Denise Rose is a choral conductor and music educator. She has a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Immaculata University. Prior to starting this program, she taught Pre-K 3 through Grade 8 General Music, directed Children’s Choirs and other student ensembles at three different parochial schools in Delaware County. She has taught private piano and voice lessons to students of all ages and levels. During the 2023-2024 Season she was a Music Director at Wilmington Drama League, directing 9-5: The Musical, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, and Beauty and the Beast Jr. She held the position as Choir Director at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Strafford, PA and is currently the Music Director and Choir Director at St. Colman Church in Ardmore. She has had the privilege of working under Dr. Adams as the Graduate Assistant Conductor of the Oriana Chorale and being one of the Graduate Student Conductors of Recital Choir. Denise has been accepted to the University of Oklahoma’s Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting program for Fall 2025. She plans to continue her career as a choral conductor and educator upon completion of the doctoral program.
PART 1: SACRED WORKS
1. NICHTS SOLL UNS SCHEIDEN VON DER LIEBE GOTTES, BUXWV 77
MOVEMENT 1:
Nichts, soll uns scheiden
Naught shall divide us von der Liebe Gottes. from the love of God!
Text from Book of Romans (Rom 8:39a)
MOVEMENT 2:
Wie sollte wohl heissen
What should the temporal das zeitliche Leiden, suffering be called?
Das Gottes Geliebte That from God, his beloved von Gott könnte scheiden? could be separated?
Wie sollte die Trübsal What should the tribulations be called? doch werden genannt, die solche kann reissen
That such a thing can be torn aus göttlicher Hand? from the divine hand? Ach, warlich, nicht, Angst, Oh, verily do not be afraid, nicht, verfolgung und Not, do not fear persecution or distress Nicht Hunger, nicht Blösse, nor hunger, nor nakedness, Gefahr oder Tod. danger or death. Nichts, soll uns scheiden, Naught shall divide us von der Liebe Gottes. from the love of God!
MOVEMENT 3:
Auch ist kein erschaffnes
Neither is there anything created, Vermögen zu nennen, wealth to mention, Das Gottes Geliebte That God’s beloved von Gott sollte trennen. should be separated. Hier gilt weder Engel, Neither angel nor noch Menschengewalt, human powers apply here, Nicht Fürstentum, Leben, nor principality, noch Todes gestalt, nor life nor death Was ist oder künftig what is or should be brought soll warden gebracht, into the future Nicht Hohes, nicht Tiefes, Not high not deep noch einige Macht. nor some power. Nichts, soll uns scheiden, Naught shall divide us von der Liebe Gottes from the love of God!
MOVEMENT 4:
Denn Gott hat die Liebe
For God has love so hoch ja getrieben, to such a high level,
Dass er sich mit eigenem
that he has dedicated himself blute verschrieben with his own blood
In seinem geliebten, In his beloved, und einzigen Sohn, and only Son, Der mit ihm beherrschet who rules with him den himmlischen Thron. on the heavenly throne. Drum is es vergeblich, Therefore, it is vain, was immer geschicht: whatever happens, Die göttliche Liebe, The divine love, verändert sich nicht. does not change.
Text from anonymous
2. AVE VERUM CORPUS, K. 618 Ave, verum corpus, Hail, true body, natum de Maria Virgine, born of the Virgin Mary, Vere passum, immolatum Who truly suffered, sacrificed in Cruce homine. on the Cross for man. Cujus latus perforatum Whose pierced side overflowed unda fluxit et sanguine, With water and blood, Esto nobis praegustatum Be for us a foretaste in mortis examine. In the test of death.
Text attributed to Pope Innocent
1. IF THE RIVER LEAVES WITHOUT ME
At the edge of my own life, stepping out of the river, And the river leaves without me, without me.
And the river leaves without me, If the river leaves without me, I’ll flow on.
There are so many ways to get there, You can swim, You can walk, You can fly or run.
You choose the path you follow, The river is not the only one.
At the edge of my own life, Stepping out of the river, And the river leaves without me, without me.
PART 2: TREBLE CHOIR
Let the river leave without me, If the river leaves without me, I’ll flow on.
2. WIDE OPEN
SPACES
There’s part of my story, there’s part of my song, There’s part of my journey that’s yet to be found. With life all around us and so much to see, Adventure is calling, it’s calling to me. Out in the wide open spaces around me.
With big sky above me, I’m on my way, Scanning the horizon of a brand new day. Feet to the earth now, there’s no turning back. Into the world now, look at me, look at me go! Out in the wide open spaces around me,
Out in the wide open spaces around me. But as I journey out I look within and see The spaces inside of me
Yet to be filled, Filled with what I have seen and what I will be, Oh!
I’m filling the wide open spaces around me, With something I love, something I would like to be! Filling the wide open spaces inside of me, Filling the wide open spaces within me.
1. TO SEE THE SKY
One by one, like leaves from a tree, All my faiths have forsaken me; But the stars above my head Burn in while and delicate red, And beneath my feet the earth Brings the sturdy grass to birth. I who was content to be But a silken-singing tree, But a rustle of delight
In the wistful heart of night, I have lost the leaves that knew Touch of rain and weight of dew. Blinded by a leafy crown
I looked neither up nor down
But the little leaves that die
Text by Reena Esmail (b. 1983)
Text by Sarah Quartel (b. 1982)
PART 3: MIXED CHOIR
Have left me room to see the sky; Now for the first time I know Stars above and earth below.
2. SING ME TO HEAVEN
In my heart’s sequestered chambers
Lie truths stripped of poet’s gloss. Words alone are vain and vacant and my heart is mute. In response to aching silence
Memory summons half-heard voices, And my soul finds primal eloquence And wraps me in song.
If you would comfort me, sing me a lullaby. If you would win my heart, sing me a love song. If you would mourn me and bring me to God, Sing me a requiem, sing me to Heaven.
Touch in me all love and passion, Pain and pleasure, Touch in me grief and comfort; Love and passion, pain and pleasure. Sing me a lullaby, A love song, A requiem.
Love me, comfort me, sing me to God: Sing me a love song, Sing me to Heaven.
3. THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
When despair for the world grows in me And I wake in the night at the least sound
In fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake Rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things Who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come in the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars Waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Dieterich Buxtehude was an organist and composer of the Baroque period, born in Denmark 1637 and died in Germany in 1707. His father immigrated to Denmark and married his Danish mother, creating an environment in which Dieterich grew-up bilingual and eventually enabled him to take a job at St Mary’s in Lübeck, Germany. His early studies of both Latin and music were strongly connected with the church and influenced his career and success as Music Director, organist, and composer. In 1667 Buxtehude took over the position of organist and Werkmeister (general overseer) at St. Mary’s in Lübeck, becoming the successor of Franz Tunder. He held that position for nearly 40 years during which he established the Abendmusiken, an annual series of concerts for which Buxtehude directed, organized, and raised funds to pay the musicians hired for each performance. He composed instrumental and vocal pieces for the Abendmusiken, some of which were performed multiple times, occasionally within the same series.
Buxtehude composed pieces for organ, sinfonias, and vocal works, namely solo cantatas or similar for small vocal ensembles. He composed what has been deemed concerto-aria cantatas that have blended the accompanied vocal concerto with the aria cantata. Most of his compositions have been composed for liturgical use; his output of sacred works largely outnumbers that of secular pieces. His vocal works are scored in a variety of ways using predominantly biblical texts or strophic poetry in German and Latin. All are composed using both biblical and poetic text; all but seven are set to German texts. They are composed for one to five voices with instruments. Cantata 77 “Nicht soll uns scheiden von der Liebe Gottes” (1700) is a composition with German text, both biblical and poetic. It was scored for soprano, alto and bass, violin I, violin II, violone, and organ as the continuo instrument. The biblical text, as was often the case, influenced the structure of the cantata. The SAB voices sing the biblical text together in the first movement, later as a refrain after the soprano and alto solos of the second and third movements. The fourth movement is another verse of prose text sung by all three voices followed by a return to movement one. The biblical text is from the book of Romans 8:39a, however the author of the prose text used in this cantata remains unknown.
AVEVERUMCORPUS, K.618(1791)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most prolific composers of the Classical period, is known most for his large compositions in the genres of opera, concerto, symphony, as well as other large works for choir and orchestra such as his mass settings and his Requiem. Among Mozart’s sacred compositions are motets written for orchestra and soloists or choir, the most frequently performed being Ave Verum Corpus K. 618 This motet was composed in 1791 during a visit to Baden, a city in southern Germany, written for the Feast of Corpus Christi. The piece was given as a gift to Anton Stoll, a music director and choirmaster at a local church, for helping Mozart find lodging for his wife Costanza who was ill and visiting the city for its healing spa treatment. It was first performed, most likely by Stoll’s choir, on the Feast of Corpus Christi of 1791. The motet was composed for SATB choir, string orchestra, and organ and sets the text of a short Eucharistic chant attributed to Pope Innocent from the 13th or 14th century. The popularity of this motet is such that it is performed often by amateur and professional choirs and that composers such as Liszt, Tchaikovsky and others have adapted it or arranged it into other musical works.
I
FTHERIVERLEAVESWITHOUTME(2022)
Reena Emsail is an Indian-American composer who has paved a way for her compositions through her unique blend of Indian and Western Classical music. She holds degrees in composition from the Julliard School and the Yale School of Music where she studied with prominent composers, namely Susan Botti, Aaron Kay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Christopher Rouse, and Samuel Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India with Srimati Lakshmi Shankar, and Gaurav Mazumdar, as well as Saili Oak with whom she currently studies and collaborates.
Esmail’s compositions include works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and choral ensembles. She is currently Composer in Residence for the Los Angeles Master Chorale (2020-2025) and is the Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization whose mission it is to promote cross-cultural music of India and Western traditions. She has held the title with the Seattle Symphony (2020-2021), Tanglewood Music Center and the Spoleto Festival. Esmail has been commissioned by ensembles such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Kronos Quartet. Several of her compositions have been featured on Grammy-nominated albums such as The Singing Guitar by Conspirare in 2020, Healing Modes by Brooklyn Rider in 2020, and BUITS by Imani Winds in 2022.
In 2023 the California Choral Directors Association commissioned the piece “If the River Leaves Without Me.” It was composed for the California Junior High All-State Honor Choir to be performed at the CCDA conference that year. Esmail composed the piece in May 2024 for SSAA, soloist, and piano, and arranged it for SSATB, soloist, and piano in November 2024. The inspiration for the piece came from a commencement speech Esmail delivered in 2020 to the graduating class of The Colburn School of Music, a private performing arts school in Los Angeles, California, in the middle of the pandemic. The sentiment delivered to the students evolved into this moving piece with text and music written by Esmail herself.
Esmail wrote a note in the score explaining her inspiration behind the text and the music, stating “This piece is about that moment of deciding to embrace an unknown path, which can feel like stepping out of a powerful, flowing river, and watching everyone else float away, carefree, while you’re left standing on the shore. But the terror you might feel by letting go of someone else’s vision is nothing compared to the beauty you can discover on the path you choose.” Esmail illustrates her message with a freely flowing piano accompaniment and a tone of vulnerability set by the soloist, which is then met by the choir singing successive open intervals first together and later in canon. The exposed atmosphere stirs the listener to contemplate the choice one has of embracing oneself with confidence, or choosing to let the world define them flowing on paths that are not their own.
WIDEOPENSPACES(2021)
Sarah Quartel is a Canadian composer and educator. She studied theory and composition at the University of Ontario, after which she taught elementary music for five years while composing commissioned pieces on the side. When the frequency in which she was commissioned to compose pieces for choral ensembles increased, she began focusing solely on composing, working occasionally as a guest educator and clinician. Quartel has been commissioned by groups such as American Choral Directors Association, the National Children’s Chorus of the United States of America, and New Dublin Voices. In 2015 ACDA commissioned her to compose a piece for performance at the
National Conference that year. She composed the SATB version of “Wide Open Spaces,” performed by the Middle School/Junior High Boys Honor Choir and conducted by Bob Chilcott at the conference.
Quartel wrote both the text and music for “Wide Open Spaces.” In 2021 she arranged the piece for SSAA choir. In this arrangement the melody is first heard in unison in the soprano section, later with the addition of the altos who then continue the melody as a section. The voices break into 3-and-4 part harmony for a verse before closing with a return to unison across the voices. The combination of text, melody, harmonies, and accompaniment present the meaning clearly and confidently with encouragement to embrace one’s future and the adventures that lie ahead.
TOSEETHESKY(2015)
Jocelyn Hagen is an American composer who has composed for a variety of genres and primarily writes for solo, chamber, and choral ensembles. Her compositions include large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, and opera, each breaking boundaries within their respective genres. She advocates strongly for gender equality and inclusivity which led to her starting the initiative Compose Like a Girl. Through this initiative she is able to help conductors diversify their programs and strives to achieve the goals of equality in music programming and commissioning. Hagen co-founded and co-owns the company Graphite Publishing, an online platform selling digital scores of vocal works including her own compositions and those of others. Her music is also published independently through JH Music and other mainstream publishing companies like G. Schirmer and Boosey and Hawkes.
Hagen graduated from St. Olaf College with Bachelor degrees in Music Theory/Composition and in Vocal Music Education. She received a Master of Arts in Composition from the University of Minnesota, where she was able to study with Doug Geers and Judith Lang Zaimont. Her career began as both composer and educator starting with a commission from St. Catherine University followed by being offered a position as an adjunct professor of orchestration. She is currently the composer-inresidence at North Dakota State University and has held several other notable positions as composerin-residence: for The Singers (2004-2014); American Composer’s Forum “Composer-in-the-schools” program at St. Paul Central High School in St. Paul, Minnesota; composer-in-residence at Valley City State University (2006-2007). She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, grants, and awards. In 2011 she was awarded the Sorel Foundation’s recording grant to record amass, a mass setting scored for SATB choir, STB soloists, cello solo, cello quartet, guitar, and percussion trio. She won third place in the Choral Division of The American Prize in 2015 for “Sanctus” from amass
Hagen has been commissioned by numerous music organizations including Conspirare, the Minnesota Opera, the International Federation of Choral Music, and the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota, Georgia, Connecticut, and Texas. In 2014 the Georgia ACDA commissioned her to compose the piece To See the Sky, a setting of a text by Sara Teasdale for SATB choir and piano. The text is beautifully set with text painting heard throughout the piece in separate voices and in combination, and with poignant harmonies heard at important moments in the poem. The voices are complemented by a piano accompaniment that plays a steady rhythmic progression grounding the melodies as they rustle and blow like leaves in the wind, soar up to the stars, descend back to earth, and ascend up “to see the sky.”
SINGMETOHEAVEN(1991)
Daniel Gawthrop is an American composer of organ, orchestral, instrumental, and choral works. He studied at Michigan University and Brigham Young University. Throughout his career he has worked as a clinician/educator, adjudicator, organist, and conductor. He has held positions such as composerin-residence for the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (1990), and for Renaissance Men (2015-2019). He has received several grants, one being the Barlow Endowment for Musical Composition grant and has been commissioned to compose over 100 pieces throughout his career by a variety of organizations and people, the American Choral Directors Association being one of the most notable. One of his most popular pieces is his a cappella piece for SATB choir Sing Me to Heaven This piece was commissioned in 1991 by Carol Hunter to be premiered by VOCE, a vocal group based out of Virginia The text was written by Gawthrop’s wife, Jane Griner, and it has enjoyed being among the most frequently performed choral pieces since it was composed. The text puts into words the multifaceted nature of music and what it makes us feel individually. This setting is written simply starting with a soprano/alto duet, followed by a tenor/bass duet. The soprano carries the main melody through most of the piece while the other voices support harmonically with the same rhythm. There are moments of lush harmonies, especially heard at the ends of important phrases. The attention given to syllabic stress coupled with the harmonic writing effectively capture the meaning of the text.
THEPEACEOFWILDTHINGS, FROMAMERICANTRIPTYCH(2016)
Jake Runestad is an American composer and conductor, his music encompassing a variety of genres including opera, works for orchestra, wind ensembles, and choral ensembles. He received a Master of Music in Music Composition from Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in 2011 and was honored with an Outstanding Recent Graduate Award in 2020. He studied with well-known composers such as Libby Larson, David Lang, Christopher Rouse, and Jake Heggie. Runestad has since received awards for his compositions from major organizations: American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; the American Composers Forum; the National Association for Music Education; the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota. In 2022 he received an EMMY ® Award and has been nominated twice for a GRAMMY ® Award, in 2020 and in 2025.
Runestad is known for creating socially conscious works that both connect with and stir human emotions and experiences. His compositional style matches effectively with the texts he sets. A critic from the Minneapolis Star Tribune is quoted as saying, he has “a particular knack for marrying powerful music to texts that speak to some of the most pressing and moving issues of our time.” Some current projects include themes of suicide awareness and prevention, immigration, gender equality, and disabilities. He approaches each project with thorough research and through an inclusive, artistic, and imaginative perspective.
He is regularly commissioned to compose new works for ensembles across the country, one group being Craig Hella Johnson’s Conspirare, a choral ensemble based out of Austin, Texas. This ensemble produced the first album devoted solely to music composed by Runestad, The Hope of Loving: Choral Music of Jake Runestad, released in 2019 and nominated for a GRAMMY® Award that year. Of the fourteen pieces included on the album is a group of three pieces, each a setting of a poem by an American poet from different parts of the country and written at different times, entitled American
Triptych. These three pieces were composed with the intention of being performed together as a set or as separate pieces. The first movement “Reflections” uses text written by Henry David Thoreau, a native of Massachusetts. The second movement “The Peace of Wild Things” was written by Wendell Berry, a Kentucky-born teacher, agriculturalist, and poet/novelist. The third movement, “Come to the Woods” was composed with text written by John Muir, a native of California. Each movement was written for SATB choir and piano and each expresses the connection humans have with nature from different perspectives or situations.
“The Peace of Wild Things,” with text written by Wendell Berry, is reflective expressing the connection humans have with nature, its healing powers of peace and escape from everyday life. Runestad’s setting of the poem starts with oohs sung with the piano, calling to the one who needs to escape into the woods. The first text is heard in the bass presenting the concerns and need for escape from everyday life. The choir continues calling with oohs until all acknowledge where they need to be, “where the great heron feeds.” From that point on the choir, split into SSAATTBB for the majority of the piece, sing the text while passing around two main lines of the text set as two main musical motives: “Who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief”/”For a time I rest in the grace of the world.” Both lines present a main idea of the poem, the reason for needing rest and where one can find peace. The piano illustrates the many facets of nature Wendell described in his poem: it is inviting, flows like the water, is contemplative and peaceful, and is constant, each of which presents nature as the ideal escape.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Denise would like to thank everyone who was involved in today’s performance: members of both choirs, soloists, string quartet players, organist, and accompanist. A special thank you to Sean Skinner for lending their skills as rehearsal accompanist. She would like to thank her family for their love and support. Additionally, she would like to thank her professors whose support and guidance the past two years have enabled the success of this recital.
