Song reflects on the challenges of war and strife on the world, with even nature calling out for peace and harmony. The finale of Bernstein’s Candide, Make Our Garden Grow, reflects on the loss of idealistic dreams and the finding of hope and purpose in one’s circumstance and in finding ways to live life honestly and in communion with the earth.

In addition to Make Our Garden Grow, the choirs will come together to present two songs that also reflect universal themes from different musical cultures. First, Harry Belafonte’s Caribbean song Turn the World Around presents community as being grounded in the earth and as part of a cycle where we return to the earth, as well as declaring the oneness of all of human kind once we can “see one another clearly.” Finally, the choirs will present Honour the Earth by Australian composer Sarah Hopkins, whose music invokes native American chant styles in very simple melodies that repeat and transform, supported by vocal and instrumental drones and other nature sounds. The overall effect of this music is to connect us with the eternal and timeless nature of the earth and to remove many of the artifices of our chaotic lives to connect the vastness, eternal and ever-present earth, which supports and connects us in countless ways.

~ Michael Lister, Lecturer, Department of Music and Theater

Jillian Sharp, solo

For the Beauty of the Earth

Poem: Folliot Pierpoint

For the beauty of the earth

For the beauty of the skies

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies

Over and around us lies

'Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our joyful hymn of praise

For the beauty of each hour

Of the day and of the night

Hill and vale and tree and flow'r

Sun and Moon and stars of light

Sun and Moon and stars of light

'Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our joyful hymn of praise

For the joy of human love

Brother, sister, parent, child

Friends on earth and friends above

For all gentle thoughts and mild

For all gentle thoughts and mild

'Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our joyful hymn of praise

For each perfect gift of Thine

To our race so freely given

Graces human and divine

Flow'rs of earth and buds of heav'n

Flow'rs of earth and buds of heav'n

'Lord of all, to Thee we raise

This our joyful hymn of praise

John Rutter (b. 1945)

Feeling Good Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley

UAlbany Community Chorale

Loveliest of Trees James Mulholland

Poem: A.E. Houseman (b. 1944)

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy springs a score, It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom

Fifty springs are little room, About the woodlands I will go To see the cherry hung with snow

Down By the Riverside

Sing to Me Andrea Ramsay (b. 1977)

Poem: Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Sing to me! Something of sunlight and bloom, Sing no more sorrow and gloom, Sing no more of the world’s noise and strife, Sing of the beauty and brightness of life—

Sing to me, sing to me!

Sing of the blossoms that open in spring, How the sweet flowers blow, and the long lichens cling, Say, though the winter is round about me, There are bright summers and springs yet to be.

Sing to me, sing to me!

Traditional Spiritual arr. Stacey V. Gibbs

arr. Matthew Culloton

Genevieve Coonradt, soloist

Kierra Foster-Bagley, soloist

Molly O’Toole, soloist

Shianne Sawicz, soloist

Fly Away Home PinkZebra

Blue Skies Irving Berlin

arr. Steve Zegree

Catalyst Barbershop Quartet

What a Wonderful World Bob Thiele and George David Weiss arr. Bob Long

Good Luck Charm

Schroeder and Wally Gold arr. Aaron Dale

Briana Start-Schwartz, soloist

Jean-Paul Klem, soloist

Bruce Konopa, soloist

Bryan Fonder, violin 1

Amanda Sue, violin 2

Dara Ribis, viola

Joseph Regan, cello

Across the Vast, Eternal Sky

Bryan Fonder, violin 1

Amanda Sue, violin 2

Dara Ribis, viola

Joseph Regan, cello

Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978)

When I was young, I flew in the velvet night; Shining by day, a firebird bathed in light! Grey now my feathers, which once were red and gold; My destiny to soar up to the sunlight!

Sunlight shines on my face; This is my grace, to be Restored, born again, In flame!

Do not despair that I am gone away; I will appear again When the sunset paints Flames across the vast eternal sky!

Mata del Anima Sola Antonio Estevez (1916-1988)

Nico Baez, soloist

Mata del ánima sola, boquerón de banco largo ya podrás decir ahora aqui durmió canta claro.

Con el silbo y la picada de la brisa coleadora la tarde catira y mora entró al corralón callada.

La noche, yegua cansada, sobre los bancos tremola la crin y la negra cola y en su silencio se pasma tu corazón de fantasma.

Tree of the soul lonely, wide opening of the riverside long now you will be able to say: Here slept Cantaclaro.

With the whistle and the sting of the twisting wind, the dappled and violet dusk quietly entered the corral.

The night, tired mare, shakes her mane and black tail above the riverside; and, in its silence, your ghostly heart is filled with awe.

Running Water (b. 1969)

And Love Be Written Giselle Wyers on

Poem: Lawrence Ferlinghetti

And love be written on running water, not on the surface of calm lakes

And a hummingbird writes it

Dancing above the stream

And disappears leaving only the sound of its wings

While the moving water sings through the sluices of everyday life

Belle Nuit from Tales of Hoffman Jacques Offenbach

Camille McCalla, soloist

Samantha Streeter, soloist

Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour, Souris à nos ivresses, Nuit plus douce que le jour, Ô belle nuit d'amour!

Le temps fuit et sans retour

Emporte nos tendresses, Loin de cet heureux séjour

Le temps fuit sans retour.

Zéphyrs embrasés, Versez-nous vos caresses, Zéphyrs embrasés, Donnez-nous vos baisers!

vos baisers! vos baisers! Ah!

Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour, Souris à nos ivresses, Nuit plus douce que le jour, Ô belle nuit d'amour!

Ah! Souris à nos ivresses!

Nuit d'amour, ô nuit d'amour!

Lovely night, oh, night of love

Smile upon our joys!

Night much sweeter than the day

Oh beautiful night of love!

Time flies by, and carries away

Our tender caresses forever!

Time flies far from this happy oasis

And does not return

Burning zephyrs

Embrace us with your caresses!

Burning zephyrs

Give us your kisses!

Your kisses! Your kisses! Ah!

Lovely night, oh, night of love

Smile upon our joys!

Night much sweeter than the day

Oh, beautiful night of love!

Ah! ,Smile upon our joys!

Night of love, oh, night of love!

Earth Song Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)

Sing, Be, Live, See.

This dark stormy hour, The wind, it stirs. The scorched earth

Cries out in vain: O war and power, You blind and blur, The torn heart

Cries out in pain.

But music and singing

Have been my refuge, And music and singing

Shall be my light.

A light of song

Shining strong: Allelulia! Through darkness, pain, and strife, I'll Sing, Be, Live, See...

Peace.

Swept Away Sarah Quartel (b. 1970) Lucy Skidmore, solo

Voices of Earth David Dickau (b. 1953)

Poem Archibald Lampman (1895)

We have not heard the music of the spheres, The song of star to star, but there are sounds

More deep than human joy and human tears, That Nature uses in her common rounds; The fall of streams, the cry of winds that strain

The oak, the roaring of the sea's surge, might Of thunder breaking afar off, or rain

That falls by minutes in the summer night. These are the voices of earth's secret soul, Uttering the mystery from which she came.

To him who hears them grief beyond control, Or joy inscrutable without a name,

Wakes in his heart thoughts bedded there, impearled, Before the birth and making of the world.

Cells, Planets

So far away when all will shine and all will play.

The stars will open up and all will be tiny pieces of galaxy, reflected in you and me... Cells, planets, same thing...

Bright electric lights on all the leaves, and everything growing from a tree, water’s blood, and roots are veins.

I don’t know you but I like you, I don’t know you but I miss you, I don’t know you but I need you...

The smallest is the biggest thing and in all the world the love is the love from me to you...

Catalyst Barbershop Quartet

George Alden* Rit Carroll* Nathaniel Finke* Daniel Hoke*

UAlbany Community Chorale

Soprano

Taylor Dykeman

Kierra Foster-Bagley

Jackie Harris

Alyssa Kamara

Fatou Mbaye

Kyra McDevitt

Meylie Reyes

Shianne Sawicz

Alto

Cassie Ackerman

Kaeci Charles

Genevieve Coonradt

Molly O’Toole

Ryleigh Rapp

Kimberly Riek

Theodora Sinis

Samantha Streeter

Sanaa Woodley

Tenor

George Alden*

Nathaniel Finke*

Jared Harmon

Kamal Tomlin

TC Vereen-White Bass

Rit Carroll*

Sam Hale

Daniel Hoke*

Severin Johnson

Gabriel Kitt

Harrison Metzger

Matthew Palladino

Ricky Ye

UAlbany Chamber Singers

Samantha Streeter, choral assistant

Soprano

Helena Danzinger

Claire Efa

Kierra Foster-Bagley

Mattea Kallner

Camille McCalla

Kathleen Miller

Jessica Molle

Chizi Okieche

Alto

Michaela Adam

Caroline Joseph

Bria Knox

Jillian Sharp

Alexandria Sisti

Lucy Skidmore

Briana Start

Samantha Streeter

Tenor

Nathan Gillespie

Jared Harmon

Stephen Kapalczynski

Jean-Paul Klem

Jara Manatan

Alen Stupar Bass

Nico Baez

Andrew Calvacca

Chris Carmack

Eitan Goldmeer

Bruce Konopa

Ben Pasternack

Joey Schiano

The UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s six theatres, three lounges and other spaces are available for rental.

The UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s six theatres, three lounges and other spaces are available for rental.

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HOUSE POLICIES

Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the management and its staff.

The use of photographic or recording devices of any kind during this performance is strictly prohibited.

There is no food or drink allowed in the theatres, nor is smoking allowed in UAlbany buildings.

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To avoid disrupting the performance, kindly disable any noise making electronic devices you may have with you.

Please take time to note the location of the fire exits nearest to you. In the event of an emergency, an announcement will be made from the stage. Please proceed to the nearest exit in an orderly fashion.

The UAlbany Performing Arts Center is no longer operating a box office. All ticketing is done on-line and can be easily navigated from the web site provided through the QR code above or address below.

www.albany.edu/pac