Choral Chameleon: 2015 - Summer Institute Program

2015 Choral Chameleon Summer Institute Concert Vince Peterson, Founding Artistic Director St. Paul's Episcopal Church 199 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, NY 8:00 PM Mizmorei T’hilim I. Psalm 47: 2-3, 6-7 ​ Jacob Stensberg, conductor II. Psalm 48: 3-4 ​ Kyle Randall, conductor III. Psalm 150 ​ Mikael Darmanie, conductor A Burnt Ship

Tzvi Avni (b. 1927)

Corey Rubin

Ut Queant Laxis Mikael Darmanie, conductor

Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)

To Autumn

Kyle Randall

All The Heart ​ from The Google Variations​

Brian Rosen

Missa: Part II Agnus Dei Gloria

Julian Bennett Holmes Organist: Jeffrey Parola INTERMISSION

Magnolia

Yuhan Su Vibraphone: Yuhan Su

O Love, Be Fed With Apples While You May Kyle Randall, conductor The Next Before Pure Imagination Jacob Stensberg, conductor Next

Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) Pianist: Steven Smith ​ Susan J. Feingold

Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley, arr. Steve SeGraves

Rob Mosher

Texts, Translations, and Notes from the Composers Mizmorei T’hilim I. Psalm 47: 2-3, 6-7 2​ ​ For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth. 3​ He subdued nations under 6​ us, peoples under our feet. ​ Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.

7​ For God is the King of all the earth; sing to Him a psalm of praise.

II. Psalm 48: 3-4 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth; Mount Zion on the sides of the north. The city of the great king; God is known in its highest places.

III. Psalm 150 1​ ​ Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 2​ Praise him for his 3​ acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. ​ Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, 4​ praise him with the harp and lyre, ​ praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings 5​ ​ and pipe, ​ praise him with the class of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 6​ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

A Burnt Ship ​ Text by John Donne Out of a fired ship, which by no way But drowning ncould be rescued from the flame, Some men leap’d forth, and ever as they came Near the foes’ ships, did by their shot decay; So all were lost, which in the ship were found, They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship drown’d.

From the composer: In John Donne’s “A Burnt Ship,” the men aboard a besieged ship face the grisly choice between burning and drowning—the irony being that those who “leap forth” (opting to drown) are set afire by their enemies, while those who remain (opting to burn) drown as the ship sinks. Thus, the poem’s two deaths, seemingly opposites, are closely intertwined. Musically, each is represented by a harmonic “leitmotif”—drowning with the whole-tone scale, burning with the hexatonic scale—offering two distinct-sounding but theoretically-related soundscapes.

Ut Queant Laxis

So that these your servants can, with all their voice, to sing your wonderful feats, clean the blemish of our spotted lips. O Saint John!

An angel came from the heavens to announce your father the greatness of your birth, dictating your name and destination.

He (Zacarias) doubted of these divine promises and was deprived fo the use of the speech; but when you were born it recovered the voice that had lost.

Still locked in your mother’s breast, you felt the King’s presence housed in the vestal womb. And prophet, before being born, you revealed this mystery to your parents.

Glory be to the father and to the engendered Son; glory similar to the Holy Spirit that is knot of both, for every century. Amen

To Autumn ​ Text by William Blake O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit Beneath my shady roof; there thou mayst rest, And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe, And all the daughters of the year shall dance!

Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

The narrow bud opens her beauties to The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins; Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve, Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing, And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her hand.

“The spirits of the air live on the smells Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.”

Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat; Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.

From the composer: ​ This setting of William Blake's ode to Autumn comes out of a lifelong love and affinity for the season. Being born in November--and in New Hampshire, no less--I've felt for as long as I can remember a deep calling from the Fall, as if the season were a fundamental part of my being. Every year I can feel it stirring when the leaves begin to change.

It has always fascinated me that so many people think of the Autumn as a time of sadness and death. To me, the world is never so alive as it is during the Fall. It's the culmination of the year: a time of joy, plenty, maturity, harvest, and a celebration of life before its renewal in the following year. The fact that the season is so fleeting and leads so quickly into bleaker times lends it an incredible mixture of emotions: the leaves are beautiful but are falling; the air is fresh because it's growing colder. All of this and more makes Autumn into Autumn, and there's nothing else quite like it.

This is some of what I've tried to bring to this setting, and I hope that some of my affection for the season comes across in it.

All The Heart - Original Text by W.B. Yeats ​ Never Give All The Heart Original Text: Never give all the heart, for love Will hardly seem worth thinking of To passionate women if it seem Certain, and they never dream That it fades out from kiss to kiss; For everything that’s lovely is But a brief, dreamy, kind delight.

O never give the heart outright, For they, for all smooth lips can say, Have given their hearts up to the play.

And who could play it well enough If deaf and dumb and blind with love?

He that made this knows all the cost, For he gave all his heart and lost.

Transformed Text: It’s like getting.

It’s how to get started.

Soft and small enough to fit all kinds of love, To love we deserve to have

It is not enough to limit the human mind.

Therefore, the soft lips of our efforts will be historic heart and soul. but if you prefer to dream…

“Do you think that modern women are victims of impossible dreams?”

He said this, knowing the cost of the heart by hand.

“When a woman does not seem to think it worth the taking the problem is not the dream of the heart.

They believe that a kiss is missing…

Addictive, perfect for all kinds of simple pleasures.

This seems obvious.

If you are deaf and dumb enough, love can be blind because you never give up.

This package is not a vision of happiness.

It is about men and women who seem to think that they do not want to disappear.”

This is the heart of the heart of all things that can never be sure.

Between the flower and the soft lips, true love is hard to think of.

These girls are very happy and went like a dream, like sand kisses they say that they are playing their hearts.

She kissed him in a dream that never fades out She kissed him in a dream that never fades out She kissed him in a dream that never fades out From the composer: The Google Variations are a series of choral settings that take well known poems and transforms them using Google Translate technology. The original text is translated into a series of foreign languages, sometimes as many as twenty times, and then translated back into English. The resulting sentences often bear only a fleeting resemblance to the original text. After generating pages of such transformations, I curate the results, looking for phrases and sentences that still have echos of the original work, while revealing new meanings that were hidden just beneath the carefully chosen words of the poet.

Missa: Part II Agnus Dei & Gloria Lamb of God, you who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, O God, almighty Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. You are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father. Amen From the composer: ​ The second part of my Missa is premiered today. The first part, containing the Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, and Benedictus, was written and premiered last summer. The second part, performed this evening, is the remaining two movements: the Agnus Dei and Gloria. Combined, the two parts form a complete musical setting of the ordinary of the Mass, for soloists, chorus, and organ. My Agnus Dei omits the organ to achieve a placid sound that suits the text. The Gloria is more joyous, ending with an energetic “Amen.”

Magnolia You are fragrant, fresh and white.

Your love gives me the courage to fly.

From the composer​ :​ This song is named after my mother. Thanks to all that she does, I'm able to own the happiness of writing and playing this music for you all.

O Love, Be Fed with Apples While You May​ Text by Robert Graves O Love, be fed with apples while you may, And feel the sun and go in royal array, A smiling innocent on the heavenly causeway, Though in what listening horror for the cry That soars in outer blackness dismally, The dumb blind beast, the paranoiac fury: Be warm, enjoy the season, life your head, Exquisite in the pulse of tainted blood, That shivering glory not to be despised.

Take your delight in momentariness, Walk between dark and dark - a shining space With the grave’s narrowness, though not its peace.

The Next Before​ Movement 1 Text from “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot Movements 2-5 Text by Susan J. Feingold I. II. III. IV.

V.

This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang! But a wimper.

The light filled universe, Festive as a Christmas pud’ within which nestle dark raisins, Black Holes! Don’t clink your spoon on one of those.

Left over microwaves prove the explosive start of ev’rything we see. What came before?

Ask God! Not me.

Stars receding out of sight, Past eternity. All’s dark, Thrusted there by dark energy. Nothing dots the darken’d sky, No, nothing! Nowhere a Christmas pud’! No black holes, dark raisins, no fire, no ice. Nothing. None. No fire dotting the darkened sky.

God, Were You the Prime Mover? Nothing more? Or have you sent the Next Before?

From the composer: I have been following advances in Cosmology since I was about 10 years old. Current theories start from the Big Bang, and, after eons, End in Nothingness. So I asked myself What Came Before (the Big Bang) and kind of hoped that the “end” was a “Next Before.”

My lyrics start with T.S. Eliot’s famous end of the world lines: not with a bang but a wimper :( And then proceed from the Light-filled Universe to Ending Darkness. And the Next Before!

Pure Imagination Come with me, and you’ll be in a world of Pure Imagination. Take a look and you’ll see into your imagination. We’ll begin with a spin trav’ling in the world of my creation. What we’ll see will defy explanation. If you want to view paradise, simply look around a view it. Anything you want to, do it. Wanna change the world? There’s nothing to it. There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be.

Next ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA From the composer: ​ It’s the Alphabet, as represented in my most raw, unfettered and unrestricted work to date. The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Turgid saxophones blew over Mick's jazzy quaff. Quaff means alcoholic drink, which you’re welcome to imbibe upon now that the concert is over. - ​ robmosher.com​ . Zed.

THE SINGERS Sopranos Liz Hanna Catherine Torrey

Altos Kelly Baxter Golding Jonathan May

Tenor Alex Canovas Evan Crawford Bill Heigen

Bass Mark Johnson Brian Rosen

THE STUDENTS & FACULTY Conductors Mikael Darmanie Kyle Randall Jacob Stensberg

Composers Corey Rubin Kyle Randall Brian Rosen

Composers Julian Bennett Holmes Yuhan Su Susan J. Feingold Rob Mosher

Faculty Vince Peterson Vance George Matt Oltman Jeffrey Parola Steve Smith Gates Thomas

ABOUT THE FACULTY Vince Peterson is an award-winning conductor, composer, keyboardist, and the Founder of ​ Choral Chameleon​ , and Chameleonic in New York City. In addition, he serves as Choirmaster and Organist of St. Paul’s Carroll Street in Brooklyn, Artistic Director of ​ Empire City Men’s Chorus​ , and Director of Primary School Choirs at ​ Lycée Français de New York​ . He is sought after as composer, conductor, keyboardist, and clinician.

His compositions have been commissioned and performed by reputable ensembles internationally, including Ensemble Companio, Cantori New York, The San Francisco Arts Education Project, Ars Musica, Grace Chorale of Brooklyn, Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, and the multi-Grammy® award-winning ensemble, Chanticleer, who have performed his work in such venues as Chicago Symphony Hall, San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, Bartok National Concert Hall in Budapest, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. He recently led the men of Empire City Men’s Chorus in a performance of his arrangement of John Legend’s “All of Me” at Carnegie Hall with the legendary singer, Martha Wash. His arrangement of Tom Waits’ song “Temptation,” incorporating motives from Gershwin’s “Summertime” was called “…hard to top” by The San Francisco Chronicle and was performed live by Chanticleer on Garrison Keillor’s program, “A Prairie Home Companion.” His children’s musical “Sticks and Stones” (written with longtime friend and collaborator, Joe Barros) has been workshopped both in New York and San Francisco, with more productions to come.

An avid champion of new choral and theater music, Peterson is responsible for commissioning and/or premiering over 100 new works to date. Together with Music Theorist, Steven Smith, he founded an annual institute for composers and conductors of choral music ​ which takes place in June and offers students the opportunity to bring new works to life via the voices of Choral Chameleon singers. He also works to develop the choral arts community in New York as Programs Coordinator on the Board of Directors of The New York Choral Consortium.

He holds a BMus in Composition from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he was a pupil of the late celebrated composer, Conrad Susa; as well as a Double MM in Composition and Choral Conducting from Mannes College, The New School for Music in Manhattan, where he studied with the new music pioneer conductor, ​ Mark Shapiro​ . The New York Times called Peterson ​ "authoritative beyond his… years," and The Brooklyn Eagle praised his work as ​ "a stunning symphony of the spiritual and secular," while hailing him as a solo performer ​ "with depth and vigor" ​ who ​ "provided a universal context which resonated with his audience.”

Vance George Vance George is recognized internationally as one of America’s leading choral conductors. Under his direction he and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus have been hailed as one of the finest in the world and have received four Grammys and an Emmy.

His unique range of musical styles, knowledge of languages, mastery of vocal colors, and synthesis of the choral-orchestral tradition has been lauded by audiences, critics, and conductors. His work embodies the legacy of the great maestros and mentors he has known as protégé and colleague, especially Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Robert Page, Otto Werner-Mueller, Mary Oyer and Kurt Masur, John Nelson, Helmut Rilling, Edo de Waart, Herbert Blomstedt and Michael Tilson Thomas.

For more than 23 years he prepared and conducted the SFS Chorus and SF Symphony in performances of large choral/orchestral repertoire as well as seasonal and pops concerts.

Prior to SFS Chorus he was Associate Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for seven years. As guest conductor he has led performances of Bach’s Mass in B minor, the Passions, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven Masses, the Requiems of Brahms and Verdi in Minneapolis, Spokane, Akron, Salzburg, Indianapolis and Sydney.

The San Francisco Symphony Chorus may be heard in Orff’s Carmina burana, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, a collection of short choral works by Brahms, the Requiem under the direction of Herbert Blomstedt and in Mahler’s Das klagende Lied, Stravinsky’s Perséphone, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Michael Tilson Thomas conducting. The Emmy was for Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in a semi staged version featuring George Hearn, Patti Lupone and Neil Patrick Harris.

Under Vance George’s direction the chorus may be heard on the Delos label in Christmas by the Bay and Voices 1999/2000 and on film soundtracks for Amadeus, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Godfather III. Vance George is highly regarded as a teacher of conducting and has written on the subject for Cambridge Press. A graduate of Goshen College and Indiana University, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of

Musical Arts by Kent State University and a lifetime achievement award by Chorus America. He has served on the Chorus America Board and the National Endowment of the Arts.

Matt Oltman Matthew Oltman, Director Emeritus of the Grammy Award winning vocal ensemble, Chanticleer, first joined the ensemble in 1999 as a tenor. In 2004 was named Assistant Music Director under Joseph Jennings, a post he held until his appointment as Music Director in 2009. During his decade singing with the ensemble, he appeared on twelve albums and toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia. As Music Director of Chanticleer from 2009 to 2011, Oltman led the ensemble through three critically acclaimed seasons that included over 300 concerts in more than a dozen countries. He helped launch the Chanticleer Live in Concert recording label and was the editor of the Chanticleer Choral Series, published by Hinshaw Music. He conducted over 450 high school choral and orchestral students from across the country in Chanticleer's first National Youth Choral Festival. Chanticleer commissioned composers such as Stephen Paulus, Mason Bates, Steven Sametz, Jan Sandström, Peter Michaelides, Roxanna Panufnik and Ilyas Iliya as well as Vince Peterson who arranged the choral/indie pop sensation, Cells Planets. Oltman was a featured clinician at the first Anúna International Choral Summer School (Ireland) and has led countless clinics and master classes with choirs from across the globe.

Originally from Des Moines, Iowa, Oltman earned a B.M. in Vocal Performance from Simpson College and an M.A. in Music from the University of York in England with the aid of a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. Before joining Chanticleer, he sang with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale for four seasons and was on the faculty of Simpson College where he taught harmony, French diction, choral techniques and voice.

Jeffrey Parola Jeffrey Parola is an American composer of numerous orchestral, chamber, and choral/vocal works. His music is varied and eclectic, reflecting a wide range of musical influences. Jeffrey’s recent major professional commissions include ​ Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra​ , written for clarinetist Paul Green and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra and conductor Stewart Robertson, which premiered to critical acclaim in Florida in March 2014. ​ this view of life​ , a piece for chorus and string quartet, was written for Choral Chameleon, directed by Vince Peterson, which premiered in New York City in May 2013.

Commissioned by the Los Angeles-based Pacific Serenades, ​ Three Divertimenti for bassoon and string quartet received its premiere performances on 21 & 25 June 2014. Upcoming commissions include a piece for 2 pianos for Hocket in 2015, and a piece for the BluePrint New Music Ensemble, to be premiered in Spring 2016 with Nicole Paiement conducting.

Jeffrey is the recipient of numerous notable honors. In 2009, he was awarded the Jim Highsmith Orchestral Composition Prize for his large orchestral work, ​ The Long Valley​ , which led to a public performance of the piece by the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, led by Maestro Andrew Mogrelia. Jeffrey received an honorable mention for the 2009 European American Musical Alliance (EAMA) Prize for his work, Sempiterna​ , a 25-minute pseudo-requiem for a cappella chorus, and three years later, Jeffrey was awarded the 2012 EAMA Prize for ​ The Long Valley​ . In 2013, Jeffrey was selected by a committee of philanthropists and musicians to receive the Rappaport Prize for Music Composition, which culminated in a commission to write his ​ Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra for the Atlantic Classical Orchestra. In 2014, his 5 Short Pieces for solo piano was awarded the Peter David Faith Endowed Memorial Award in

Composition at the University of Southern California. Also in 2014, Jeffrey was chosen to be the recipient of the 2016 Hoefer Prize, the highest award granted to distinguished alumni composers from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The Prize involves the commissioning of a new work and a week-long residency at the Conservatory in the spring of 2016, which includes lectures and student mentorship.

A committed educator, Jeffrey serves as an instructor on the faculty at the University of Southern California, where he teaches Aural Skills and Theory. He is a recurring composition faculty member for the Choral Chameleon ​ Summer Institute​ , which is a New York City-based summer program for composers and conductors, designed to immerse composers and conductors of choral music in real-world, practical learning experiences.

Also an active performer, Jeffrey is an organist, conductor, and vocalist. He is presently the organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Hollywood, and he has sung professionally with several highly acclaimed ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Schola Cantorum San Francisco.

For more information about Jeffrey Parola, please visit ​ www.parola.org

Steven Smith Steven Smith is a theorist, pianist, composer, and conductor. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Music Theory at the CUNY Graduate Center, in which his research focuses on Muzio Clementi, Schenkerian analysis, and deviations in sonata form. This is Steven's fourth year on the Choral Chameleon Institute Faculty. He holds a B.Mus. from the University of Toronto, an M.Mus. from Mannes College of Music, and currently serves on the faculty of Mannes College of Music.

A Note From Board President, Nicole Belmont

I’m writing to you from a national conference for choral organizations - Chorus America - where this week I have had a chance to reflect on what the Choral Chameleon organization does that is unique in the great big world of choral music.

After nearly a year on the Board, it continues to be clear to me that where you are sitting today at this concert is the very embodiment of our mission, vision and values.

This Institute is a place where risks are taken. With the caliber of faculty and Choral Chameleon lab singers we assemble to work in such a direct ratio, it is not a light undertaking to be a student here and to be vulnerable enough to be molded and challenged with such intensity, no matter whether you’ve been doing this for years or are just getting started.

When risks are taken, these are supported and enabled by the highest levels of musicianship and with an open-minded and curious audience.

All of this takes place within an environment of respect for musicians and audience as whole people, who bring the entirety of their life experience with them into the room.

Thank you for being here and for supporting these amazing students, including the donors who enabled us to offer scholarships to those who otherwise would not have been able to attend.

If this is your first encounter with our organization, welcome! I urge you to get to know us better, follow us in social media or via our newsletter and come see how the spirit of adventure translates into our choirs’ (Choral Chameleon and Chameleonic) performances during the season.

Nicole Belmont

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