02.20.24 Faculty Recital, Julie Miller, Piano

Evening Concert Series Sara M. Snell Music Theater

2023 – 2024 Season Tuesday, February 20th at 7:30 PM

Julie Miller and Friends Perform Music of Keith Gates (1948-2007) “Friendship” from Three Songs to Texts by Women Authors (1993) Alyssa Bonfardeci, soprano

Dinah Craik

"I Think I Like Her More" from Tom Sawyer (1983) Marcus Smith, tenor (Tom Sawyer)

Jon Robertson

"Boys, You've Been Mighty Good to Me" from Tom Sawyer, (1983) Jacob Frenyea, bass-baritone (Muff Potter)

Jon Robertson

Three Places in the Landscape of a Soul (1993) In Prison On the Battlefield In a Garden Donald George, tenor Lola Gehman, viola Adrian Slywotzky, conductor Chorus Jeanne d’Arc (1998)

Keith Gates

Susan Ludvigson Nils Klykken, conductor Chorus

Chorus Adam Beiter Alyssa Bonfardeci Emily Buliung Katie Burnham Margaret Chalker Kathleen Crecco Jacob Frenyea Steven Groth Eddie Hayes Anna Hendrickson Ivette Herryman Rodríguez Nils Klykken Sarah Maurer-Groth

Peter McCoy Eve Meinsen Tatiana Merced Melissa Mitchell Kayla Outman Jimmy Quagliaroli Sarah Poirier Kennedy Royal Adrian Slywotzky Hudson Smith Marcus Smith Aidan Sperduti Haleigh Vescio Michael Vitalino

Keith R. Gates (1948-2007) lived in Lake Charles, home of McNeese State University, where he taught for many years. Gates began serious musical studies in composition as a high school student at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. After receiving his high school diploma from NCSA, and attending two years of college there, he went to the Juilliard School in New York City, where he earned his BM and MM degrees. His composition teachers included Vincent Persichetti and Hugo Weisgall. While attending the Juilliard School, Gates received the Lado Prize for string writing, and the Irving Berlin Teaching Fellowship for two consecutive years.

Keith Gates composed in many genres including symphonies, concertos, and operas. His 100+ works are for band, wind ensemble, orchestra, and choir, as well as for various chamber ensembles and soloists. His second opera, Migle and the Bugs, has been performed in Siena, Italy, and at Alice Tully Hall in New York. He received commissions and grants to write the operas Tom Sawyer, The Hollow, Evangeline, and The Christmas Coin.

Keith Gates received many other commissions from individuals as well as high school, university, and military bands. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Flute Association Newly Published Music Award, the Louisiana Artist Fellowship, the Louisiana Music Teachers Association Commission Award, the Shearman Research Grant, the Fanfare Festival Composition Award, and the Shearman Fine Arts Endowed Professorship (McNeese). He was named 1996 Artist of the Year by the Calcasieu Parish Arts and Humanities Council.

In addition to composing, Gates enjoyed acting and singing. He performed the role of Mozart in Amadeus, Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore, the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance, and Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. As a pianist, he collaborated on many student, faculty and opera workshop performances. He was also organist and choir director at Bethel Presbyterian Church, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, and Temple Sinai in Lake Charles. He is survived by his wife Christa, four children and five grandchildren.

A Pastoral Lament by John Wood For my friend, Keith Gates Sweet singing shepherd boy, why have you ceased To make your songs, and who now tends your sheep?

Have you run off to fields more bright and blest And left us here to weep?

We wished more time to hear your psalms.

They set so sweet upon our hearts.

Honey of hope and sorrow’s balms, Those were the measures of your arts.

Our singing boy, he now has fled The fields of grass and flesh to tend His flocks where pains are shed And music will not end.