CSUN University Chorus and CSUN Northridge Singers 4/30/22

MUSIC from the Movies and Musicals CSUN University Chorus and CSUN Northridge Singers Katherine Ramos Baker, conductor Jahyeong Koo, accompanist Guest CSUN Faculty Artist: Dr. Hugo Vera April 30, 2022 7:30 p.m.

Plaza del Sol, University Student Union

I: Music from the Movies O Fortuna from Carmina Burana

Carl Orff

Used in the 1981 movie Excalibur; Capital One credit cards ads; sporting events

Lacrimosa, from Requiem in D minor, K. 626

W. A. Mozart

According to IMDB, Mozart has 1522 soundtrack credits. “Lacrimosa” is included in Amadeus, The Big Lobowski, Spiderman 2, and Lego Batman Movie.

Duel of the Fates, from The Phantom Menace

John Williams/arr. Keith Christopher

Heard during the light saber fight scene in the first movie in the Star Wars saga. Also used in the trailers for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi.

II: Stephen Sondheim musicals Stephen Sondheim (March 22, 1930-November 26, 2021) was one of the most prolific and one of the most-performed American musical theatre composers. Tonight we offer selections from five of his most famous musicals.

Sondheim’s numerous accolades include eight Tony Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Tony in 2008), an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, a Pulitzer Prize, a Kennedy Center Honor, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Film adaptations of Sondheim’s work include West Side Story (1961), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Into the Woods (2014), and West Side Story (2021). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sondheim

Not While I’m around, from Sweeney Todd

arr. Mac Huff

Emily Martin, soloist The Glamourous Life, from A Little Night Music Megan Shoaf, soloist Company Tonight, from Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum and Into the Woods, from Into the Woods arr. Mac Huff Agony, from Into the Woods Jeryd Word and Matt Morton, soloists Being Alive, from Company Dr. Hugo Vera, guest faculty artist

III: Music from Musicals: first for the choir, then for everyone!

My Shot, from Hamilton

arr. Robert DeCormier

University Chorus solo group: Jonathan Engstrom, Melodie Shousha, Kayli Velazquez, Roman Hernandez, Jose Salgado Partida, Emilio Pozo, Alex Van Wagner, Taraneh Pourmoradian Seasons of Love, from Rent

arr. Audrey Snyder

Amber Buenaventura and Gil Yousem, soloists

Thank you for your support of University Chorus and Northridge Singers!

CSUN Northridge Singers Rhianne Ayer Amber Buenaventura Rolando Corona Kyler Ebbs Jonathan Engstrom Valeria Fajardo Cassiddy Feskowitz Caleb Frattali Melody Gonzalez

Gabriel Granillo James Kerrigan Rose Kreider Madison McCurdy Brianna Martinez Ayida Mkrtychyan Alicia Morgan Matt Morton

Emilio Pozo Nur Fahlevi Pratama Destiny Ramos Megan Shoaf Leilah Telon Tavita Teo Jeryd Word Gil Yousem

CSUN University Chorus Luis Abad Nicolas Aguilla Joshua Alonzo Bryan Alvarado Jacob Alvarez-Ruiz Aida Arutyunova Daniel Badillo Janice Barajas Amber Buenaventura* Lexi Cantu Emily Cartajena Joshua Cartagena Maya Cervantes Garrett Cypher Raz Davidov Lilian Diaz Kyle Dizon* Jonathan Engstrom* Faith Esajian Alyssa Exler Destiney Flores Horacio Flores* Natalia Gillat Melody Gonzalez* Ptolemy Grant Emily Gregg* Fantasia Guerra-Rivera Henry Haffner

Maggie Henry Eder Hernandez Roman Hernandez Xiaoshan Huang Jackson Humphrey Brad Ito Keeli Jordan Javan Hiayan Jiang Blake Lazo Esmeralda Lozada Shelly Lecaine-Valdivia Yan Liang Chen Yan Lu Alexa Macias Mary Majors Darryl Angelo Manasala Michael Marquez Emily Martin* Kristin McGinnis Jasmine Melgoza Ariana Munoz Hai Phuong Nguyen Nicholas Ochoa Katherine Padden Abiah Padua Janice Pang Seongho Park Sophia Paz

Taraneh Pourmoradian Emilio Pozo* Nur Fahlevi Pratama Kathryn Pratt Leslie Ramirez Rachel Rangel Liana Rodriguez Micah Sadighi Jose Salgado Partida Lakshitha Sasikumar* Melodie Shousha Devon Silverman Sierra Sneed Avery Stafford Shaina Sur John Thompson Shiv Tikarya Kieren Torvinen Sebastian Tzannes Alec Van Wagner+* Kayli Velazquez+* Ana Verhoeven Christopher Zazueta Xiaoqin Zhao +co-presidents *section leader or other leadership

About CSUN University Chorus The CSU Northridge’s University Chorus is a non-auditioned ensemble of university students, including freshmen and graduate students from many departments across the university. The music majors include: media composition, composition, guitar, percussion, piano, organ, winds, voice, breadth studies, music education, music, music therapy, and a large section from music industry studies. Singers from other disciplines have included: Anthropology, Astrophysics, Biochemistry, Biology, Biotechnology, Communication Studies, Communicative Disorders, Computer Information Technology, Computer Science, Criminology, CTVA, Deaf Studies, Early Childhood Development, Electrical Engineering, English, FCS, General Sociology, Health Administration, Journalism, Kinesiology Exercise, Kinesiology Applied, LHJ-General Science, LHP- Art, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Microbiology, National Student Exchange, Pre-CTVA, Political Science, Psychology, Teaching English as a Second Language, and Theatre.

The Chorus meets twice each week and performs: major choral works, such as Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Bach’s Magnificat, Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Mozart’s Requiem; dramatic choruses from opera, oratorio, musicals, and film; and multicultural works from the continents of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. During the pandemic lockdown, we worked through Zoom for large and small groups, and worked on virtual choir audio and video recordings mastered by SoundHouse, a professional musical education tech company. University Chorus is featured on their page: https://edtech.ccsoundhouse.com/recent-projects

About the CSUN Northridge Singers The CSUN Northridge Singers is a select ensemble, open to all university students who meet the audition requirements. Northridge Singers is known for its standards of excellence, its commissions of special works for performance, touring internationally, and garnering several prestigious performance awards. Northridge Singers usually presents four live concerts each academic year, participates in at least one collegiate choral festival, and often hosts a high school or junior college choral festival. During last-year’s lockdown, there were several changes due to the coronavirus: Zoom rehearsals, for large group and small group; the use of collaborative media tools for peer and instructor review of individual recordings; and virtual choir audio and video recordings mastered by Soundhouse, a professional musical educational tech company. Northridge Singers is featured twice on their page: https://edtech.ccsoundhouse.com/recent-projects In Spring 2021 there was a virtual choral concert shared with University Chorus, with a final work that included both choirs. We are pleased to share another concert with University Chorus this evening, as well as presenting an end-of-semester concert on May 7, 2022.

About our guest artist A native Texan, tenor Hugo Vera has performed 45 roles and more than 50 large choral orchestral works with distinguished companies throughout the United States. Vera spent seven seasons on the Metropolitan Opera roster and has appeared with dozens of additional companies in seasonal and festival productions while remaining active as a recitalist and clinician. Vera is featured on world premiere recordings and broadcasts, most recently recording the 2020 release Romances & Poems of Sergey Ivanovf Tanayev with an elite ensemble for the Centaur Records label. He has served as music faculty at Presbyterian College, the University of Kansas, the Midwest Summer Music Institute, and New York University’s Tisch and Steinhardt programs. He continues as artistic director of Italy’s Vocal Academy of Orvieto and Kansas’s Lawrence Opera Theatre.

Vera holds a D.M.A. in voice/opera/musical theatre and choral conducting from the University of Kansas, an M.M. in voice/opera from the University of Kansas, and a B.M. in voice from the University of Utah. His main areas of expertise are vocal chamber music, concert vocal works, and foundational vocal teaching.

About the conductor Katherine Ramos Baker, Professor, Department of Music, CSU Northridge, earned the Doctor of Education in Music Education degree from the University of Illinois, the Master of Music in Choral Conducting degree from CSU Fullerton and holds a Life Teaching Credential in Music from the State of California.

Dr. Baker has an array of professional experience teaching in higher education, high school, and middle school. Prior to coming to CSU Northridge, she was Director of Choral Activities at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho, where she was received the “Excellence in Teaching” award for the School of Arts and Sciences, 1996. Her choirs have performed internationally in the Benedictinus 2000 Festival in Rome and the Innsbruck International Choral Festival in Austria.

Her CSU Northridge Women’s Chorale performed in 2007 and 2011 at universities and cultural centers in Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. She has been a board member of CSU Northridge’s China Institute and its International Education Committee, working groups dealing with educational international issues and agreements among various institutions of higher education. In August 2010, Dr. Baker made presentations at the International Society for Music Education’s conference held in Beijing, and then presented lectures and workshops to teachers and graduate students in Shanghai. During her sabbatical in spring 2012, she was a guest scholar at six universities in Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Wuhan. In October 2018 she was a featured guest panelist and one of the six keynote speakers for the First International Seminar on Evaluations Systems for Primary and Secondary Music Education, Shanghai, China. She has received two awards for her contributions to international education: The China Institute Outstanding Contributions Award (2012) and the Phi Beta Delta Outstanding Faculty Award (2011).

While at CSU Northridge, her work has continued in conducting/performing, music education and music technology, and assessment. The CSU Northridge’s Women's Chorale, under her direction, premiered works by California composers at CMEA conference, performed Holst's The Planets with the San Fernando Valley Symphony and the CSUN Symphony Orchestra, recorded music for the documentary film, That All May Be One, and has performed on two tours of China (2007 and 2011). Dr. Baker also has served as an adjudicator/clinician and as an honor choir conductor for state and regional ACDA, MENC, and SCVA festivals, as well as “Music in the Parks” festivals and “Festivals at Sea.” In October 2010 she presented workshops on and a solo recital of the music of Hildegard von Bingen for the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, Idaho.

Her work in technology includes participation in federal and state technology programs, webenhanced and distance learning courses, presentations at national MENC conventions, and the publication of interactive multimedia software for Bach's Magnificat, Vivaldi's Gloria, and Mozart’s Requiem by Educational Courseware Systems.

Her experience in assessment in music includes: presentations for AssessNet consortium, for CMEA, IUPUI, and at the International Society for Music Education (in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Beijing, China). She is currently the Assessment Liaison for the Music Department and has been a member of the CSUN eLearning Community, collaborating with other faculty in the department on improving student achievement. She was the primary author of the CSUN Music Subject Matter Waiver Program document and was also a Field Reviewer of the Draft Standards for Programs in Music for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

About the accompanist Jahyeong Koo is a staff accompanist for the California State University, Northridge. Ms. Koo is a member of the LA Trio, as well as the founder of the Valley Philharmonic Orchestra. Originally a graduate of the Sun-Hwa Performing Arts School in Seoul, Korea, Ms. Koo received B.M. and M.M. Degrees from the University of Northern Iowa in piano performance, along with an enrollment as a doctoral candidate at USC with an Accompanying Assistantship. Ms. Koo has won numerous piano competitions and awards both as a solo artist and as an accompanist throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Having been invited to perform with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia and the Razgrad Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria, Ms. Koo also performed with the LA TRIO and taught Master Classes in China, as well as performing for the International Clarinet Festival in Japan and serving as resident accompanist for the International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in Beijing, China. California State University, Los Angeles, Adjunct Professor of Music from 2004-2009, Ms. Koo is a member of the MTNA and SYMF, and currently accompanies the Pasadena City College Opera Workshop, Los Angeles Children Chorus, and the Youth Choirs at All Saints Church in Pasadena.

Acknowledgements Thank you to: Dr. Hugo Vera, for adding his voice to our concert, and for his coaching of students to help make this concert a success.

Jahyeong Koo, our wonderful accompanist, for all her work throughout the semester and her flexibility and support of the University Chorus, the Northridge Singers, and the vocal area.

Alec Van Wagner, my student assistant, for his ability to remain calm while trying to read my mind.

The University Chorus’ Officers and Section Leaders and Northridge Singers’ Section Leaders, for their time and work to make rehearsals and performances extra special.

The VPAC and Plaza del Sol administration, Carey Christensen, and Beto Sistos and his stage crew, and Shawn Kolb and his stage crew, for their work on this concert.

Phil Calvert, Recording Engineer, for his recording of all of our concerts.

Professor Jeff Izzo and Professor Andrew Surmani, CSUN Music Industry Studies and Music Industry Administration, for their support of our department through their areas’ funding of our live streaming service.

Vice-President Diane Stephens, AS Executive Director Patrick Bailey, and the members of the Instructionally-Related Activities Board, for their continuing support of the University Chorus and Northridge Singers.

Dean Dan Hosken, Associate Dean Kandace Harris, and Department Chair John Roscigno, for their support of our music program.