Conspirare Concert • October 15, 2023

The Centenary Chancel Choir Youth Choir Collec ve on Fi h Greensboro Symphony Master Chorale Winston-Salem Choral Academy

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Sunday, October 15, 2023 4:00 PM

PROGRAM Welcome

Jonathan Emmons Director of Music Ministries

Prayer

The Reverend Dr. P. Glenn Kinken III Senior Minister

I Had I Not Seen the Sun

Melissa Givens, soprano Dann Coakwell, tenor De no haber visto el sol Podría y aguantar la sombra Pero la luz un más joven desierto Mi desierto ha creado.

Reaching

Haitham Haider, tenor Simon Barrad, bass Oh, we are far away from home, We are turning away.

Oh, my unknown home, I love you, I’ll never return.

When I sing, I love you, I distrust what I say.

Oh, we are far away from home, We are turning away.

Oh, my unknown home, I love you, I’ll never return.

We are far from each other, I do not know your name.

O salutaris hostia

Tarik O’Regan (b. 1978) Had I not seen the Sun I could have borne the shade But Light a newer Wilderness My Wilderness has made.

- Emily Dickinson

Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1962) Oh, we are far away from home, We are turning away.

Oh, my unknown home, I love you, I’ll never return.

You say, come on, be truthful; Will I end the game I play?

Oh, we are going home, The home we cannot find, You, stranger, will go with me, Two strangers of one kind.

- Euan Tait

Pierre de la Rue (1452-1518)

O salutaris hostia, quae coeli pandis ostium, Bella premunt hostilia, Da robur fer auxilium, uni trinoque Domino sit sempriterna Gloria qui vitam sine termino, Nobis donet in patria.

O saving sacrifice, who opens wide the gates of heaven: Our foes press on to war, give us strength when we ask for help.

One God in Three, in everlasting glory, who lives forever, grant us our true homes.

- Thomas Aquinas (Latin)

I Had No Time to Hate

Tarik O’Regan (b. 1978)

Melissa Givens, soprano Dann Coakwell, tenor No Tuve Tiempo de odiar, porque Me lo impidió la tomba Y no fue tan amplia la vida Para terminar la enemistad.

Tampoco tuve tiempo de armar, Mas porque había que trabajar, El mero esfuerzo de amar, pensaba yo, Para mí era suficiente.

I had no time to hate, because The grave would hinder me, And life was not so ample I Could not finish enmity.

Nor had I time to love, but since Some industry must be, The little toil of love, I thought, Was large enough for me.

- Emily Dickinson

II Cancion de nuestro tiempo

Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016)

I. Fragmentos de agonia

I. Story of our Time

Con la rueda, el aceite, el cuero y el martillo noventa mil mineros sacaban la plata de las rocas y los niños dibujaban escaleras y perspectivas.

With the wheel, with oil, leather and the hammer Ninety thousand miners taking silver from the rocks and children drawing stairs and perspectives.

Pero ninguno se dormía, pero ninguno quería ser el río, ninguno amaba las hojas grandes, ninguno la lengua azul de la playa. ¡Ninguno se dormía!

But none of them could sleep, none of them wanted to be the river, none of them loved the huge leaves or the shoreline’s blue tongue.

None of them could sleep!

Los muchachos luchaban con la industria, Boys were battling with industry y el cielo desembocaba por los puentes y los tejados and over bridges and rooftops, the mouth of the manadas de bisontes empujadas por el viento. sky emptied herds of bison driven by the wind.

Pero ninguno se detenía, pero ninguno quería ser nube, ninguno buscaba los helechos ni la rueda amarilla del tamboril.

Cuando la luna salga las poleas rodarán para turbar el cielo; un límite de agujas cercará la memoria y los ataúdes…

Agonía, agonía, sueño, fermento y sueño. Éste es el mundo, agonía.

Los muertos se descomponen bajo el reloj de las ciudades, la guerra pasa llorando con un millón de ratas grises, los ricos dan a sus queridas pequeños moribundos iluminados, y la vida no es noble, ni buena, ni sagrada.

Bottom of the River

Lianna Wimberly Williams, alto Hold my hand Ooh, baby, it's a long way down to the bottom of the river Hold my hand Ooh, baby, it's a long way down, a long way down If you get sleep or if you get none The cock's gonna call in the morning, baby Check the cupboard for your daddy's gun Red sun rises like an early warning The Lord's gonna come for your first born son His hair's on fire and his heart is burning So go to the river where the water runs Wash him deep where the tides are turning And if you fall If you fall Hold my hand

Agnus Dei

But none of them paused, none of them wanted to be a cloud, none of them looked for ferns or the yellow wheel of the tambourine.

As soon as the moon rises the pulleys will spin to upset the sky; a border of needles will besiege memory and the hearses…

Agony, agony, dream, ferment and dream.

This is the world, agony.

Bodies decompose beneath the city clocks, war passes by in tears, followed by a million gray rats, the rich give their mistresses small illuminated dying things, and life is neither noble, nor good, nor sacred.

- Translation: Greg Simon, Steven F. White

Eric Holljes (b. 1987) / Ian Holljes (b. 1985) Ooh, baby, it's a long way down to the bottom of the river Hold my hand Ooh, baby, it's a long way down, a long way down The wolves will chase you by the pale moonlight Drunk and driven by a devil's hunger Drive your son like a railroad spike Into the water, let it pull him under Don't you lift him, let him drown alive The good Lord speaks like a rolling thunder Let that fever make the water rise And let the river run dry And I said Hold my hand Ooh, baby, it's a long way down to the bottom of the river.

- Eric Holljes & Ian Holljes

Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

Savannah Porter, soprano Agnus Dei, Qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis.

The Lamb of God, Who took the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.

Agnus Dei, Qui tollis peccata mundi, Dona nobis pacem.

The Lamb of God, Who took the sins of the world, Grant us peace.

II Geistliches Lied

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Laß dich nur nichts nicht dauern Mit Trauern, Sei stille!

Wie Gott es fügt, So sei vergnügt Mein Wille.

Let nought afflict thee with grief; Be calm, as God ordains, And so may my will be contented.

Was willst du heute sorgen Auf morgen?

Der Eine steht allem für; Der gibt auch dir das Deine.

Why take thought for the morrow?

The one God who gives thee What is thine watches over all.

Sei nur in allem Handel Ohn Wandel, Steh feste!

Was Gott beschleußt, Das ist und heißt das Beste.

All in thy doings be steadfast And true. What God decrees Is best, and that it is acknowledged.

Amen.

Amen.

- Paul Flemming

Interlude: Never Gonna Fall in Love Again

Eric Carmen (b. 1949), arr. CHJ

No use pretending things can still be right There's really nothing more to say I'll get along without your kiss tonight Just close the door and walk away

No, I never want to feel the pain Of remembering how it used to be Never gonna fall in love again Just like you and me

Never gonna fall in love again I don't want to start with someone new ‘Cause I couldn't bear to see it end Just like me and you

At first we thought that love was here to stay The summer made it seem so right But like the sun we watched it fade away From morning into lonely night.

- Eric Carmen

III Sacred Place (abridged) I. Opening Prayer

Alex Berko (b. 1995)

Haitham Haidar, tenor In the dusk of the river, the wind gone, the leaves grow still— The beautiful poise of lightness, The heavy world pushing toward it.

- Wendell Berry

II. Amidah (to stand) “How softly these mountain rocks are adorned, and how fine and reassuring the company they keep – their brows in the sky, their feet set in groves and gay emerald meadows, a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against their adamantine bosses, while birds bees butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music – things frail and fleeting and types of permanence meeting here and blending as if into this glorious mountain temple Nature had gathered her choicest treasures, whether great or small to draw her lovers into close confiding communion with her.”

- John Muir to Teddy Roosevelt (on preserving Yosemite National Park)

III III. Shema (to hear)

Kathlene Ritch, soprano Haitham Haidar, tenor The earth says have a place, be what that place requires; hear the sound the birds imply and see as deep as ridges go behind each other.

The earth says where you live wear the kind of color that your life is (grey shirt for me) and by listening with the same bowed head that sings draw all things into one song, join the sparrow on the lawn, and row that easy way, the rage without met by the wings within that guide you anywhere the wind blows.

The earth says every summer have a ranch that’s minimum: one tree, one well, a landscape that proclaims a universe – sermon of the hills, hallelujah mountain, highway guided by the way the world is tilted, reduplication of mirage, flat evening: a kind of ritual for the wavering.

Listening, I think that’s what the earth says.

- William Stafford

IV. Mi Sheberach (healing)

Chelsea Helm, soprano May the source of strength Who blessed the ones before us Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing And let us say Amen.

Bless those in need of healing with r'fuah sh'leimah (a complete healing, “get well soon”) The renewal of body, the renewal of spirit And let us say Amen - Old Testament

VI. Closing Prayer

Haitham Haidar, tenor In the dusk of the river, the wind gone, the leaves grow still— The beautiful poise of lightness, The heavy world pushing toward it.

- Wendell Berry

IV Why did they all shout (from Arc in the Sky) why did they all shout: louis is de lawd? because there was something prophetic about his trumpeting: to be that right is to be at one with the source of all good things hit it!

Kile Smith (b. 1956)

higher and higher and higher: to be that high is to be at one with the source of all true blessings that is why they shouted when louis hit the high notes: they thought the roof would open and the angels would burst in - Robert Lax

IV Song for Billie Holiday Melissa Givens, soprano Kathlene Ritch, piano What can purge my heart Of the song And the sadness?

What can purge my heart But the song Of the sadness?

What can purge my heart Of the sadness Of the song?

Do not speak of sorrow With dust in her hair,

William Averitt (b. 1948) Or bits of dust in eyes A chance wind blows there.

The sorrow that I speak of Is dusted with despair.

Voice of muted trumpet, Cold brass in warm air.

Bitter television blurred By sound that shimmers– Where?

- Langston Hughes

Stand In That River

Moira Smiley (b. 1976)

Come and stand in that river Current gentle and slow Send your troubles down water Down on that water flow

Tell me sister, brother, Where does that river flow?

It flows down to that great water Where soon my people will go.

When you stand in that river Angels sing in your head Secrets beyond every worry Dreams beyond every dread

Oh, time passes Passes on down the stream Some days are so much sweeter Some days some pass like the dark dream - Moira Smiley

What If

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

You’re hiding, (Nope.) surviving, (Yep.) You’re stubborn, too. (True.)

And you’re frightened, (I’m not,) not knowing (What?) your heart. (And you?)

I’m trying (To?) to question, (And?) the answer’s near. (Where?)

Here: I yearn to soar, (So?) so there has to be much more (No.) Yes, there must be another way.

It’s time to (Fly?) That’s right. (Then try explaining slow.)

We have to go (Where?) high above (The wall?) of course. (We’d fall!)

Perhaps, but then we’d know (Know?) all the things (Like what?) like wings and worlds we knew before.

(You’re not making sense, you yearn to soar, but we don’t have wings anymore.)

I know but there must be another way.

What if all this came true? Pure bliss!

What if your wings sailed free? We’d sing!

What would I do?

You’d lift the moon, And make it spin.

I’d inspire a choir of sapphire winds And you? (We’d sing) What song? (Just harmony.)

And we’d sing free in perfect harmony, There must be another way.

What if this time your dreams they’d rhyme? (Sublime!)

What if your voice sailed free? (Rejoice!)

And we’d sing free in perfect harmony, There must be another way.

- David Noroña & Eric Whitacre

V To Mother You

TBA, soloists This is to mother you To comfort you and get you through Through when your nights are lonely Through when your dreams are only blue This is to mother you This is to be with you To hold you and to kiss you, too For when you need me I will do What your own mother didn't do Which is to mother you All the pain that you have known All the violence in your soul All the wrong things you have done I will take from you when I come All mistakes made in distress

I Have Never Loved Someone

I have never loved someone the way I love you I have never seen a smile like yours And if you grow up to be king or clown, or pauper I will say you are my favorite one in town I have never held a hand so soft and sacred When I hear you laugh, I know heaven's key And when I grow to be a poppy in the graveyard I will send you all my love upon the breeze And if the breeze won't blow your way

Sinead O’Connor (1966-2023), arr. CHJ All your unhappiness I will take away with my kiss, yes I will give you tenderness For child I am so glad I found you Although my arms have always been around you Sweet bird although you did not see me I saw you And I'm here to mother you To comfort you and get you through Through when your nights are lonely Through when your dreams are only blue This is to mother you - Sinead O’Connor

Shara Nova (b. 1974)

I will be the sun And if the sun won't shine your way I will be the rain And if the rain won't wash away all your aches and pains I will find some other way to tell you you're okay You're okay, you're okay, you're okay You're okay, you're okay, you're okay - Shara Nova

We Tell Each Other Stories

Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1962)

We tell each other stories so that we will remember Try and find the meaning in the living of our days

We tell each other stories so that we will remember Trying to find the meaning . . .

Always telling stories, wanting to remember Where and whom we came from Who we are

I am open to hear this story about a boy, an ordinary boy Who never had expected his life would be this story, (could be any boy)

Sometimes there’s a story that’s painful to remember One that breaks the heart of us all Still we tell the story We’re listening and confessing What we have forgotten In the story of us all

I am open to hear a story Open, listen.

All. - Craig Hella Johnson

V All of Us

What could be the song?

Where begin again?

Who could meet us there?

Where might we begin?

From the shadows climb, Rise to sing again; Where could be the joy?

How do we begin?

Never our despair, Never the least of us, Never turn away, Never hide our face; Ordinary boy, Only all of us, Free us from our fear, Only all of us.

Only in the Love, Love that lifts us up, Clear from out the heart From the mountain’s side, Come creation come, Strong as any stream; How can we let go? How can we forgive?

How can we be dream?

Out of heaven, rain, Rain to wash us free; Rivers flowing on, Ever to the sea; Bind up every wound, Every cause to grieve;

Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1962)

Always to forgive, Only to believe.

Most noble Light, crea on’s face, How should we live but joined in You? Remain within Your saving grace through all we say and do; and know we are the Love that moves the sun and all the stars, o Love that dwells, o Love that burns in ev’ry human heart!

(Only in the Love, Love that li s us up!)

This evergreen, this heart, this soul, Now moves us to remake our world, Reminds us how we are to be Your people born to dream; How old this joy, how strong this call, To sing your radiant care With every voice, in cloudless hope Of our belonging here.

Only in the Love . . .

Only all of us . . .

(Heaven: Wash me . . .)

All of us, only all of us.

What could be the song?

Where do we begin?

Only in the Love, Love that li s us up.

All Of Us All. - Michael Dennis Browne & Craig Hella Johnson

PROGRAM NOTES Had I Not Seen the Sun This is one of two short Emily Dickinson settings, along with “I Had No Time to Hate,” commissioned by Conspirare and Craig Hella Johnson for their recording Threshold of Night. They were intended to frame the program rather like a compositional “inhalation” and “exhalation,” a crescendo and decrescendo, or a prelude and postlude. Densely textured, the music aims to hint at the myriad readings Dickinson's surface-simple poetry yields in its many readers. Each setting uses a solo soprano and tenor, their voices referencing the polarities inherent in each poem (sun and shade; love and hate).

-Tarik O’Regan (2018), amended

Reaching “Reaching” is one of three short pieces for tenor and baritone soloists, choir, and piano which were created for the Conspirare Christmas concert series in 2022 by composer Craig Hella Johnson and WelshScottish poet/librettist Euan Tait. The movements were originally conceived as interstitial material for a program which was designed, in part, as a compassionate musical response to the tragic mass shooting which occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May of 2022.

O salutaris hostia The text for this motet is the last stanza of a hymn by Thomas Aquinas from around 1263. This setting of the text is by the Franco-Flemish composer/singer Pierre de la Rue. He stands among the most famous and influential composers in the Netherlands polyphonic style in the decades around 1500.

I Had No Time to Hate See “Had I Not Seen the Sun,” above.

Cancion de nuestro tiempo, I. Fragmentos de agonia

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In the early 1990s, the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus commissioned Rautavaara to write an extensive choral work, specifying that the text and music were to “have a relationship to the world of today.” The result was the Canción de nuestro tiempo (1993), for which Rautavaara chose poems by Federico García Lorca which, though written in the 1920s and 1930s, he felt were still very relevant.

PROGRAM NOTES The first of the work’s three movements, “Fragmentos de agonía” (“Fragments of Agony”), shows the harsh, inhuman world of industrial society and war through surrealist poetic images.

- from notes by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi © 2010

Bottom of the River “Bottom of the River” is a song by Delta Rae, a group NPR classifies as Modern Folklore Music. This gritty, powerful and provocative song seems to be strongly influenced by the Southern Gothic genre of fiction. Band member and songwriter Eric Holljes said they wanted to write an “Old Testament, Biblical, Gothic story.”

Agnus Dei In 1936, Barber wrote his only work for string quartet and almost immediately arranged its second movement for a full string orchestra. The new piece, now called Adagio for Strings, was performed by the famed conductor Arturo Toscanini--a classical kingmaker at the time--and its composer became an overnight sensation. The Adagio has gone on to become something of a universal expression of grief and, in arranging it for choir, Barber pulls the music even closer to this notion by laying it under the Agnus Dei from the Roman Catholic mass. The result is a meditation which unfolds in endless spirals before the bottom drops out and the music rises to a deafening climax. Then the supplicating cries waft gently back into the ether.

- Joshua Shank

Geistliches Lied With its hopeful and consoling text, Brahms’s “Geistliches Lied,” is heard here in the original organaccompanied version. The broad, expansive gestures and profound calm of the music express the acceptance of God’s grace and the renunciation of all worry.

- Eric Leibrock

Sacred Place (abridged) Sacred Place is an ecological service that connects the old with the new, the sacred with the secular, and the individual with their community. The outline of the work is a Jewish service. However, rather than Jewish prayers, the text is made up of various writers and thinkers who speak of the environment as a place of safety, comfort, and beauty. Written for choir, piano, violin, and cello, the six-movement piece is at times a meditation and at times an impassioned prayer for the world we inhabit and share.

- Alex Berko

Why did they all shout (from Arc in the Sky) Jazz played a big part in Robert Lax’s early life, and in his poetry. It was a metaphor of life, an intentional, communal improvisation with others and with God. The ecstasy of being carried along is what I wanted to capture, the feeling not so much of a performance, or of listening to a performance, but of performers and listeners together being caught up in something bigger than them all. The first movement doesn’t sound like jazz, not really, but a few features echo it: close and parallel harmonies, a kind of syncopation through changing meters and twos-against-threes, and, from time to time, a walking bass.

- Kile Smith

Song for Billie Holiday Afro-American Fragments (1991) was composed by William Averitt for Winchester Musica Viva, a chamber choir he founded. In 1992, the multi-movement choral cycle won the Roger Wagner Choral Center Competition. Composed for four-hand piano and choir, it sets texts of Langston Hughes. A variety of African-American musical styles are alluded to through the cycle: in the movement “Song for Billie Holiday,” Averrit evokes an understated, other-worldly atmosphere: “a supple blend of lyrical modernism and blues style. One could imagine Holiday singing.“ (Express News)

Stand In That River “Stand in the River” is an American folk-hymn style à la The Carter Family. Current popular exponents of this sound are the “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou” movie soundtrack, and the singing of Alison Krauss.

- Moria Smiley

What If “What If” is a quintet from my musical Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings. In it, Exstasis (our heroine) tries to convince four other angels (Pieta, Aia, Fervio, and Gravitas) to follow her on her adventure to get her (and their) wings back. Craig Hella Johnson saw the 2007 Los Angeles production of Paradise Lost, and asked me if he could arrange “What If” for percussion ensemble and his excellent ensemble,Conspira

PROGRAM NOTES Conspirare. I hesitantly agreed, not knowing what to expect. When he sent me the final product, I couldn’t believe my ears. The choral parts work perfectly as a quintet, and the percussion arrangement is almost note for note what my electronic track was doing. Like everything Craig does, this new arrangement just sounds so fresh and vibrant.

- Eric Whitacre

To Mother You This oft-performed Johnson arrangement was first performed for early Conspirare Christmas concerts at the intimate and cherished Carillon Chapel in Austin, Texas. As we now honor the memory of the probing and powerful singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor, the Conspirare artists bring to life a slightly expanded version of the original arrangement of O’Connor’s poignant song.

I Have Never Loved Someone Shara Nova was among last season’s commissioned composers for the Hear Me Out concerts. "I Have Never Loved Someone” is included in House of Belonging. “‘I Have Never Loved Someone (the way I love you)’ was ostensibly written for my child, but it was written as my maternal grandmother was in the hospital transitioning from this life to the next, so I too am the child. As the song is sung, you may imagine yourself as the loved one being sung to, or perhaps imagine someone (maybe even your pet!) who you love unconditionally and send your thoughts to them.

Let us practice growing our capacity to love and be loved.”

-Shara Nova

We Tell Each Other Stories and All of Us “We Tell Each Other Stories” and “All of Us,” coms from the concert length work Craig Hella Johnson composed called Considering Matthew Shepard (a recording of the complete work is available on Harmonia Mundi Recordings).

“We Tell Each Other Stories” is the third movement of Considering Matthew Shepard. It is an invitation to the listener to listen with an open heart and remember. Many choirs have sung this piece as a way to invite their audience into the listening space.

As a stand-alone piece, “All of Us” can be sung in a wide variety of contexts. At its core, it is intended to be a jubilant call to remember the inherent value and radiance in every living being, indeed, in every aspect of Creation. It is a song of celebration--raising up the voices of all of us, with special attention given to those in our world who have been marginalized, mistreated or simply not seen. I have a vision for a huge tent where we all are welcomed- at first the solo trio is proclaiming in Gospel style, followed by the choir; then the upright chorale and later I hope you will hear the solo trio imitating the three oboes in a Bach cantata movement dancing within the Gospel framework.

- Craig Hella Johnson

CONSPIRARE Craig Hella Johnson, Founding Ar s c Director & Conductor Robert Harlan, Technical Director Viera Buzgova, Stage Manager Aus n Haller, piano – Aus n, TX Ma hew Teodori, percussion – Aus n, TX SOPRANO

TENOR

Meg Dudley – New York, NY Melissa Givens – Claremont, CA Chelsea Helm – Washington, DC Gitanjali Mathur – Austin, TX Kori Miller – Denton, TX Savannah Porter – New York, NY Kathlene Ritch* – Santa Fe, NM Emily Yocum Black – Paducah, KY

Dann Coakwell – Ithaca, NY Haitham Haidar – Montreal, QC Michael Jones – Los Angeles, CA David Kurtenbach Rivera – San Francisco, CA Jos Milton – Oxford, MS Wilson Nichols – New York, NY Jason Vest* – Cincinnati, OH

ALTO

BASS

Ana Baida – Atlanta, GA Sarah Brauer* – Eugene, OR Janet Carlsen Campbell – Omaha, NE Grace Kiver – Cincinnati, OH Lauren McAllister – Cincinnati, OH Laura Mercado-Wright – Austin, TX Lianna Wimberly Williams – Atlanta, GA

Simon Barrad – Long Beach, CA Rick Gabrillo* – Round Rock, TX Robert Harlan – Austin, TX Michael Hawes – Austin, TX Harris Ipock – Granville, OH Enrico Lagasca – New York, NY Tim O’Brien – Austin, TX John Proft – Austin, TX

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* denotes Sec on Leaders

BIOS Craig Hella Johnson is the GRAMMY®-winning founding artistic director and conductor of Conspirare.

Known for crafting musical journeys that create deep connections between performers and listeners, Johnson is beloved by audiences, revered by singers, and lauded by critics and composers. The Wall Street Journal praised his ability to “find the emotional essence other performers often miss,” and Fanfare wrote that “Craig Hella Johnson has assembled and molded a first-rate choir to be respected as highly as the best we have had.”

Johnson is a published composer and arranger, in-demand guest conductor, and educator. He teaches and conducts as Artist-in-Residence at Texas State University and is also Music Director of the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble and Conductor Emeritus of the Victoria Bach Festival.

Johnson’s concert-length composition Considering Matthew Shepard was premiered and recorded by Conspirare in 2016. Considering Matthew Shepard has been performed by more than 30 choirs around the world and selected songs are sung by high school and college choirs, sharing the work’s message of compassion and understanding.

Johnson’s accomplishments have been recognized with numerous awards and honors. Notably among them, he and Conspirare won a 2014 GRAMMY® for Best Choral Performance, Chorus America awarded him the Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art in 2015, and the Texas State Legislature named him Texas State Musician for 2013. In 2021, the Matthew Shepard Foundation recognized him with the Dennis Dougherty Award for Community Leadership.

A Minnesota native, Johnson studied at St. Olaf College, the Juilliard School, and the University of Illinois and earned his doctorate at Yale University. As the recipient of a National Arts Fellowship, Johnson studied with Helmuth Rilling at the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart, Germany. He and his husband Phil live with their rescue dog in Austin.

Conspirare is a GRAMMY®-winning choir and nonprofit performing arts and music education organization. We believe in the power of music to change lives, inspire peace, and foster belonging.

Conspirare was established in 1991 in Austin, Texas, by Craig Hella Johnson and a band of dedicated supporters. Conspirare won the Best Choral Performance GRAMMY® for its recording The Sacred Spirit of Russia (Harmonia Mundi label) (2014) and has received five GRAMMY® nominations. Its latest release, House of Belonging, was released in September 2023.

Conspirare shares the gift of singing through: • Conspirare: A Company of Voices is the GRAMMY®-winning professional ensemble comprised of some of the finest singers in the country and committed to creating dynamic choral art through performance, recording, and teaching.

• Conspirare Symphonic Choir is our choir of volunteer singers who audition

and perform.

• Music in Schools – Our singers inspire and uplift choir students and their

teachers at low-income middle and high schools through master classes and free concert tickets.

• Big Sing – Free community singing opportunities held at public places like schools, libraries, and museums.

You can learn more about Conspirare by scanning this QR code!

CENTENARY CHANCEL CHOIR Jonathan Emmons, Conductor Jonathan Borton, accompanist Emily AsKew* Virginia Browne* Kelsey Butler Jan Cockman Craig Collins* Melanie Collins Anne Coltrane Tyler Cox Nicole Dalzell Laura Dugan Kathie Eppert Janet Ford Barry Foster Barbara Fulp Kerry Garrett Holly Gilliam

Pat Helm Mary Isom Jeff Jackson Angie Jarman Camille Jones Alan Keely Tom Lather Sara Lynch Barry Lyons Jeffery Maggs* Suzanne Maggs Mary Ruth Martin Michael Martinez* Rebecca Miller Ellen Moore

Anne Morgan Richard Myers Carol Penney Nancy Phelps Janet Poirier Alden Pridgen* Robbie Raso* Keely Reitman David Rice Danielle Romano* Anne Saxon Stephen Saxon Virginia Sheffield* Joe Sills Molly Sills

Donna Smart Mike Smith Tommy Smith Joshua Sobel+ Kevin Spooner* Deborah Steele Joel Stegall June Stegall* John Stewart Pat Stoeber Anna Wade Amanda Walker Logan Webber* Marilyn Weiler Norris Williams Karen Wimmer

Learn more about the Chancel Choir here!

* denotes Sec on Leaders + denotes Organ Scholar

YOUTH CHOIR COLLECTIVE ON FIFTH Michael Mar nez, Conductor Susan Orgain, accompanist Jonathan Emmons, Ar s c Director Oliver Andree Bowen Sage Andree Bowen Cody Baker Karina Barboza Christian Del Campo Gabriela Del Campo

Valerie Del Campo Cady Dunn Victoria Garcia Meg Gilliam Lexa Hedgecock Raana Kumar

Liam McCalla Abigail Munster Marianne Rowland Bella Russell Callie Watson Clara Watson

Register for the Youth Choir Collec ve on Fi h here!

GREENSBORO SYMPHONY MASTER CHORALE Jonathan Emmons, Conductor Emily Armstrong Edwin Bagley Gloria Boykin Bryan Buck Forrest Bunter Julia Denton Jim Egede-Nissen Susan Fournier

Ted Fried Tom Hardin Brittany Kaehler Darrell Kicker Ann Leone James Mayes Pearl Melton Jesse Miracle

Katie Muhlenkamp Jeff Perrier Jan Smith Paul Stutzman Hilary Webb-Propst Muffy Underwood

Inquire about joining the Master Chorale here!

WINSTON-SALEM CHORAL ACADEMY Anne Saxon, Founder & Ar s c Director Suzanne Maggs, Assistant Director Cynthia Saylor, accompanist Lily Brooks Tyler Butcher Mariah Clinton Maya Fitch

Cassie Maggs Isla McBride Wendy McLaurin

Kiki Ordonez Arianna Smart Satie Stevens

Inquire about joining WSCA here!

Music & Arts at Centenary is proud to host this a ernoon’s concert.

Help us keep events, like this one, free by dona ng via the QR code and selec ng “Music Program Reserve” from the drop-down menu or wri ng “Conspirare” in the memo line. You may also place your contribu on in one of the gray boxes as you leave the Sanctuary.

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Thank you for suppor ng Music & Arts at Centenary!