Choral Chameleon: 2011 - Tempus Program

presents

11.20.11 5:00 pm Vince Peterson Artistic Director

John Street Church 44 John Street New York, NY

Dear Chameleon Family, I moved to New York City in August of 2005 because I wanted a faster pace in my life. Although my family and some of my life-long friends are at home in San Francisco, I felt that the pace there was not fast enough for me to accomplish the things I dreamed about. When I finally made the move, I did indeed get that faster pace I expected. However, even with the high-speed, high-energy, high life of the city that never sleeps, it seemed troubling to me that I couldn't get anything done quickly! I wondered for a long time about this. I realized that it must not be the place in which I live, itself. It must be the phenomenon of time; of how we perceive its passing; of how we feel its slowness when we need it to be fast; of how we feel its speed when we need it to move more slowly.

The comedienne Ellen DeGeneres jokes about how when we go to a yoga class or a meditation retreat or a reiki session, what we are actually doing is buying more time for ourselves because our time is really not our own. The world keeps spinning no matter what we do. We can't control it. "Time pops bubbles, kills energy, and drowns even the most beautiful". In this moment, however, I invite you to experience how time (rhythm) is measured in music. Music is the only true entity I know of that can manipulate time and make it our friend - even for a moment. When we enter into the concert experience, time can do many things. It can stop. It can speed up. It can slow down. The difference is that in music, time is harnessed and we can glimpse it's very essence. It does what we want it to do. We're suddenly friends. We no longer feel threatened, rushed or held back. We are no longer time's puppets. In music, time can bring us face to face with love, eternity, strength, and perseverance. It can even bring peace. We hope today's music does exactly that for you.

We're so glad you're here and we thank you for your endless support as time unfolds for Choral Chameleon.

With Best Wishes, Vince Peterson, Artistic Director Choral Chameleon is a member of the New York Choral Consortium.

TEMPUS Time Pieces I: Tempus

Stephen Chatman (b. 1950)

Sonnet 12

Thomas Conroy (b. 1968)

Erika Johnson, Percussion Brad Whiteley, Piano

Choral Dances from ‘Gloriana’ Fahad Siadat, Tenor

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

First Dance: Time Second Dance: Concord Third Dance: Time and Concord Time Pieces II: Come, My Celia Time After Time

Stephen Chatman Cyndi Lauper and Rob Hyman Arranged by Erika Johnson

Time Pieces III: I Saw Eternity

Stephen Chatman

Adam Waddell, Violin

The Hour Glass

Irving Fine (1914-1962)

Time Pieces IV: Clocks

Stephen Chatman

Look Back on Time with Kindly Eyes Time Pops Bubbles

Joseph Gregorio (b. 1979)

Erika Lloyd and Brad Whiteley Arranged by Vince Peterson

Erika Lloyd, Soprano

Denotes World Premiere

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Rev. Jason P. Radmacher, Pastor of John Street United Methodist Church, for allowing us to rehearse and sing in this beautiful space, Janna Taylor of Mindful Tutors, for letting us use her office for our board meetings, Jeff Eason, for his photography, Joshua Diamant and Kelly Baxter Golding, eagle-eyed proofreaders of this program, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, for their financial support during the year, Marc Bovino, for his creative art work, And special thanks to all of our volunteers!

TEXTS TIME PIECES I: TEMPUS

Stephen Chatman (b. 1950)

Tempus est mensura motus rerum mobilium.

(Time is the means of measuring moving things.)

-- Auctoritates Aristotelis From a compilation of Medieval propositions drawn from diverse Classical sources.

English translation by Stephen Chatman.

Program Notes by Stephen Chatman Time Pieces was commissioned by Capriccio Vocal Ensemble of Victoria, B.C. It consists of four settings of texts or sounds relating to the idea of time. Both the music and the diverse secular texts echo various styles, aesthetics, and emotions, chronologically spanning many centuries. These temporal “snapshots” are developed through an assortment of classic compositional techniques, such as canonic imitation, alternating meters, inversion and ostinati. The contrapuntal, spiritual, and dramatic qualities of Tempus (Auctoritates Aristotelis) contrast the light-hearted, bittersweet tone of Come, My Celia (Jonson), composed in a quasi-Renaissance syllabic style. Although three of the songs are unaccompanied, the added violin double stops in I Saw Eternity (Vaughan) create an austere sense of open space, simplicity, and extended time. The culminating “time piece,” Clocks, is inspired by the composer‟s antique grandfather clock. It is a textual and musical glossary of clock sounds, consisting of mostly soft, delicate, repetitive “tick-tock” (etc.) motives and the occasional “cuckoo” or low, loud Westminster chime sounds (“dong” and “bong”).

SONNET 12

Thomas Conroy (b.1968)

When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white; When lofty trees I see barren of leaves Which erst from heat did canopy the herd, And summer's green all girded up in sheaves Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard, Then of thy beauty do I question make, That thou among the wastes of time must go, Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake And die as fast as they see others grow; And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

Composers Notes by Thomas Conroy Sonnet 12: "When I do count the clock that tells the time . . ." is part of a set of Shakespeare Sonnets about the passage of time, aging, and the eternity of love, that were originally scored for solo voice and a small mixed chamber ensemble of strings, winds, piano, and percussion. This new setting for mixed choir, piano, and percussion, includes vocal clicks and other onomatopoetic sounds to reflect the internal workings of a clock and also gives the voices some roles that had been taken by instruments in the original version. This allows for a more intense vocal approach to the middle portion of the sonnet: "When lofty trees I see barren of leaves..." to contrast with the fleeting sensations of the passage and escaping of time in the opening and closing lines.

CHORAL DANCES FROM ‘GLORIANA’ And now we summon from this leafy bower The demigod that must appear! „Tis Time!

First Dance: Time Yes, he is Time, lusty and blithe, Time is at his apogee, Although you thought to see A bearded ancient with a scythe, No reaper he that cries “Take heed!”

Time is at his apogee!

Young and strong in his prime: Behold the sower of the seed.

Time could not sow unless he had a spouse To bless his work, and give it life Concord, his loving wife!

Second Dance: Concord Concord is here Our days to bless And this our land to endue With plenty, peace and happiness.

Concord and Time Each needeth each: The ripest fruit hangs where Not one, but only two can reach.

Now Time with Concord dances This island doth rejoice: And woods and waves and waters Make echo to our voice.

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Third Dance: Time and Concord From springs of bounty Through this county Streams abundant Of thanks shall flow.

Where life was scanty Fruits of plenty Swell resplendent From earth below!

No Greek nor Roman, Queenly woman Knew such favor From Heav‟n above As she whose presence Is our pleasance Gloriana, Gloriana Hath all our love!

Program Notes by Stephen Thomas Benjamin Britten‟s opera Gloriana was written to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The Choral Dances from Gloriana were selected from the opera by Britten to stand on their own; today we present the first three of the six dances. In the original opera, these dances are part of a masque presented for the queen by her grateful subjects. The character of Time appears first; his dance is youthful and joyous, and contains overlapping rhythmicpatterns that evoke visions of glorious clockworks. His wife Concord then dances demurely in a movement that consists entirely of consonant triads, but that nonetheless offers some harmonic surprises. The two then join in a canonic dance

TIME PIECES II: COME, MY CELIA Come, my Celia, let us prove, While we may, the sports of love; Time will not be ours forever, He, at length, our good will sever.

Spend not then his gifts in vain: Suns that set may rise again; But if once we lose this light, „Tis with us perpetual night.

Why should we defer our joys?

Fame and rumor are but toys.

Cannot we delude the eyes Of a few poor household spies?

Stephen Chatman

Or his easier ears beguile, Thus removed by our wile? „Tis no sin love‟s fruit to steal But the sweet theft to reveal; To be taken, to be seen, These have crimes accounted been.

— Ben Jonson (1572-1637) (fr0m Volpone, or The Fox, 1607)

TIME AFTER TIME

Cyndi Lauper and Rob Hyman Arranged by Erika Johnson

Lyin‟ in my bed I hear the clock tick and think of you Caught up in circles, confusion is nothing new Flash black, warm nights, almost left behind Suitcase of memories, time after...

Sometimes you picture me I‟m walking too far ahead You‟re calling to me I can‟t hear what you‟ve said You say go slow I fall behind The second hand unwinds.

If you‟re lost you can look and you will find me Time after time If you fall I will catch you, I‟ll be waiting Time after time.

After my picture fades and darkness has turned to grey Watching‟ through windows you‟re wondering if I‟m okay Secrets stolen from deep inside The drum beats out of time If you‟re lost you can look and you will find me Time after time If you fall I will catch you, I‟ll be waiting Time after time.

TIME PIECES III: I SAW ETERNITY (THE WORLD)

Stephen Chatman

I saw Eternity the other night Like a great Ring of pure and endless light, All calm, as it was bright, And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years Driv‟n by the spheres Like a vast shadow mov‟d, In which the world And all her train were hurl‟d; The doting Lover in his queintest strain Did there Complain, Neer him, his Lute, his fancy, his flights, Wits sour delights, With gloves, and knots the silly snares of pleasure; Yet his dear Treasure All scatter‟d lay, while he his eyes did pour Upon a flow‟r.

— Henry Vaughan (1621-1695)

THE HOUR GLASS

Irving Fine (1914-1962)

Do but consider this small dust, here running in the glass, By atoms moved; Could you believe that this the body ever was Of one that loved?

And in his mistress‟ flame, playing like a fly, Burned into cinders by her eye?

Yes, and in death as life unblest, To have it exprest.

Even ashes of lovers find no rest.

Program Notes by Brian Newhouse (for the Dale Warland Singers) Fine spent his career in prestigious music schools (Harvard, Brandeis) around his native Boston, devoting the bulk of his time to musical activities outside of composing: teaching, conducting, and administering. He didn‟t write a lot (no surprise with a schedule like that) but fortunately for choristers, the biggest portion of his catalog is for mixed voices.

The Hour Glass is dedicated to the New England Conservatory Chorus and is an example of Fine‟s lyrical style before he began 12-tone experiments in the 1950‟s. Even though it was written for a student choir, it is virtuosic music... The cycle ends with "The Hour-Glass," a reflection on the transience of life and love, and here Fine loosens up the structure so that poignant harmonies shift like sands in the glass.

TIME PIECES IV: CLOCKS

Stephen Chatman

LOOK BACK ON TIME WITH KINDLY EYES Look back on time with kindly eyes, He doubtless did his best; How softly sinks his trembling sun In human nature's west!

Joseph Gregorio (b. 1979)

- Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Program Notes by Joseph Gregorio Look Back on Time with Kindly Eyes is a 12-part canon. The piece begins with a lone soprano voice, whose music is echoed two measures later by another, and then again two measures after that by another. The piece unfolds across the entire ensemble this way, adding tenors, then altos, and finally basses, until all twelve parts are joined in singing. After a climax and pause in all parts at the end of Dickinson's second line of text, the ensemble begins adding voice by voice again, but this time, the entrances occur in reverse order: basses first, altos next, then tenors, and finally sopranos. In addition, the even, duple rhythms of the first half are gradually supplanted by smoother, more round triplet figures in the second half.

TIME POPS BUBBLES Look! A bird, bubble gosling that I created in the bath as a painting on the side.

Blasted gravity takes another life; first drags it down limp and unable to fly.

Then separates the head from the body, the mind from the heart, the voice from the soul, reason from control...

Time pops bubbles, kills energy and drowns even the most beautiful.

This cement mixer includes no trees: Loss of voice, walk many under tyranny.

The hands long for heart's creativity, but the body's numb, sold to bureaucracy.

Erika Lloyd and Brad Whiteley Arranged by Vince Peterson

Separate the head from the body, the mind from the heart, the voice from the soul, reason from control...

Time pops bubbles, kills energy and drowns even the most beautiful.

Program Notes by Erika Lloyd Little Grey Girlfriend started as a bicoastal project between Erika and Brad in 2005, when Brad was working as a cruise ship pianist traveling back and forth from California to Hawaii, and Erika had just moved to Brooklyn. “Time Pops Bubbles” was one of their first collaborations: Brad wrote an electronic instrumental arrangement, e-mailed it to Erika, who wrote and recorded a vocal line over it, also writing later arrangements with additional vocals, cello, and guitar. Even after releasing their full length studio album, Cells Planets (2008), and their subsequent EP, Green-Wood (2010), the original version of “Time Pops Bubbles” (a self produced and released track from 2007) remains their top selling song by far. The poignant lyrics express the heartbreak of a creative mind trying to function in a profit-based capitalist tyranny, where self worth is determined by digits on a computer screen, and so much time is lost to mind numbing labor and trade in order to merely survive.

Announcing Our Second Annual Choral Chameleon Summer Institute!

June 11th—20th, 2012 Hunter College, Manhattan 8-day intensive workshop in New York City for emerging composers and conductors.

World-class clinicians including Vance George, Music Director Emeritus of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus; and Matthew Oltman, Music Director Emeritus of Chanticleer.

An unparalleled experience in working with professional singers on repertoire and compositions.

Culminating public concert of composition premieres and podium time for program conductors.

An educational experience that only Choral Chameleon can offer.

Full tuition: $750. Download an application from choralchameleon.com.

Make a difference in the future of choral music by sponsoring a student (full or partial tuition). All donations are tax deductible.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Vince Peterson

SOPRANOS

ALTOS

TENORS

Erika Lloyd Mi Na Shin Julie Waters

Evan Crawford Matthew Finkel Margaret Gianquinto Michael Gullo Jacqueline C. Perez Fahad Siadat Gates Thomas

BASSES Joseph C. Bellino Mark Johnson Brian Mummert

The mission of Choral Chameleon is to engage its listeners in a diverse and innovative musical experience through its integrative concert programming and education outreach.

JOSEPH C. BELLINO, baritone, is a native of Long Island, New York and graduated with a Bachelors degree in Voice Performance from S.U.N.Y Fredonia. He has also studied abroad at Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca in Lucca, Italia and has performed in a choir called the Fredonia Chamber Singers in five countries. Some of his musical theatre credits include: Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd, Rapunzel’s Prince in Into the Woods and J. Pierrepont Finch in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. He was recently employed by Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. to build up the presence Ghirardelli Chocolate throughout all of New York City and is the assistant music director/pianist of Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Bellport, Long Island. Joseph is thrilled to be a part of this incredibly talented group of musicians otherwise known as Choral Chameleon.

EVAN CRAWFORD, alto, is thrilled to be singing with the talented members of Choral Chameleon. An enthusiast of opera and musical theater as well as choral music, he has played supporting roles in Susan Stoderl’s The Veil of Forgetfulness, Christian McLeer’s House, and Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe, as well as singing in concert with the Bel Canto Institute in Florence. As a chorister, Evan has performed in the world premiere of Christian McLeer's Requiem with the Remarkable Theater Brigade, and in Bach’s B-Minor Mass with the Musica Bella Orchestra. In 2008, he toured with the Beijing Olympics Festival Chorus, performing at cultural festivals in Beijing and Shanghai.

In addition, he has performed as a soloist in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Handel’s Messiah and has sung in numerous opera choruses, including Carmen (Bizet) and The Cunning Little Vixen (Janacek). Evan is a recent M.M. graduate of the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Monica Harte. He currently maintains a private voice studio in Brooklyn.

MATTHEW FINKEL, tenor, is originally from metropolitan Detroit. Matthew is a student at Brooklyn Law School and is working on the final year of his JD. In 2009, Matthew received his BA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. During that time he was a member of multiple performance groups, including the University Choir and the Men’s Glee Club. While with the Glee Club, Matthew participated in domestic and international tours and served as the coordinator for an annual high school choir festival. He was also a member of MUSKET, a student-directed musical theatre troupe. Matthew performed in that organization’s production of the musical Parade.

Matthew has been a part of various other ensembles, including the Michigan Youth Ensembles Concert Choir and also spent a memorable summer at Interlochen Arts Camp. He studied vocal performance with Eugene Branstrom. Matthew enjoys all genres of choral music and is elated to be performing with Vince Peterson and the talented members of Choral Chameleon.

MARGARET GIANQUINTO, alto, is thrilled to be joining the talented members of Choral Chameleon for her first official season! A Brooklyn based singer, music educator and pianist, she enjoys singing and playing an eclectic mix of music. She has sung in various professional church choirs around the New York Metropolitan area. For several seasons she sang with New York's Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Kristina Boerger and has participated in ensemble singing workshops with The Tallis Scholars (in the UK) and The Western Wind. On the side, she indulges her love of the old standards by participating in Brooklyn's own Beauty Shop Quartet. In addition to singing in and around NYC, she is an active music educator in Greenwich, CT where she maintains a private piano studio. Her love of acoustic music is showcased in a recently released album with her older sister, Mary Pierce entitled Miles Away on which she arranges and plays guitar and piano, & sings harmonies.

MICHAEL GULLO, tenor, is a rising star in contemporary and jazz vocal music. At an early age Michael felt a powerful attraction to jazz music and continued studying at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School, one of the top jazz schools in the country. His musicianship and fresh interpretations of jazz standards like “I’m Beginning to See the Light” and “Body and Soul” won him the “Best Male Vocalist” award at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival two years in a row; in 2008, he was one of four male vocalists in the country to be selected to perform in the exclusive Gibson/ Baldwin Grammy Vocal Jazz Ensemble, where he was a featured Vocalist and Vocal Percussionist. As a scholarship student at the University of Miami’s prestigious Frost School of Music, Michael had the opportunity in 2010 to work with legendary producer, Phil Ramone (Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, John Legend) when cast as a young Sinatra in his new musical “Lanza.” He graduated May 2011, cum laude with a degree in Jazz Voice and Studio Music.

MARK JOHNSON, bass, has sung in a cappella ensembles of every size and many musical styles. He has worked with Toby Twining, as music director, producer, and singer for Chrysalid Requiem (1999– 2002) and Eurydice (2008–11); and with the Western Wind, as arranger, recording producer, and ensemble coach at their workshops. This led to work with Hiroko Juni, with Studio Arsis and Tokyo Voices in Japan in the 1990s. Mark sings at Marble Collegiate Church under the direction of Ken Dake, where he does a good deal of piano tuning and music copying & editing. He appears on Bobby McFerrin’s latest album, VOCAbuLarieS, arranged & directed by Roger Treece.

ERIKA LLOYD, soprano, is a Brooklyn-based singer and painter who is most widely known as the lead songstress for indie rock band, Little Grey Girlfriend. She also performs with the Renaissance quartet The Good Pennyworths, at Union Church of Bay Ridge, and as a cantor and children’s choir director at Blessed Sacrament in the Bronx. She teaches piano and voice for The Piano School of New York and Ivy Studios. A classically trained artist with a Bachelors of Voice Performance Early Music from Indiana University, Lloyd has studied with world-renowned musicians such as Paul Elliott, Nigel North, and Elisabeth Wright. She was a featured soloist in Pro Arte and developed a love for Renaissance and Baroque repertoire as a part of the Early Music Institute at Indiana. A passionate, dedicated vocalist and artist, Erika loves to blend the elements of classical music with the edge of contemporary rock, finding it both challenging and fulfilling to experience a different level of connection with all types of audiences. Lloyd not only creates beautiful and haunting work with her voice, she’s also a commissioned artist, with projects ranging from family portraits to logo design.

BRIAN MUMMERT, Baritone, a native of Old Lyme, Connecticut, is thrilled to be singing his first season with Choral Chameleon! Brian holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Music from Yale University, where favorite roles included the title role in Dido and Aeneas at the Institute of Sacred Music, Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief with Opera Theater of Yale College, and Apollo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. While at Yale, he also served as the musical

director of the Whiffenpoofs for their ’08-’09 Centennial year and as a cantor and associate conductor of the Choir of Christ Church New Haven. Brian appeared as a soloist last season season at Marble Collegiate Church, where he is also a permanent member of the Sanctuary Choir, with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, and in the world premiere of Georgi Andreev’s oratorio, A Melancholy Beauty, at Avery Fisher Hall and the Kennedy Center, and can be heard on the recordings of The Presidential Rounds under Judith Clurman in collaboration with NPR. He currently studies with Lielle Berman.

JACQUELINE C. PEREZ, alto, began singing in grade school and has been singing ever since. She received a BA degree from Colgate University with a major in biology/minor in music. She graduated from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine and trained in the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program at Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center in NYC. She has dabbled in many musical genres, performing in musical theatre, cabaret and with various choral groups of all shapes and sizes. In addition to Chameleon, Jackie sings in Manhattan with The Ignatian Schola, the Choir of St. Francis Church and in various church and musical settings in the NYC area. When not singing Jackie is the Health Care Provincial Assistant for the New York Jesuits and continues to practice Internal Medicine parttime with the Mount Sinai affiliate: Lutheran Family Health Community Medicine Program (formerly St. Vincent’s Hospital). She is also a Spiritual Director, Retreat Director, Speaker and Presenter. Jackie is privileged and blessed to be part of such an amazing and talented group of “Chameleons” and is deeply grateful to Vince for asking! Peace out…

FAHAD SIADAT, tenor, specializes in theatrical music for vocal ensembles. His work explores the differing sound possibilities of the voice, using both standard notation/singing as well as extended vocal techniques.

He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in Music Performance and Composition with a focus on Vocal Music, and a Bachelor's of Music in Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. Fahad has composed for a variety of ensembles, dance, and theater companies: the California EAR Unit, New Century Players, CalArts Singer's Collective, TOCCATA Orchestra, and Warrior Poet Theater Group, as well as public schools along the west coast.

He currently performs with the C4 Vocal Ensemble, Choral Chameleon, and Polyhmnia in New York, the TOCCATA Orchestra and as a guest vocalist with PARTCH. He serves as composer-in-residence for the TOCCATA Orchestra in Lake Tahoe and Warrior Poet Theater in Los Angeles. He is also an active performer of Brazilian music and dance and has performed with Capoeira Narahari and Raizes do Brasil, is a rock-climbing enthusiast, and a tri-athlete. Visit his website at www.fahadsiadat.com.

MI NA SHIN, soprano, is currently an undergraduate student majoring in vocal performance at CUNY Brooklyn College. Her current teacher is Richard Barrett. She had previously studied with Monica Harte.

Through grade, middle, and high school, she has always been involved in a choir. In addition, she has been

playing the piano and violin since grade school. She is very thankful to be a part of a truly talented and special group.

GATES THOMAS, tenor, is a composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist and recording producer who has worked with Paula Cole, Bobby McFerrin, Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Jim Hall, Will Lee, John Scofield, Sadao Watanabe, Abe Laboriel Jr., Matt Garrison, Christian Fabian, m*pact, and the New American Orchestra of Chicago. In addition to his freelance work, Gates is Associate Professor of Contemporary Writing and Production at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and Music Director at the Fourth Universalist Society in Manhattan. He studied violin and composition and earned a B.A. in American History at Northwestern University, and was subsequently a Lawrence and Alma Berk Scholar at Berklee. He has presented master classes throughout North America and at l’Ottava school of music in Rome.

JULIE WATERS, soprano, sang harmony for the first time in seventh grade girls choir and experienced something mysterious and powerful; she had found her calling and has been joyfully pursuing a life filled with choral music ever since. She attended Western Washington University in Bellingham Washington, under the direction of Leslie Guelker-Cone, where she served as choir president and obtained her bachelor’s degree in Choral Music Education. In 2008 she made the adventurous move to NYC from Washington state and joined Choral Chameleon the following January. She taught elementary general music for the non-profit organization Education Through Music and is currently finishing up a graduate Music Teacher Certification program at Brooklyn College.

* * * ERIKA JOHNSON is a percussionist from Olympia, Washington, Erika Johnson has held the position of Principal Timpani in the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra and has played with numerous professional orchestras. In addition to symphonic performance, she is a frequent performer of new music, musical theater and cabarets. As a concerto competition winner, Erika performed Deja vu by Michael Colgrass on timpani with the Indiana University Concert Orchestra. Erika holds a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance from Indiana University-Bloomington and a Master of Music in percussion from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her teachers have included Gerald Carlyss (Philadelphia Orchestra) and Jack Van Geem (San Francisco Symphony). Erika’s recent pursuits include arranging and performing music for percussion and voice.

BRAD WHITELEY A versatile pianist, organist, and music director, Brooklyn-based Brad Whiteley maintains an impressively full performance schedule both in NYC and around the country. While earning a Masters of Music and Performers Certificate from the Indiana University School of Music, Whiteley grew as an artist under jazz great David Baker and classical pianist Edward Auer in addition to a semester of training in Vienna, Austria. Brad currently studies piano and organ with Mike LeDonne, and since moving to NYC he has studied with Fred Hersch, Jason Moran, David Berkman, and Sam Yahel.

Growing as an artist both locally and internationally, Brad was accepted into the Henry Mancini Institute (Los Angeles) on a full tuition scholarship, the Banff International Jazz Workshop (Alberta, Canada), Amerika Institute (Vienna, Austria), Flaine Music Academy (Flaine, France) and the Aspen Music Festival (Aspen, CO.) His years of exploring and learning his craft from some of the world’s greatest teachers and musicians have shaped his diverse repertoire of work and talent that he brings to his bustling schedule in NYC. He has also taken part in prestigious workshops and music camps as a teacher, including Interlochen and Shell Lake.

An impressive jazz pianist and organist, Whiteley has graced the stage of many notable clubs in NYC including Smoke, Birdland, The 55 Bar, The Garage, Joe’s Pub, Merkin Concert Hall, Iridium, and the Mercury Lounge. He performs and records with a diverse range of artists and bands including the Cameron Mizell Funk Trio, Big Bang Big Band, Tenor Madness, the Nick Moran Trio, and his own personal project, indie rock band Little Grey Girlfriend. He appears Mondays at Swing 46 with the Tom Abbott Big Bang Big Band and Tuesdays at Smoke Jazz Club with the Matt Carrillo Quartet.

Brad’s work as a music director ranges from The Texas Tenors, to Broadway singers Jeri Sager and Darius DeHaas, to cabaret stars Sylvia McNair and Janice Martin. His fluency in Logic Audio, Mainstage, and Finale makes him an asset to the arranging, recording, and production process. Brad also serves as music director and organist at Blessed Sacrament Church in the Bronx, and teaches piano for The Piano School of NYC and Ivy Music Studios. His commitment to music education and growing as a musician himself, is essential to his virtuosic performing and the longevity of his already impressive career.

VINCE PETERSON is regarded as one of the most versatile musicians of his generation and has dedicated his career to the integration of musical genres, development of new concert programming ideas and the education of the next generation of musicians. His work has been profiled in The New York Times, The Brooklyn Eagle, The San Francisco Classical Voice and several other publications. In 2008, Peterson founded Choral Chameleon, which has rapidly moved into the foreground of the New York City choral music scene. From The New York Concert Review: “Most importantly, Artistic Director Vince Peterson has the choir shape the lines so they all have forward thrust and an expressive musical profile.” The Brooklyn Eagle praised Peterson for performing with “depth and vigor,” “providing a universal context that resonated with his audience...” and called his concert programming “a stunning symphony of the spiritual and secular”.

Peterson is sought after as composer, conductor and clinician. Commissions of his compositions include work for Cantori New York, The Monmouth Civic Chorus of New Jersey, The DeLaSalle Institute (Napa, CA), Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory (his alma mater), The San Francisco Arts Education Project (where he is also a member of the Artistic Advisory Board), San Francisco School of the Arts, and the multi-Grammy® award-winning ensemble, Chanticleer. His arrangement, "Cells Planets" is a top-seller for Hinshaw Music Publishers and has received over 48,000 YouTube views to date. This season, Chanticleer tours internationally with his new arrangement of “Somebody to Love”

by Freddy Mercury. Additionally, they have commissioned another piece for next season, the third in a row.

He previously served (from 2009 to 2011) as Interim Director of Choirs at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, and as Assistant Conductor to Joseph Jennings at The Golden Gate Men’s Chorus in San Francisco as well as to Mark Shapiro at Cantori New York. As choral singer and accompanist, he has traveled on tours throughout the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and The Philippines.

Not limiting his work to choral music, Peterson is also active in musical theater and cabaret in New York. His collaboration with MAC®-award winner, Cait Doyle on her hit show Hot Mess In Manhattan was called "Hilarious, with musical perfection" by music director, Paul Schaffer. Recently, performances on tour with Hot Mess garnered him a mention in Dayton Most Metro as one of the “Top Music Directors of the Year”.

He holds the BMus in Composition from The San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Double MMus in Composition and Choral Conducting from Mannes College, The New School for Music. He has also studied music abroad in Paris at La Schola Cantorum and L’École Normale de Musique. He has been fortunate to work with Conrad Susa, David Conte, David Loeb, Joseph Jennings, Mark Shapiro, Phillip Lasser, Robert Cuckson, Carl Schachter, and Vance George, among others. He was the sole recipient of the 2007 Music Teacher’s League Award upon his graduation from Mannes. In addition to Artistic Directorship of Choral Chameleon, he currently serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at Brooklyn College, as well as Director of Music at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. He also maintains a private teaching practice in Ear Training, Score Reading, Composition, Keyboard Harmony, and Conducting.

2011-2012 FRIENDS OF THE CHAMELEON Choral Chameleon salutes those who help us make the music:

CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE Alan Ahles Guilford W. Forbes Paul Golding and Kelly Baxter Golding Bebe Landis Bruce and Mary MacIntyre Jacqueline C. Perez Vince Peterson Cathy Solomon Choral Chameleon is grateful for the generous support of: Manhattan Community Arts Fund The Fund for Creative Communities Thank you for your attendance today and for your support of Choral Chameleon! We have exciting and ambitious goals including innovative programming, collaborations with other musicians, and an educational outreach project to inspire the next generation of choral artists. But we cannot do it without you! Your tax-deductible donation will help bring us one step closer to our goals.

Choral Chameleon Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. In addition to checks sent by mail, donations to Choral Chameleon may be made using PayPal through the Donate button on our website, www.choralchameleon.com.

Choral Chameleon welcomes new volunteers: in particular, the board is looking for new members with experience in publicity, marketing, fundraising, and studio production. Consider deepening your relationship with us! Volunteering your time and skills on the board of directors is a great way to make connections, broaden your horizons and help keep Chameleon going and growing.

COMING IN 2011-2012 Join us for the rest of this season!

Watch Choral Chameleon’s website for updates and more details: www.choralchameleon.com Summoning Light Warm and intimate holiday wishes from Choral Chameleon to you.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 7:30pm Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College North, NYC Lyre-Book Lush Choir and harp like you’ve never heard them before!

Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 5:00pm.

John Street United Methodist Church, 44 John Street, NYC Follow Me A unique hybrid concert/walking tour of Central Park.

Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 5:00pm.

Central Park West and W77th Street

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Cathy Solomon, President Vince Peterson, Artistic Director Steven Smith, Director of Education Outreach Guilford Forbes, Treasurer Bebe Landis, Secretary Alan Ahles Jeremy Howard Beck Evan Crawford (ex officio)

555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1902 New York, NY 10018 646-553-1339 contact@choralchameleon.com www.choralchameleon.com