InTUNE
The
Houston Symphony Magazine
Chanticleer: Our American Journey
ORCHESTRA ROSTER
Juraj Valčuha
Music Director
Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair
FIRST VIOLIN
Yoonshin Song, Concertmaster
Max Levine Chair
Vacant, Associate Concertmaster
Ellen E. Kelley Chair
Boson Mo, Assistant Concertmaster
Qi Ming, Assistant Concertmaster Fondren Foundation Chair
Tong Yan
Ferenc Illenyi
Si-Yang Lao
Christopher Neal
Sergei Galperin
James Gikas+
Tianxu Liu+
Samuel Park+
Timothy Peters+
Arutyun Piloyan+
Teresa Wang+
SECOND VIOLIN
Vacant, Principal
Vacant, Associate Principal
Amy Semes
Annie Kuan-Yu Chen
Mihaela Frusina
Jing Zheng
Anastasia Iglesias
Tina Zhang*
Yankı Karata!
Hannah Duncan
Alexandros Sakarellos
Zubaida Azezi+
Hanna Hrybkova+
VIOLA
Joan DerHovsepian, Principal
Wei Jiang, Acting Associate Principal
Samuel Pedersen, Assistant Principal
Paul Aguilar
Sheldon Person
Fay Shapiro
Keoni Bolding
Jimmy Cunningham
Meredith Harris+
Yvonne Smith+
CELLO
Brinton Averil Smith, Principal
Janice H. and Thomas D. Barrow Chair
Christopher French, Associate Principal
Jane and Robert Cizik Chair
Anthony Kitai
Louis-Marie Fardet
Je rey Butler
Maki Kubota
Xiao Wong
Charles Seo
Jeremy Kreutz
COMMUNITY-EMBEDDED MUSICIAN
Lindsey Baggett, Violin
LIBRARIANS
Ali Verderber, Associate Librarian
Megan Fisher, Assistant Librarian
DOUBLE BASS
Robin Kesselman, Principal
Timothy Dilenschneider, Associate Principal
Steven Reineke, Principal POPS Conductor
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Conductor Laureate
Anthony J. Maglione, Director, Houston Symphony Chorus
Gonzalo Farias, Associate Conductor
Andrew Pedersen, Assistant Principal
Eric Larson
Logan May
Burke Shaw
Donald Howey
Avery Weeks
FLUTE
Vacant, Principal
General Maurice Hirsch Chair
Matthew Roitstein, Acting Principal
Judy Dines
Kathryn Ladner
Douglas DeVries+
PICCOLO
Kathryn Ladner
OBOE
Jonathan Fischer, Principal
Lucy Binyon Stude Chair
Anne Leek, Associate Principal
Vacant
Adam Dinitz
Pablo Moreno+
ENGLISH HORN
Adam Dinitz
Barbara and Pat McCelvey Chair
CLARINET
Mark Nuccio, Principal
Bobbie Nau Chair
Vacant, Associate Principal
Christian Schubert
Alexander Potiomkin
Ben Freimuth+
E-FLAT CLARINET
Vacant
Ben Freimuth+
BASS CLARINET
Alexander Potiomkin
BASSOON
Rian Craypo, Principal
Isaac Schultz, Associate Principal
Elise Wagner
Adam Trussell
CONTRABASSOON
Adam Trussell
STAGE PERSONNEL
Vacant, Stage Manager
José Rios, Assistant Stage Manager
Nicholas DiFonzo, Head Video Engineer
Justin Herriford, Head Audio Engineer
Connor Morrow, Head Stage Technician
Giancarlo Minotti, Audio Production Manager
HORN
William VerMeulen, Principal
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander K. McLanahan
Endowed Chair
Robert Johnson, Associate Principal
Nathan Cloeter, Assistant Principal/Utility
Ian Mayton
Barbara J. Burger Chair
Brian Mangrum
Spencer Bay+
TRUMPET
Mark Hughes, Principal
George P. and Cynthia Woods
Mitchell Chair
John Parker, Associate Principal
Robert Walp, Assistant Principal
Richard Harris
TROMBONE
Nick Plato , Principal
Bradley White, Associate Principal
Phillip Freeman
BASS TROMBONE
Phillip Freeman
TUBA
Dave Kirk, Principal
TIMPANI
Leonardo Soto, Principal
Matthew Strauss, Associate Principal
PERCUSSION
Brian Del Signore, Principal
Mark Gri th
Matthew Strauss
HARP
Allegra Lilly, Principal
KEYBOARD
Vacant, Principal
LIBRARIAN
Luke Bryson, Principal
*on leave + contracted substitute
PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
2025-26 se a son
S Chanticleer: Our American Journey A p r il 28
S Disney & Pixar’s Toy Story in Concert
May 2 & 3
J o s h u a B e l l R e t u r n s :
T h e El e m e nt s i n C on c e r t
M ay 7, 9 * & 1 0
T h e P l a ne t s
V i o li n C o n c e r t o + Tcha i kovs k y ’s
M ay 1 5 , 1 6* & 1 7
Chamber Music Series: Ethereal Transformations
May 17
Val č u h a C on du c t s M a hle r 9
M ay 2 2 , 2 3* & 24
L i g h t s ! C am e r a ! M u s ic !
1 0 0 Ye a r s o f E p i c
Fil m S c o r e s
M ay 2 9, 3 0 * & 3 1
S Lyle Lovett with the Houston Symphony
June 5
S
Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY
June 6 & 7
S The Music of Queen
June 19 & 20
S Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix™ in Concert
June 26 & 27
S Opening Night: Isabel Leonard Sings Gershwin
September 19
Simply the Best: A Tribute to Tina Turner
September 25, 26* & 27
Rachmanino f Festival: Rachmanino f ’s Second Symphony
October 2, 3* & 4
Rachmanino f Festival: Rachmanino f ’s Piano Concerto No. 3
October 9, 10* & 11
SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OFFICERS
Barbara J. Burger President
John Rydman** Board Chair
Chair, Artistic & Orchestra A airs
Barbara McCelvey President-Elect Chair, Development
Mike S. Stude** Chair Emeritus
Paul Morico General Counsel
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Brad W. Corson Chair, Governance & Leadership
Carey Kirkpatrick Chair, Marketing & Communications
Evan B. Glick Chair, Popular Programming
Sippi Khurana, M.D. Chair, Education & Community Engagement
GOVERNING DIRECTORS
Gary Beauchamp
Eric Brueggeman
MK Campion
John Cassidy, M.D.
Khoa Dao
Lidiya Gold
TRUSTEES
Christopher Armstrong
David Balderston
David J. Beck
Carrie Brandsberg-Dahl
Nancy Shelton Bratic
Terry Ann Brown**
Ralph Burch
John T. Cater**
Robert Chanon
Heaven Chee
Michael H. Clark
Virginia Clark
Andrew Davis, Ph.D.
Denise Davis
Tracy Dieterich
Joan Du
Kelli Cohen Fein
Je rey B. Firestone
Lindsay Buchanan Fisher
Mary Lynn Marks Chair, Volunteers & Special Events
Robert Orr Chair, Strategic Planning
Jesse B. Tutor** Chair, Audit
Leslie Nossaman^ President, Houston Symphony League
Jonathan Ayre Secretary Chair, Finance
Janet F. Clark^ Immediate Past Chair
Steven P. Mach^ At-Large Member
James H. Lee^ President, Houston Symphony Endowment
Juraj Valčuha^ Music Director Roy and Lillie Cullen Chair
Joan DerHovsepian^ Musician Representative
Mark Hughes^ Musician Representative
Bobby Tudor^** At-Large Member
Gary Ginstling^ Executive Director/CEO
Margaret Alkek Williams Chair
Claudio Gutiérrez
David J. M. Key
Cindy Levit
Isabel Stude Lummis
Cora Sue Mach**
Rodney Margolis**
Eugene A. Fong
Aggie L. Foster
Kate Dearing Fowler
Julia Anderson Frankel
Aoife French
Carolyn Gaidos
Andrew Gould
Lori Harrington
Pablo Hernandez SchmidtTopho
Je Hiller
Grace Ho
Gary L. Hollingsworth
John W. Hutchinson
Brian James
Matthew Kades
I. Ray Kirk, M.D.
David Krieger
Matthew Loden
FOUNDATION FOR JONES HALL REPRESENTATIVES
Janet F. Clark
As of February 26, 2026
Brad W. Corson
Meredith Marshall
Elissa Martin
Leslie Nossaman
Chris Powers
Brittany Sakowitz
Ed Schneider
Kirby Lodholz
Michael Mann, M.D.
Nancy Martin
Jack Matzer
Jackie Wolens Mazow
Diane Morales
Aprill Nelson
Tim Ong
Edward Osterberg Jr.
Gloria G. Pryzant
Miwa Sakashita
Ted Sarosdy
Andrew Schwaitzberg
Helen Sha er**
Becky Shaw
Robert B. Sloan, D.D., Theol.
Jim R. Smith
Miles O. Smith**
Quentin Smith
Barbara McCelvey
Jeremy Kreutz^ Musician Representative
Mark Nuccio^ Musician Representative
Justin Stenberg
William J. Toomey II
Betty Tutor**
Robert Weiner
Margaret Alkek Williams**
Tad Smith
Anthony Speier
Tina Raham Stewart
Nanako Tingleaf
Terry Thomas
Margaret Waisman, M.D.
Gretchen Watkins
Fredric A. Weber
Vicki West
Steven J. Williams
David J. Wuthrich
Ellen A. Yarrell
Robert Yekovich
EX-OFFICIO
Alejandro Gallardo
Reverend Ray Mackey, III
Frank F. Wilson IV
Fredric Weber
LEADERSHIP GROUP
Gary Ginstling, Executive Director/CEO
Margaret Alkek Williams Chair
Elizabeth S. Condic, Chief Financial O cer
Vicky Dominguez, Chief Operating O cer
Rolanda Gregory, Chief Marketing O cer
Jennifer Renner, Chief Development O cer
Mayenne Minuit, Executive Assistant
DEVELOPMENT
Leanna Aldis, Manager, Foundation Relations
Sarah Bhalla, Board Relations Associate
Lauren Buchanan, Development Communications Manager
Alex Canales, Manager, Donor Services
Jessie De Arman, Development Associate, Gifts, Records, & Research
Timothy Dillow, Senior Director, Individual Giving
Amanda T. Dinitz, Director, Principal Gifts & Endowment
Vivian Gonzalez, Annual Giving O cer
Kamra Kilmer, Manager, Corporate Relations
Karyn Mason, Institutional Giving O cer
Hadia Mawlawi, Endowment & Planned Giving O cer
Meghan Miller, Development Associate, Special Events
Emilie Moellmer, Membership Manager
Megan Mottu, Annual Giving O cer
Gavin Reed, Major Gifts O cer
Tim Richey, Major Gifts O cer
Katie Salvatore, Director, Annual Giving & Membership
Phillip Smith, Special Events and League Liaison O cer
Lena Streetman, Director, Development Operations
Stacey Swift, Director, Special Events
Sarah Thompson, Donor Events Manager
Christina Trunzo, Director, Institutional Giving
EDUCATION | COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Olivia Allred, Education Manager
Allison Conlan, Senior Director, Education & Community Engagement
Austin Hinkle, Education & Community Engagement Coordinator
Jazmine Olwalia, Community Engagement Manager
Sheridan Richard, DeLUXE K!ds In Harmony Site Manager
Community-Embedded Musicians (CEM):
Lindsey Baggett, Lead CEM
Lucinda Chiu, CEM Teaching Artist
David Connor, Senior CEM Teaching Artist
Rainel Joubert, Senior CEM Teaching Artist
Bensen Kwan, CEM Education Specialist
Brittany Leavitt, CEM Teaching Artist
Bianca Lozano, CEM Teaching Artist
Alexis Mitrushi, CEM Teaching Artist
Adrian Ponce, CEM Teaching Artist
Lauren Ross, CEM Teaching Artist
Jaya Varma, CEM Teaching Artist
FINANCE | ADMINISTRATION | IT | HR
José Arriaga, Systems Engineer
Henry Cantu, Finance Accountant
Kimberly Cegielski, Sta Accountant
Heather Fails, Database Administrator
Ronin Jackson, IT Intern
Joel James, Director of Human Resources
Tanya Lovetro, Director of Budgeting & Financial Reporting
Freddie Piegsa, Help Desk Technician
Morgana Rickard, Controller
Gabriela Rivera, Senior Accountant
Pam Romo, O ce Manager/HR Coordinator
Lee Whatley, Senior Director, IT & Analytics
MARKETING | COMMUNICATIONS
Bryan Ayllon, UX & Conversion Specialist
Rachel Cheng, Marketing & External Relations Assistant
Bella Cutaia, Manager, Patron Services
Kathryn Judd, Director, Marketing
Priya Kurup, Senior Associate, Group Sales
Caroline Lawson, Patron Services Representative
Lien Le, Patron Experience Coordinator
Yoo-Ell Lee, Graphics & Media Designer
Milow Lozano, Ticketing Systems & Marketing Operations Specialist
Ciara Macaulay, Creative Director
Ashley Martinez, Patron Services Coordinator
Mariah Martinez, Email Marketing Coordinator
Casey Pearce, Graphic Design Manager
Aracely Quevedo, Patron Services Representative
Eric Skelly, Senior Director, Communications
Christian Sosa, Web Experience Director
Lily Townsend, Patron Services Representative
Alexa Ustaszewski, Manager, Revenue and Audience Insights
Sophie Volpe, Digital Content Specialist
Leecia Whatley, Patron Services Representative
Jenny Zuniga, Director, Patron Services
OPERATIONS | ARTISTIC
Stephanie Alla, Associate Director of Artistic Planning
Becky Brown, Associate Director of Orchestra Personnel
Juan Pablo Brand, Artistic Assistant
Ryan Diefenderfer, Concert Operations Assistant
Megan Fisher, Assistant Librarian
Michael Gorman, Director of Orchestra Personnel
Julia Hall, Assistant Director, Houston Symphony Chorus
Parker Hart, Concert Operations Manager
Adrian Hernandez, Concert Media Production Manager
Giancarlo Minotti, Audio Production Manager
José Rios, Assistant Stage Manager
Brad Sayles, Senior Recording Engineer
Nathan Trinkl, Artistic Assistant & Assistant to the Music Director
Ali Verderber, Associate Librarian
Meredith Williams, Director of Concert Operations
Rebecca Zabinski, Senior Director of Artistic Planning
April 28, 2026
Chanticleer: Our American Journey
Chanticleer, vocal ensemble
Tim Keeler, music director
GUTIÉRREZ DE PADILLA – “Deus in Adiutorium Meum Intende”
LIENAS – “Lamentatio in Coena Domini”
BILLINGS – “Kittery (Our Father Who in Heaven Art)”
JOHNSON – “Je"erson (Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken)”†
GLANTON – “My Home Above”
WESTON – “Happy Shore”
Commissioned by Chanticleer and Spivey Hall (Clayton State University, Morrow, GA) with the generous support of Marilyn Altman and Dan Gaylord in 2025.
Arr. JENNINGS –“ There Is a Balm in Gilead”†
Arr. MURPHY –“ Wade in the Water"
DAVIDS –“ The Un-Covered Wagon”† Commissioned by Chanticleer in 2002
THOMSON – “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need” Commissioned by Chanticleer in 2021 with generous support from Alan Benaroya
WOODS – “close[r], now ”†
TWINING – “Hee-oo-oom-ha”
Arr. BARNETT – “American Folksong Medley ”†
BERLIN/Arr. JENNINGS – “Blue Skies”†
RAJU /Arr. MAHAL – “Brahmamokate”
LAWSON/WALLER/YATES/Arr. JENNINGS – “Calling My Children Home”†
SMALLS/Arr. GRAVELEY – “Home”
SEEGER/HAYS/Arr. WARD – “If I Had a Hammer ”
BRUMLEY/Arr. KEELER – “I’ll Fly Away ”
FOSTER/Arr. PUERLING – “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair ”†
FRIEND/Arr. WARD – “Lovesick Blues”
ACOSTA/Arr. GUZMÁN – “Paraiso Soñado”
BLANE/MARTIN/Arr. GRAVELEY –“ The Trolley Song ”
Tuesday, April 28
About the Music Program
Notes
Jones Hall
7:30 p.m.
This season, we celebrate the 250 th anniversary of the independence of the United States of America by revisiting Chanticleer’s 2002 album, Our American Journey. In April 2025, this album was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, which describes it as “inclusive in its celebration of the varied spirits and history of America.” We carry on today where we left off, continuing the voyage and filling in some missing gaps along the way. We showcase the diverse voices, songs, harmonies, and rhythms of our shared musical heritage, exploring how those voices influenced each other and how they impact the present day.
The focal point of the first half of our program is “ The Un-Covered Wagon” by Brent Michael Davids. The 1923 silent film, The Covered Wagon, follows the journey of an 1848 wagon train traveling across America. Told from the perspective of the pioneers, the film is a romanticized portrayal of their courage. These settlers certainly endured many hardships, but their story is not the only one we should hear. “The Un-Covered Wagon,” which Davids wrote for Chanticleer in 2002, challenges the notion that pioneers spread across an uninhabited landscape. Davids writes, “As I thought about time and space, and the differences in American Indian life in this regard, I was struck by how one-sided this American expansion is, not only for the old era of black-and-white film, but in today’s America, too.” Davids (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) describes himself as “a professional composer, and a music warrior for native equity and parity, especially in concert music where there is little Indigenous influence.” He is one of America’s most celebrated composers, with works commissioned and performed by many of America’s top organizations and ensembles throughout his 50-year compositional career. In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts named Davids among the nation’s most cherished choral composers in its project “American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.” In 2015, the prestigious Indian Summer Music Festival awarded Davids its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Indigenous American attitudes towards music are very different from those brought over by European settlers in the 1500s. Brent Michael Davids points out that “Indigenous cultures see music like giving birth, so that each new song event is a new creation. The song being sung might be a time-honored song, but when performed it is newly reborn; it is not considered the same song.” In contrast, a classical European perspective generally favors a written tradition, with notated music preserving a melody and intent for each successive performance. Thus, we find the earliest evidence of European Renaissance and Baroque polyphony in the New World in manuscripts from colonial Spain. Choirbooks with Latin motets and Mass settings to accompany Catholic liturgies have been found in Missions and Cathedrals from Mexico to California. Although details of his life are scant, it is likely that the 17th-century composer Juan de Lienas was a Native American who grew up in the Catholic church. His works survive in two manuscripts from Mexico City: the Newberry Choirbooks, which contain compositions in a florid, polychoral style, and the Codex del Convento del Carmen, in which we find the more reserved, stile antico, four-voice “Lamentatio in Coena Domini.”
Born in Málaga, Spain, Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla moved to Puebla, Mexico in the early 1620s, where he eventually became maestro de capilla at the Puebla Cathedral. The Cathedral provided him with instrumentalists, choristers, and resources on par with any Continental establishment, and Padilla’s hundreds of extant works, like his polychoral motet “Deus in Adiutorium Meum Intende ,” demonstrate a talent and ambition that rival any of his contemporaries.
Program Notes
One hundred years after Padilla and Lienas, the English colonies in North America began to develop their own distinct choral sound. Protestant colonists wanted little to do with Latin motets. In fact, Puritans banned choral music altogether from their church services. The surviving repertoire of the 13 original American colonies comes to us from New England hymnals and songbooks written in the mid to late 1700s. The composers writing at this time, often referred to collectively as the First New England School, or Yankee Tunesmiths, were largely self-taught. William Billings, perhaps the most recognizable name from this tradition, was the first American to publish a book of entirely original compositions, The New England Psalm Singer, with a frontispiece engraved by none other than Paul Revere (1770). The part-writing in these early works, with titles derived from locations or people, like “Kittery,” often disregards rules of formal counterpoint, featuring plenty of parallel perfect intervals and irregular doublings and spacings.
This early American style came to be adopted by other singing communities throughout the new nation. Because of their simplicity and pedagogical nature, many of those first New England tunes were adopted into the burgeoning shape note singing tradition of the early 19 th century. In an effort to spread music literacy, shape note tunebooks, like The Sacred Harp (1844), use distinct noteheads for each movable “do” solfège syllable. Thus, instead of memorizing 12 different keys and all their nuances, an amateur singer using a shape note tunebook needs only to memorize a handful of symbols in order to participate in choral singing. Alexander Johnson published his collection of shape note tunes, The Tennessee Harmony, which includes the song “Jefferson,” in 1818.
These early American shape note songbooks are primarily the product of White publishers and composers, even though the tradition of African American shape note singing dates back to at least the 1870s. It wasn’t until 1934 that Judge J. Jackson self-published The Colored Sacred Harp, a collection of 77 shape note songs written by Black composers, including “My Home Above.”
Another type of American early music was developing in Black communities at the same time as shape note singing and Protestant hymnody: the African American spiritual. The origins of the spiritual are hard to pinpoint; firsthand accounts from formerly enslaved people describe the spiritual as “the progeny of the Black collective rather than the individual composer” (Burnim, African American Music, 50). What is certain is that this art form coalesced at the end of the 18th century as a unique synthesis of African musical styles and Christian themes and traditions.
It is clear from firsthand descriptions that there existed a distinct African musical repertory in the Americas independent of White and European customs. This repertory, and its performance practices, shaped and changed the concurrently developing American Protestant hymn tradition. In 1801, for example, Richard Allen compiled a new hymn book for his independent African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregation. While some tunes in this book came from the standard Methodist hymnal, Allen wrote and changed many texts, added choruses, and likely composed some of the melodies himself. His goal “was to generate congregational participation and assure freedom of worship for his members” (Burnim, African American Music, 57). In “Happy Shore,” a new commission for Chanticleer’s 2025-2026 season, Trevor Weston takes a fresh look at this early American musical landscape. “My goal,” he writes, “was not to compose a new spiritual,” but instead to create “a choral work that imagines the transformation of a Western European Protestant hymn with traditional African American vocal and choral traditions. [...] After choosing an Allen hymn text, I composed my own 19 th-century Protestant hymn, then generated material considering the musical characteristics of spirituals and other African American religious choral music. Text from the original hymn is adapted and altered to reflect the more active, hortative nature of traditional African American choral music. I have always been fascinated by the Church Moans and the Long Meter Hymn singing in African American choral traditions. Both performance practices influence parts of ‘Happy Shore.’” Dr. Weston is the chair of the music department at Drew University, where he teaches theory and composition.
We conclude the first half of our program with two African American spirituals, which act as the culmination of our journey through American early music. “ There is a Balm in Gilead ,” arranged by Music Director Emeritus
Program Notes
Joseph H. Jennings, describes the healing grace of salvation through the love of Jesus. In 2014, Jennings was the first recipient of Chorus America’s Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award, acknowledging his contribution to the African American choral tradition. His 25-year tenure with Chanticleer as singer and Music Director transformed the group, and his gospel and spiritual arrangements became integral to Chanticleer’s identity. We are honored to maintain and continue that legacy today.
“ Wade in the Water ” is a not-so-coded instruction for escaping enslaved people to leave the road and move into the water to avoid sniffing dogs and slave catchers. The arranger, Stephen M. Murphy, is a graduate of Oakwood University, where he studied with Jason Max Ferdinand, and Middle Tennessee State University, where he studied with former Take 6 baritone Cedric Dent. Murphy writes that, in this arrangement, his “desire was to capture the urgency in the message of this song. A starting point for me in which to achieve this was to provide a more rhythmic driven aspect than I had prior been used to hearing. In addition, as a lover of vocal jazz, […] I embarked on an endeavor to lift the text off of the paper by experimenting with, and incorporating, expanded harmonies throughout the piece.”
Classical American choral music found its footing in the 20 th century, with many composers drawing inspiration from traditions and sounds of the past. Composer and critic Virgil Thomson often wove hymn tunes and American folk songs into his orchestral music. Thomson first set the shape note tune “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need” as an orchestral accompaniment for The River, a film sponsored by the U.S. Government and intended to raise awareness for the erosion of topsoil along the Mississippi River due to farming and timber practices in the 1930s.
American classical choral music followed the shape of American society into the 21st century by continually pushing the boundaries of form, style, and subject matter. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we commissioned the Chicago-based composer Ayanna Woods to write us a piece that touched on some of our shared experiences during that time. The text for “close[r], now ” is an erasure poem created by Woods. The source material is an L.A. Times editorial from March 2020 detailing the reasons why theaters and the performing arts should “close, now.” Woods restructured and resampled the article to create a new text full of questioning and yearning. She closes the piece with an imperative for the world: “come back to life.” Ayanna Woods is a Grammy Award-winning performer, composer, and bandleader from Chicago. Her music explores the spaces between acoustic and electronic, traditional and esoteric, wildly improvisational and mathematically rigorous.
In “Hee-oo-oom-ha ,” American composer Toby Twining challenges our preconceptions about singing with extended vocal techniques like vocal fry, yodeling, and rhythmic panting. He combines these striking sounds with polyrhythms, mixed meters, and open harmonies to create a joyful celebration of song. Raised in Texas with family roots in country-swing and gospel, Twining has moved from playing in rock and jazz bands, to singing Renaissance motets, to performing and composing experimental music. He moved to New York City in 1987, initially writing for modern dance choreographers who wanted the sounds of a new choral music. His group, Toby Twining Music, recorded many of his compositions on the albums Shaman (Sony Classics 1994), Chrysalid Requiem, and Eurydice (Cantaloupe Music 2002, 2011). His music has been performed and recorded internationally by solo artists and groups including the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, Young People’s Chorus of New York City, and Roomful of Teeth. He is the recipient of Guggenheim and Pew fellowships and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2013 Grants to Artists award. Twining lives in the Shenandoah Valley, where he works with student dancers, actors, and musicians at James Madison University.
The remainder of our program explores American popular music in many forms, from folksongs (“American Folksong Medley,” “I’ll Fly Away”), to protest songs (“If I Had a Hammer”), to the Great American Songbook (“The Trolley Song”), to musical theater (“Home”), to parlor songs (“Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”), to bluegrass (“Calling My Children Home”), to country (“Lovesick Blues”). Also included are songs written or arranged by first or second-generation immigrants, who help to keep our American cultural fabric rich and vibrant (“Blue Skies,” “Paraiso Soñado,” “Brahmamokate”).
—Tim Keeler
Program Bio
Chanticleer, vocal ensemble
countertenor
Tavian Cox*
Luke Elmer*
Cortez Mitchell*
Bradley Sharpe
Logan Shields
Adam Brett Ward
tenor
Vineel Garisa Mahal*
Matthew Mazzola
Andrew Van Allsburg
baritone and bass
Andy Berry*
Jared Graveley
Matthew Knickman
Tim Keeler, Music Director
Known around the world for its eclectic repertoire and dazzling virtuosity, the Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer—under the leadership of Music Director Tim Keeler—has been hailed by The Boston Globe as “breathtaking in its accuracy of intonation, purity of blend, of color and swagger of style.” Founded in San Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in the world, an “orchestra of voices” performing thousands of live concerts and selling more than one million recordings. Rooted in the Renaissance, Chanticleer’s repertoire has expanded to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz, and popular music. With a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements, Chanticleer foregrounds American repertoire and a distinctively American sound, complementing the group’s signature diversity in terms of membership and genre. The ensemble has dedicated much of its vast recording catalogue to
†These pieces have been recorded by Chanticleer.
these commissions, garnering Grammy Awards for its recordings of Sir John Tavener’s Lamentations and Praises and the ambitious collection of commissioned works entitled Colors of Love.
Chanticleer is the recipient of Chorus America’s Dale Warland Commission Award and the Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. The group’s Music Director Emeritus, Joseph H. Jennings, received the Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award for his contribution to the African American choral tradition during his 25-year tenure as both singer and Music Director.
Chanticleer—named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales—was named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America in 2008 and inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. The group’s award-winning education programs were recognized with the 2010 Chorus America Education Outreach Award, and have engaged tens of thousands of students since the ensemble began.
*Andy Berry occupies The Eric Alatorre Chair, given by Peggy Skornia. Luke Elmer occupies The Ning G. Mercer Chair for the Preservation of the Chanticleer Legacy, given by Ning and Stephen Mercer. Vineel Garisa Mahal occupies The Tenor Chair, given by an Anonymous Donor. Cortez Mitchell occupies The Cortez Mitchell Chair, given by James R. Meehan.
Anne Heinrich, the loving wife of the late pianist, composer, entrepreneur, and software developer Dan Timis, has sponsored countertenor Tavian Cox’s full-time position for Chanticleer’s 2025–26 season.