Songs My Father Taught Me: A Faculty Voice Recital ft. Greg Berg

carthage music department presents

Songs my Father Taught Me: a Faculty Voice Recital Gregory Berg, baritone with Aidan and Marie Spencer Sauze, sopranos

Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022 | 2 p.m. | Recital Hall

program Vaaren (The Last Spring)

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Den store hvide flok (Behold a Host)

Pie Jesu (from Requiem)

Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948)

Beautiful City (from Godspell)

Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948)

No one is alone (from Into the Woods)

The Kerry Dance

She moved through the fair

Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021)

James Lynam Molloy (1837-1909)

Wild Mountain Thyme

trad. Irish

Francis McPeake (1885-1971)

Passing Guests

Aidan Spencer Sauze (b. 1996)

Precious (based on Isaiah 43)

Gregory Berg

Take him, earth, for cherishing

(b. 1960)

text by Prudentius (348-413) English translation by Helen Waddell

Amazing Grace

Text by John Newton (1725-1807) Tune attributed to William Walker (1809-1875)

a note I am singing today’s recital in memory of my father, Rev. David Keesey-Berg, who passed away from pancreatic cancer on July 13, 2022 at the age of 89. His long and vibrant life included more than three decades in the parish ministry as well as many years as an active and highly regarded storyteller. I have constructed this program to reflect the music he most loved as well as some of the social justice issues for which he worked so passionately. I am pleased to share the stage today with my niece, Aidan Spencer Sauze, and her wife, Marie Spencer Sauze, who both graduated from Luther College (Decorah, Iowa) in 2018. Their singing gave my dad tremendous pleasure. He would be so happy to know that they were sharing their beautiful voices with all of you today. I am also pleased to have some of my voice students here at Carthage joining me on a couple of pieces on today’s program.

biography Gregory Berg is an Associate Professor of Music here at Carthage. He began teaching private voice here as an adjunct instructor in 1991, and became a fulltime member of the faculty in 1995. He has coordinated the opera workshop since 2007, which have included performances of his original one-act operas Black September, The New Impressario, Birds of a Feather: a Magic Flute Sequel, and Women and Children First: A Story of Titanic Survivors. Berg also serves as piano accompanist for the Carthage Choir. Outside of Carthage, Berg serves as minister of music at Holy Communion Lutheran Church and fine arts director at WGTD FM 91.1, Kenosha’s local National Public Radio affiliate. He has served as music director for thirty-five different musicals at the Racine Theater Guild, and is the emcee and soloist for the Kenosha Pops Concert Band. For more than twenty years, he has written the Listener Gallery’s column for the Journal of Singing, the official publication of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Three of his choral compositions have been published by Hal Leonard, and his most recent commissioned work, “The Gift to Sing,” was performed last year by the world renowned Nordic Choir under Andrew Last for their 75th anniversary season. His wife Kathy is a proud 1986 Carthage alum.

upcoming events Mark Space Opening Reception Sept. 15 • 3:30-6:30 p.m.

H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art Homecoming Concert Saturday, Sept. 24 • 7:30 p.m.

A. F. Siebert Chapel Antigone Sept. 30 - Oct. 1 & 6-8 • 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 2 • 3 p.m.

Wartburg Theatre • Tickets required Student Recital: Becca Robertson Tuesday, Oct. 4 • 7:30 p.m.

Campbell Student Union Auditorium Fall Choral Concert Sunday, Oct. 9 • 2 p.m.

A. F. Siebert Chapel PAS: Joanne Polk Tuesday, Oct. 11 • 7:30 p.m.

A. F. Siebert Chapel • Tickets required Student Recital: Taylor May Bulanek Thursday, Oct. 13 • 7:30 p.m.

Recital Hall

Fine Arts at Carthage acknowledges that the land on which our building stands is part of the traditional Potawatomi, Sioux, Peoria, Kickapoo, and Miami peoples past, present, and future. These homelands reside along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes. We honor with gratitude the land itself, and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations. Many Indigenous peoples thrive in this place—alive and strong, and this calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit as well.

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