Arnold Holland, Ed D
At Cal State Fullerton we have a saying: “Titans Reach Higher.” It is a maxim that calls upon our students and campus community to achieve their goals by consistently striving toward the greatest version of themselves. With more than a dozen international tours in as many years, recording sessions, and professional collaborations and performance opportunities, it’s no wonder our University Singers are often touted as models of this mantra. I am so proud to call them Titans.
The truth is, the University Singers haven’t stopped “reaching higher” for more than 50 years – a choral lineage of excellence that would not be possible without the empassioned leadership of conductors such as David Thorsen, John Alexander, and now, Dr. Robert Istad. Through vibrant co-curricular experiences and his commitment to building a community of diverse musicians, Dr. Istad has shaped the University Singers into superlative choral artists who advance the distinction of the artform.
The University Singers’ repeat appearance on the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Western Division Conference stage is only the most recent accomplishment attesting to the group’s stellar reputation. Whether they are performing at home or abroad; conducted by John Williams or Gustavo Dudamel; providing backing vocals for Andrea Bocelli; or featured at Chartres Cathedral, the University Singers never fail to mesmerize audiences with their signature captivating sound.
It is an honor for our students to be celebrated by a thriving and enduring organization such as ACDA. Since 1959, the association has promoted the performance, composition, publication, research, and teaching of choral music, ensuring it remains at the forefront of education. Thank you, ACDA, for your continued advocacy in choral music and for our University Singers’ well-deserved opportunity to perform for you today. I can’t wait to see what see what their futures hold. Go, Titans!
Sincerely,
Arnold Holland, EdD Dean, College of the Arts
A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Dr. Randall Goldberg
We in the Cal State Fullerton School of Music are extremely proud that our University Singers have been invited to perform for the Western Division conference of the American Choral Directors Association.
As many of you know, Dr. Robert Istad’s place as director, conductor, and master teacher in CSUF’s choral program is one of a linear succession that includes choral conducting luminaries David Thorsen, Howard Swan, Harold Decker, Gordon Paine, and John Alexander. In my musical travels, I constantly meet CSUF alumni who came to Fullerton to study with one of these prominent choral conductors, and who now teach, conduct, and perform throughout the nation. The legacy continues!
In addition to its outstanding choral program, Cal State Fullerton’s vocal, choral, and opera faculty have produced an enviable lineup of opera stars through the years, including Deborah Voigt, Rod Gilfrey, Jubilant Sykes, Charles Castronovo, Christopher Job, and Renée Tatum. The success of Cal State Fullerton’s vocal/choral/opera program is truly a result of teamwork, including not only Dr. Istad’s remarkable choral conducting partners Dr. Christopher Peterson and Kimberly Nason, but highly regarded instructors Dr. Joni Prado, Dr. Kerry Jennings, Courtney Taylor, Susan Montgomery, Rebecca Tomlinson, Krystle Menendez, Robert MacNeil, and James Martin Schaefer. The level of achievement afforded by the degree of interaction, cooperation, and mutual respect between these educators is directly reflected in what you hear today.
A character in author and composer Anne Michaels’ novel Fugitive Pieces exhorts us to “Find a way to make beauty necessary; find a way to make necessity beautiful.” We endeavor to do this daily at Cal State Fullerton. We are proud to see and hear our long choral history and tradition continue, and we are pleased to share it with all of you today.
Musically Yours,
Dr. Randall Goldberg Director, School of Music
University Singers
CONDUCTOR | Dr. Robert Istad
GRADUATE ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR | Zachary Lindquist
ACCOMPANIST | David Bergstedt
I am the World......................................................................................Lauren Biggs
Text by Dora Sigerson Shorter (1866-1918) Winner of the WACDA Emerging Composer Competition
(b. 2002)
SOLOIST | Amber Napoli
Calling......................................................................................................Paul Fowler
(b. 1978)
SOLOISTS | Joy Dorko, Elizabeth Provencio
Verum Corpus.....................................................................................Saunder Choi
Text by Amir Rabiyah
I. How Did You Know Me So Quickly?
II. You Are No Son of Mine
III. Ave Verum Corpus (I Became a Swan)
IV. In the Trial of Death
VI. Whole
(b. 1988)
DANCERS | Professor Lisa D. Long, choreographer, Erik Jaimes, principal, Madison Dabalos, understudy/associate choreographer
Yasmina Devos, Randy Gardner, Emmalee Idler, Emily Kelley
CSUF UNIVERSITY STRING QUARTET Professor Kimo Furumoto, director Jieming Tang, violin, Margaret Wu, violin, Taichiroh Kanauchi, viola, Evan Heidebrink, cello
Love.............................................................................................Michael Engelhardt
(b. 1974)
DESCANT | Angel Hudak Hawkins, Erika Jackson
SMALL ENSEMBLE | Kenson Gomez, Jenna Hansen, Bekka Knauer, Zachary Lindquist, Ahlitney Lucas-Krebs, Rose Taylor
Program Notes
We dedicate today’s performance to strong, vibrant LGBTQ+ Communities, most specifically to humans in Transgender Communities.
Many in these communities rise above the abuse and abandonment they experience at the hands of those they have trusted to express their true identity and find chosen family. We hope our empathetic performance may inspire others to find commonality and compassion for those often pushed to the outside of our society. Without these extraordinary communities, our theme of “many voices, one song” would be void of its very essence.
CALLING | PAUL FOWLER
American composer Paul Fowler describes his composition Calling as “wordless, exploring how we call to each other across distances and up close; and how the inherent overtones of our vowels and voices may also be calling us to awakenment.” Overtone singing is an acoustical phenomenon in which the human voice manipulates the vocal tract to sound two or more pitches at one time. As the performers carefully morph from vowel to vowel, high-pitched overtones shimmer in the harmonic lattice of the concert hall. Many humans find the singing and perceiving of overtone as a highly spiritual experience. Fowler specifies the overtone pitches in his score with very detailed instructions for the vowel shape that will produce the precise pitch. Calling begins as two soloists sing out to one another other from across the chorus. Their voices inspire others to join in, layering motive on motive and overtone upon overtone. The acoustic tension grows to a homophonic climax. Fowler’s Calling transcends its sound paradigm to reflect an extraordinary sense of human unity found in exploring ourselves.
VERUM CORPUS | SAUNDER CHOI
When we first met. We used no words. Only the language of eyes.
How did you know me so quickly?
I thought you too beautiful for me, But you cooed I see you, I want, I need you are my world and that was everything… You caressed the scars on my chest, the ones my father left
Program Notes
Soon, I told you: how he raised his sword and plunged it into me how he screamed “You’re no son of mine, “
Hail, true body
Whose pierced side
Flowed with water and blood
I became a swan, flew into the heavens. Dropped down and found you. May it be for us a taste of things to come
Once I was yours, I became what you willed. You wanted a horse. I became your steed.
I shrank. I thanked. I’d plead. And thanked.
Who knew the toll this war would take?
The violence began again. An eruption. Broken plates. Bruises.
In the trial of death, you left me.
Strangers, coming home found me
Strangers sang my spirit back to me—they fed my light
Hail true body, which having truly suffered
Hail the body which returns to its truest state
In dying, I returned. In dying, I created myself whole.
Verum Corpus is a multimovement work for chorus and string quartet by Saunder Choi, a Los Angeles based Filipino composer. From the Composer: “Verum Corpus is a multi-movement work for choir and string quartet, and sets the text of Amir Rabiyah on the story of transformation, completion, and attainment of the true body. The text is inspired by the story of Caeneus, a mythological hero from Ovid’s Metamorphosis Caeneus was born as Caenis, a woman, who was abducted and raped by Poseidon. Caenis was so distraught, she demanded to be transformed into a man so that she may never be wronged again. Poseidon granted this wish, and gave Caeneus impenetrable skin. He went on to become one of the fiercest warriors in this mythology. In a battle with centaurs, Caeneus was struck down and crushed by tree trunks. He then transformed into a golden-winged bird and flew away.
Many of the characters experience trauma in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Amir wanted this to be a poem that addressed that, drawing parallels to the experience of queer and transgender survivors of abuse and marginalization. More importantly, Amir wanted this to also be about how our chosen families love us, and how love can lead us to loving ourselves, and finding freedom.
Program Notes
While collaborating with Amir on this piece, I had asked them if they could incorporate the text of Ave Verum Corpus into the story. Given the conflict between the Christian religion and the LGBTQ+ perspective, I felt that weaving this traditional Eucharistic text into the story would be a poignant reclamation of the trans narrative and a recontextualization of the words “Hail, true body, whose pierced side flowed with water and blood” – offering a different commentary on these seemingly parallel narratives.”
LOVE | MICHAEL ENGELHARDT
Michael Engelhardt composed his effervescent work Love by setting one single word: “love.” Engelhardt’s piece reveals the many implications of the word. Love can be grounding, meditative, cathartic, hopeful, melancholic, and nostalgic. Love can fill us with joy and belonging but can also lead to feelings of separation and grief. Engelhardt expresses all these connotations in a beautiful score steeped in jazz harmonies and rhythms. The bubbling exuberance of the opening section gives way to a quiet moment of reflection before the enthusiastic finale. Engelhardt’s setting reveals the ways love can transform us to embody gratefulness and hope. We believe the message of Engelhardt’s Love serves as the perfect postlude to Saunder Choi’s devastatingly emotional Verum Corpus.
ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR
Dr. Robert Istad
GRAMMY® award winning conductor
Dr. Robert Istad, who “fashions fluent and sumptuous readings” (Voice of OC) with his “phenomenal” artistry (Los Angeles Times), is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Fullerton. He conducts the University Singers and manages a large graduate conducting program, in addition to teaching courses on conducting and performance practice. Istad was appointed Pacific Chorale’s Artistic Director in 2017. Under his leadership, the chorus continues to expand its reputation for excellence for delivering fresh, thought-provoking interpretations of beloved masterworks, rarely performed gems and newly commissioned pieces.
His artistic impact can be heard on two recent recordings featuring Pacific Chorale: the Grammy Award-winning “Mahler’s Eighth Symphony” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel on Deutsche Grammophon (2021), for which he prepared the chorus, and “All Things Common: The Music of Tarik O’Regan,” which he conducted, on Yarlung Records (2020). Istad has also prepared choruses for such renowned conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Williams, John Mauceri, Keith Lockhart, Nicholas McGegan, Vasilly Sinaisky, Sir Andrew Davis, Bramwell Tovey, Carl St.Clair, Eugene Kohn, Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop, George Fenton, and Robert Moody. He regularly conducts and collaborates with Pacific Symphony, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Sony Classical Records, Yarlung Records, Berkshire Choral International, and Long Beach Symphony Orchestra.
An esteemed educator, Istad was recognized as CSUF’s 2016 Outstanding Professor of the Year. Istad, who is on the Executive Board of Directors of Chorus America and serves as Dean of Chorus America’s Conducting Academy, is in demand as guest conductor, lecturer, and clinician.
University Singers Personnel
CONDUCTOR | Dr. Robert Istad
GRADUATE ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR | Zachary Lindquist
ACCOMPANIST | David Bergstedt
STRING QUARTET DIRECTOR | Kimo Furumoto
CHOREOGRAPHER | Lisa D. Long
SOPRANO
Alliah Anid
Martina Goldring
Jenna Hansen
Angel Hudak Hawkins
Erika Jackson*
Amber Napoli
Nya Nulty
Rose Taylor*
ALTO
Katelyn Cruz
Joy Dorko
Bekka Knauer*
Ahlitney Lucas-Krebs
Elizabeth Provencio*
Jessica Salsgiver
Savana Thomas
Melanie Whiter
TENOR
Michael Judge Ferrer
Kenson Gomez
Jacob Gonzalez
Ryan Guidotti
Zachary Lindquist*
Alexei Rehorn
Jaime Reza
Bryce Rivera
BASS
Adam Daruvala
Daniel Freeman
Ashton Hackwith
Bryson Huang
Emilio Lopez Felix
Fernando Muñoz*
Adrian Rangel-Sanchez*
Mitchell Sampang
STRING QUARTET
Jieming Tang, violin
Margaret Wu, violin
Taichiroh Kanauchi, viola
Evan Heidebrink, cello
DANCERS
Erik Jaimes, principal
Madison Dabalos, associate choreographer
Yasmina Devos
Emmalee Idler
Emily Kelley
Randy Gardner
*Denotes section leader
ABOUT THE
University Singers
As one of the nation’s premiere collegiate choral ensembles, Cal State Fullerton’s University Singers have epitomized excellence for more than 50 years. Under the baton of Dr. Robert Istad, the University Singers are internationally acclaimed for their exquisite musicianship and have performed with renowned orchestras in prestigious venues at home and abroad, touring more than a dozen countries since 2007. Continuing to build upon this remarkable legacy, Istad and the University Singers regularly collaborate with professional orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Pacific Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. They have earned praise for their professionalism and expressive musicality from conductors they have worked with including Carl St.Clair, John Mauceri, John Williams, Eugene Kohn, Sir Neville Marriner, James Conlon, and Keith Lockhart.
Whether performing under the batons of John Williams or Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl; backing the vocals of Andrea Bocelli; or featured at Carnegie Hall, Chartres Cathedral, or Cal State Fullerton’s own Meng Concert Hall, the University Singers never fail to deliver the unmistakable sound synonymous with their reputation. In 2017, they recorded an album with Sony Classical under the baton of John Williams in a recording of music he composed for Steven Spielberg. Also in 2017, Istad and the University Singers released a commercial recording with Yarlung Records entitled “Nostos: The Homecoming of Music”– eleven vocal works sung and recorded in one take, without sheet music or editing. Not content to merely excel in the classical realm, the University Singers have also performed with Juanes, M83, Beck, Beach House, and Sean Lennon and can be seen in the PBS production “The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses.”
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