SWACDA 2024 Welcome Concert

SWACDA WELCOME CONCERT 02.27.2024 | Tuesday @ 7:00 pm Trinity United Methodist Church, Denver

OLA GJEILO | DREAMWEAVER

Sarah Moyer Spotlight Vocalist

Ola Gjeilo Spotlight Composer & Pianist

SWACDA WELCOME CONCERT LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH I.

ALBERTO GINASTERA (1916 – 1983)

O VOS OMNES QUI TRANSITIS PER VIAM

II. EGO VIR VIDENS PAUPERTATEM MEAM III. RECORDARE DOMINE QUID ACCIDERIT NOBIS

MY HEART BE BRAVE

MARQUES L. A. GARRETT (B. 1984)

TAKE HIM, EARTH, FOR CHERISHING

HERBERT HOWELLS (1892 – 1983)

THANKSGIVER: A CHILD'S RHYME

JEAN BELMONT FORD (B. 1936)

DREAMWEAVER Ola Gjeilo, piano; Sarah Moyer, soprano; String Orchestra

I.

PROLOGUE

II. DREAMSONG III. THE BRIDGE IV. INTERMEZZO V. PARADISE VI. DOMINION VII. EPILOGUE

We would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support:

To make a general contribution to Kantorei, text “Kantorei” to 44321 Thank you!

OLA GJEILO (B. 1978)

Kantorei’s Vision:

To elevate the human experience through choral excellence

Our Mission:

Kantorei is an inclusive community of volunteer singers that invites audiences to experience the richness and diversity of the choral art form, joyously executed at the highest standard of musical excellence. We are innovators: we responsibly leverage our resources to commission work by living composers, perform music by underrepresented and emerging artists, encourage future talent through educational engagement, and nurture the choral community.

Our Values:

Musical Excellence – We maintain the highest possible standards.

We hold ourselves and each other accountable for putting in the necessary effort. We take on artistic challenges that many choirs cannot. We provide our audiences with unique musical experiences performed with professionalism, accuracy, passion, and finesse. We are a volunteer choir with world-class aspirations and achievements.

Inclusion – We strive to create a singer community where individuals from all backgrounds and experiences can be their best. We celebrate and perform composers that have been underrepresented in the choral tradition alongside those who have historically enjoyed the spotlight. We amplify voices that should be heard, and seek to bring our voices to new places. We connect diverse audiences through the power of music.

Joy – We make music because it brings us joy and we are passionate about sharing that joy with others. Audiences feel our connection to each other and the music; through our work they experience intellectual and emotional expansion. Sharing this joy with each other and our audiences is a privilege.

Community – We provide an opportunity for singers, artists, students, and audiences from many different backgrounds and identities to share in musical experiences that allow us to transcend the world we live in. Our singers show up for each other, both musically and personally. We are in community with the composers who partner with us. We create nurturing relationships with other choirs so we can collectively thrive. We show young and emerging artists what their musical future can look like.

Innovation – As an organization, we are never stagnant. We feel a responsibility to use our funding to educate, delight, and amaze, which is evident through every aspect of our work: programming, recordings, concerts, and community impact. We move the art form forward by celebrating the full diversity of modern choral composition, and juxtaposing it with treasured work of the traditional canon. Our audiences can feel the musical past resonating with wisdom in the present, and the present reaching back to seek guidance from the past.

Land acknowledgement Kantorei honors and acknowledges the Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) Tribes, and all of the original Indigenous peoples of the land upon which we rehearse and perform.

PROGRAM NOTES LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH The task of Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, was to inform the people of Jerusalem that their sinfulness would lead to their destruction. When the Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar, invaded in 586 BC, Jeremiah was left to lament over the sacked city. His cries appear in the Book of Lamentations, and are some of the most emotionally powerful words of the Bible.

Many composers who have suffered political or religious oppression, most prominently Thomas Tallis (a recusant Catholic in militantly Protestant Elizabethan England) have found special inspiration in Jeremiah’s mourning for his conquered home. Let us now fast-forward about 2,500 years.

Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah is Alberto Ginastera’s only major work for unaccompanied voices, but it is one of the great choral masterpieces of the mid-twentieth century.

Composed neither to commission nor to fit any specific liturgy, it was simply his personal response to political oppression. In addition to minor-key tonality, Ginastera frequently invokes quartal harmonies—based on the interval of a fourth, rather than the traditional third. This gives the entire work a harmonic restlessness, shifting back and forth with sometimes dramatic results. For example, the first movement begins with anguished cries based on the fourth between B and E, culminating in a prominent fourth of E and A, but proceeds immediately to a fugue subject (“et videte si est dolor…”) roughly in the key of E minor. This harmonic tension is built on the text: when Jeremiah expresses his own feelings, the music is in minor, but quartal harmony predominates when God’s qualities or actions are recounted.

After the whirlwind of the first movement, the second comes as a contrasting oasis.

Ginastera again begins with a fugue in the bass.

A special highlight of this movement occurs as Jeremiah recalls “light” (“lucem”), and we hear a brief moment of major tonality. However, quartal harmony soon returns to the fore. At “In tenebrosis” (“In dark places”), the tenors and basses move in a quartal ostinato (with hints of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms), while the sopranos and altos move freely, neither tonal nor quartal, as if it is too dark to see the harmonic structure. The first movement had begun impassioned, high and loud; the second ends low and soft, as Jeremiah reaches deepest despair.

After an initial quartal fugue, the third movement is the work’s harmonic tour de force. Beginning with “converte nos Domine ad te” (“turn us, Lord, to you”), Ginastera shifts so frequently from tonal to quartal sonorities that there is no true harmonic home. Once again, the text reveals the composer’s intention: Jeremiah, in thirds, is in conflict with God, in fourths. At the climax of the movement’s second fugue (“Tu autem Domine”—“You, however, Lord”), the choral acclamations of “generationem” (“generations”) go unheeded by the sopranos, who continue the fugue subject. After such harmonic and emotional travails, Ginastera’s grandly triumphant culmination is all the more breathtaking.

- Dr. Gary D. Cannon; cannonesque.com

MY HEART BE BRAVE In My Heart Be Brave, composer Marques L. A. Garrett sets a sonnet by American civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson (1871 – 1938).

“Look up, and out, beyond… There is a power making for the right.” It is a plea for steadfastness in the face of difficulties encountered in the struggle for civil rights. Garrett begins with calm, perhaps reassuring moods. More nimble lines, even eager ones, develop, leading toward visions of “inspiring hope.” Surely, hope is one sort of bravery, and if a cappella voices can inspire it, then let it be done!

- ©Betsy Schwarm, author of the Classical Music Insights series

hour God hath appointed” and “Once again the shining road”ring out vividly. Howell’s hymn of remembrance closes as sweetly as it had begun, with a restatement of the title phrase.

Apparently, ‘cherishing’ is not a thought that must ring to the rafters.

-© Betsy Schwarm, author of the Classical Music Insights series THANKSGIVER: A CHILD’S RHYME Jean Belmont Ford composed this powerful and poignant piece as a gift to Joel Rinsema and Kantorei. We are reminded to “Hold this thought when far away from those you love who cannot stay…” and that even when we are faced with adversity, we can always find comfort in those who love us, no matter where they may be.

TAKE HIM, EARTH, FOR CHERISHING

DREAMWEAVER

When President Kennedy was slain November 22, 1963, his passing was a loss not only for Americans, but indeed, for the world. Musical memorials drew the participation of numerous worthy composers, amongst them England’s Herbert Howells (1892 – 1983). Having filled his catalog mostly with Anglican hymns, he felt honored to be invited to write something for the Catholic president’s memorial service at Washington Cathedral.

Dreamweaver’s text is based on a well-known Norwegian medieval folk poem, Draumkvedet; and epic ballad that has a lot in common with Dante’s much longer The Divine Comedy. The protagonist, Olav Åsteson, falls asleep on Christmas Eve and sleeps until the twelfth day of Christmas. He wakes up, and rides to church to describe his dreams to the congregation, about his brave, beautiful, terrifying, and ultimately redeeming journey through the afterlife.

The text for Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing comes from a Latin prayer by Prudentius, a Christian poet of 4th century Rome. Using an English translation by Helen Waddell, Howell’s setting opens tenderly, contrasting men’s voices and women’s, with occasional high descant phrases floating above. In places, the words inspired more impassioned, even energetic. Rather than being set sotto voce, references to “the

Draumkvedet has for this piece been adapted into a playful version penned by my regular collaborator, poet Charles Anthony Silvestri.

Dreamweaver was commissioned by Halgrim Thon and premiered by the Manhattan Chorale at Carnegie Hall in 2014.

– Ola Gjeilo

Joel led Kantorei in performances at the 2019 National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association, and has prepared Kantorei as the primary chorus for the Aspen Music Festival, with Maestro Robert Spano conducting, in the summers of 2021 and 2022. More recently, he conducted Kantorei along with the Canadian Brass in December of 2022, and commissioned and prepared Kantorei for the world premiere of the string orchestra version of Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil, conducted by the composer, and guest conducted The Sacred Veil with the Washington (DC) Choral Arts Society in May of 2023.

A passionate advocate for the professional choral art form, Joel frequently consults with choral arts organizations around the country. Because of his leadership in his field, he received the Louis Botto Award for “Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal” from Chorus America, the industry’s advocacy, research, and leadership development organization for choruses, choral leaders, and singers.

Photo courtesy of Williams Pérez

JOEL M. RINSEMA Managing Artistic Director

Joel M. Rinsema joined Kantorei (Denver, Colorado USA) in 2014, becoming the second conductor in its 25-year history.

During his tenure, Kantorei has experienced tremendous audience growth, nearly quadrupled its budget, and launched an ambitious recording strategy. A frequent collaborator and champion of new works for chorus, Joel has commissioned and premiered works by many of today’s leading composers, including Kim André Arnesen, Mason Bates, René Clausen, Jean Belmont Ford, Ola Gjeilo, Jocelyn Hagen, Mark Hayes, Cecilia McDowall, Sarah Quartel, Jake Runestad, Christopher Tin, and Eric Whitacre.

In the summer of 2022, Joel conducted the Central American premiere of Jake Runestad’s El Último Hilo (The Last Thread) in Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala with Kantorei and the Guatemalan choir Vocalis. He returned in May of 2023 to conduct Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil and serves as Artistic Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor of Vocalis.

Under Joel’s direction, Kantorei has released two recordings on the Naxos label. Sing, Wearing the Sky: Choral Music of Jake Runestad (2020) was the #3 best-selling classical album on iTunes, reached #4 on the Traditional Classical Billboard Charts, and was in the top ten in both the best-selling classical album and new classical release categories on Amazon. Infinity: Choral Works of Kim André Arnesen (2018) climbed to the #2 bestselling classical album on iTunes, #6 on the Traditional Classical Billboard Charts, and #19 on the overall Classical Billboard charts. Santa Barbara Music Publishing Inc., publishes the Joel Rinsema / Kantorei Choral series.

Joel is an accomplished conductor of major works for choir and orchestra and was one of eighteen conductors chosen nationally through audition to participate in master classes and workshops presented by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and Chorus America. As a tenor soloist, Joel performed across the United States as well as in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.

Joel also serves as Director of Music and Technology in Worship at First Plymouth Congregational Church in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado. He was also the North American Choral Promotion Manager for Oxford University Press based in Oxford, England from 2017 to 2020, a tenure during which he worked closely with and represented roster composers John Rutter, Mack Wilberg, Bob Chilcott, Sarah Quartel, Cecilia McDowall, Gabriel Jackson, and Will Todd among others.

He holds music degrees from Arizona State University and Whitworth University and is a member of the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammys), and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).

Joel came to Kantorei from the Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale. Throughout his 23-year tenure with the Phoenix Chorale, he served in nearly every capacity with the organization, including his last 15 years as President & CEO and Assistant Conductor. He negotiated an ongoing recording contract with the prestigious U.K.-based Chandos Records, and Phoenix Chorale recordings received a total of eight Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards during his tenure. Joel appears on all Phoenix Chorale recordings and was a soloist on the Grammy Award-winning “Spotless Rose: Hymn to the Virgin Mary.” In addition to his work with the Phoenix Chorale, Joel served as the Director of Music at Church of the Beatitudes United Church of Christ in Phoenix for 15 years, and he was the founding chorus master of the Arizona Musicfest Chorus.

He and his wife Sarah Branton (Choir Director at Cherry Creek High School) and stepson Simon Harrison live in Centennial, Colorado along with their miniature Dachshund Lucia. They enjoy all that Colorado has to offer outdoors, including camping, fishing, golfing, and snow skiing.

Kantorei is a Denver-based, choral ensemble comprised of volunteer singers under the direction of Managing Artistic Director Joel M. Rinsema.

Formed in 1997 under the leadership of six friends and artistic director Richard Larson, Kantorei has established itself as one of the nation’s premier choral ensembles.

Our choral artists have studied at schools with strong music programs across the United States such as Baylor University, Brigham Young University, Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, St. Olaf College, Wartburg College, and Westminster Choir College. Kantorei’s singers reside throughout the greater Denver area. Some serve as choral music educators, church choir conductors, and vocal instructors. Others are doctors, social workers, optometrists, counselors, clinical psychologists, accountants, realtors – all brought together in weekly rehearsals for shared artistic excellence and community.

Kantorei has performed for major choral conventions across the U.S. and with The Aspen Music Festival, toured the world, and has commissioned and premiered new choral works from such renowned composers as Kim André Arnesen, Eric William Barnum, Abbie Betinis, René Clausen, Ola Gjeilo, Jocelyn Hagen, Sarah Quartel, Jake Runestad, Joshua Shank, and Eric Whitacre. In the summer of 2022, Kantorei performed the Central American premiere of Jake Runestad’s “El Último Hilo” in Guatemala City and Antigua, Guatemala, along with Guatemalan choir Vocalis. In the fall of 2021, Kantorei began its three-year collaboration with M. Roger Holland, II as Artistin-Residence.

Kantorei has released two recordings on the Naxos label.

“Sing, Wearing the Sky” (2020) choral music of Jake Runestad reached the #3 best-selling classical album on iTunes, #4 on the Traditional Classical Billboard Charts, and the top ten in both the best-selling classical album and new classical release categories on Amazon. “Infinity: Choral Works of Kim André Arnesen” (2018) climbed to the #2 best-selling classical album on iTunes, #6 on the Traditional Classical Billboard Charts and #19 on the overall Classical Billboard charts.

Santa Barbara Music Publishing Inc. publishes the Kantorei Choral series.

Kantorei’s vision is “to elevate the human experience through choral excellence.”

“Thank you for the joy you have brought into my life.”

“I've been smiling all day long. I'm so glad I got to experience the beauty of Kantorei's performance. It was truly heartwarming.”

“What an incredible experience…words cannot convey the magnitude of the program…spellbinding. Not soon to be forgotten.”

ARTISTS

THE CHOIR SOPRANO

ALTO

TENOR

BASS

Victoria Bailey Beryl Fanslow Wilson Riley Jayne Gallivan Christina Graham Stacie Hanson * Becca Hyvonen Shannon Lemmon-Elrod Sara Michael * Lexie Orvin Martina Richardson Alicia Rigsby ◊ Pearl Rutherford Christianna Sullins Leah Tracy

Safia Ahmed Emily Alexander Lindsey Aquilina Lyn Berry-Helmlinger Sarah Branton * Desiree Deliz-Morales Erin Greenfield Chelsea Kendall Melissa Menter Erin Meyerhoff Jennifer Moore Allison Pasternak * Kaleigh Sutula Andrea Ware-Medina Jane Wright

Kai Berry-Helmlinger * Ben Corwyn Joshua Corwyn Matthew Eschliman Keith Ferguson Mason France Keith Harrison Bryce Kennedy Samuel Low Alex Menter Chad Nelsen Seth O'Kegley * Zachariah Smith Jonathan Von Stroh John Wright

John Bartley Michael Bizzaro * Jordan Black Michael Boender Adam Cave Garth Criswell Scott Horowitz Brad Jackson Brad Larson Bryan Lastrella John Ludwig John Schaak Kirk Schjodt * Griffin Sutherland Matt Weissenbuehler

Ola Gjeilo is one of the most frequently performed composers in the choral world. An accomplished pianist, improvisations over his own published choral pieces have become a trademark of his collaborations. Although Norwegian by birth, it is perhaps Ola’s adopted country of America that has influenced the composer’s distinctive soundworld the most, evolving a style that is often described as cinematic and evocative, with a lush, harmonious sound.

Ola grew up in a musically eclectic home listening to classical, jazz, pop and folk, a broad background he later incorporated into his classical composition studies at The Juilliard School, the Royal College of Music in London, and currently as a New York City-based freelance composer. He is especially inspired by the improvisational art of film composer Thomas Newman, jazz legends Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny, glass artist Dale Chihuly and architect Frank Gehry.

* Section leader ◊ Collaborative Pianist

THE ORCHESTRA

OLA GJIELO

VIOLIN 1

VIOLIN 2

VIOLA

CELLO

BASS

Sarah Whitnah ‡ Mary Evans Adrienne Short Zachary Regent Heather McArthur Stephanie Bork Desiree Suarez Andrew Horak

Brune Macary Emilly Lewis Kina Ono Yerim Kim Rachel Sliker Chris Leonard

Allyson Stibbards Aimee McAnulty Kyla Witt Alex Vittal

Dylan Tyree Joseph Howe Andrew Brown Phil Norman

Kurt Melendy Peter Huffaker

Featured Composer & Pianist

Photo courtesy of Lillian Andersen

Ola’s music is published by Walton Music (choral), Boosey & Hawkes (wind band), and Chester Music (piano). For more information, please visit olagjeilo.com, or find Ola on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Poet, author, composer, and speaker Charles Anthony Silvestri has worked with other artists from all over the world to create texts tailor-made for their commissions and specific artistic needs. He enjoys the challenge of solving these creative problems and has provided custom choral texts, opera libretti, program notes and other writing for composers including Eric Whitacre, Ola Gjeilo, Kim Arnesen, and Dan Forrest, and for ensembles ranging from high schools to the Houston Grand Opera, from the King’s Singers to the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, from Westminster Choir College to Westminster Abbey.

‡ Concertmaster

FEELING ELEVATED? We want to hear about it! Please share your thoughts about today's performance with us at KANTOREI.ORG/AUDIENCE-FEEDBACK

Ola is an exclusive Decca Classics artist, and his Decca albums include Ola Gjeilo and Winter Songs, also featuring Tenebrae, Voces8 and the Choir of Royal Holloway, as well as the solo piano albums Night & Dawn. The recordings are available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and all major platforms. He is currently composer-in-residence with DCINY.

CHARLES ANTHONY SILVESTRI Featured Librettist

Photo courtesy of Catherine Norwood

​ s a clinician, Silvestri speaks to choirs, classes, and concert A audiences about his works, the creative process, the marriage of words and music, and about his collaborative relationships with composers. He is the author of three books, including A Silver Thread (GIA 2019), a retrospective of almost 20 years of his lyric poetry. He teaches Ancient and Medieval History at Washburn University and lives in Lawrence, KS.

Known for her “purity and flawless range” (South Florida Classical Review), soprano Sarah Moyer’s most recent and upcoming work as a concert artist includes Jomelli’s Requiem with Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion with Colorado Bach Ensemble, Handel’s Messiah with Bourbon Baroque, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, as well as countless Bach cantatas with Emmanuel Music, and Monteverdi’s Lamento della Nympha with Skylark Vocal Ensemble. She has also performed as a soloist with the Cape Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project, among others. As a soloist, she has performed world premieres by Harbison: No better time than now, Theofanidis: Four Levertov Settings, Runestad: The Hope of Loving, Cohen: Sauntering Songs, Kallembach: Easter Oratorio, and Grant: SALT, and American premieres by Melani: Teodora and Nørgård: Nova Genitura and Seadrift.

As a choral artist, she appears with GRAMMY® nominated groups Skylark, Seraphic Fire, Conspirare, Clarion Music Society, True Concord, as well as Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Variant 6, Spire, and Artefact. She is featured as a soloist on Skylark’s newest albums Sauntering Songs and La Vie en Rose, and GRAMMY® nominated albums Seven Words from the Cross and Once Upon a Time, and can be heard on albums with Variant 6, Seraphic Fire, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and True Concord.

Sarah received her Bachelor's degree in Music from Oklahoma State University and her Masters degree in Music from New England Conservatory. She grew up in Bixby, Oklahoma, and now lives in Denver, CO with her husband, 17 month-old son, and catahoula leopard Acadia. When Sarah is not singing concert repertoire, she enjoys reviving popular songs from the early 20th century while accompanying herself on the ukulele, training for triathlons, and hiking in the Rockies with her family.

SARAH MOYER Featured Vocalist

Photo courtesy of Vasuma

TEXT & TRANSLATIONS Lamentations Of Jeremiah I. O vos omnes qui transitis per viam Lamentations 1:12, 20, 16; 3:66

O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam, attendite et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus: quoniam vindemiavit me, ut locutus est Dominus in die iræ furoris sui.

Vide Domine quoniam tribulor, conturbatus est venter meus, subversum est cor meum in memet ipsa, quoniam amaritudine plena sum: foris interficit gladius, et domi mors similis est.

Idcirco ego plorans, et oculus meus deducens aquas: quia longe factus est, a me consolator, convertens animam meam: facti sunt filii mei perditi, quoniam invaluit inimicus.

Persequeris in furore, et conteres eos sub cœlis, Domine.

O, all you who pass this way, behold and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow: For the Lord has afflicted me, as He said in the day of his raging anger.

See, Lord, I am troubled, my bowels writhe in anguish, my heart is turned within me, for I am full of bitterness: abroad the sword destroys, and at home is death.

For that reason I lament, and my eye pours down water: for the consoler, who may renew my soul, is taken from me: my sons are desolate, for the enemy grows victorious.

Persist in fury, and crush them under the heavens, Lord.

II. Ego vir videns paupertatem meam Lamentations 3:1-2, 4, 6, 8, 18

Ego vir videns paupertatem meam in virga indignationis eius.

Me minavit et adduxit in tenebras,\ et non in lucem.

Vetustam fecit pellem meam, et carnam meam, contrivit ossa mea.

In tenebrosis collocavit me, quasi mortuos sempiternos.

Sed et cum clamavero, et rogavero, exclusit orationem meam.

Et dixi: periit finis meus, et spes mea a Domino.

I am the man who sees my poverty under the rod of His indignation.

He has led me away and suspended me in darkness, where no light is.

He has made my skin and flesh old, and has broken my bones.

He has put me in dark places, like those long dead.

But whenever I cry out and plead, He shuts out my prayer.

And I said: my strength has perished, and my hope, because of the Lord.

III. Recordare Domine quid acciderit nobis Lamentations 5:1, 21, 19

Recordare Domine quid acciderit nobis, intuere et respice opprobrium nostrum.

Converte nos Domine ad te, et convertemur: innova dies nostros, sicut a principio.

Tu autem Domine in æternum permanedis, solium tuum in generationem et generationem.

Remember, Lord, what has befallen us: look and consider our disgrace.

Turn us back to you, Lord, and we shall come back: renew our days as in the beginning.

You, however, Lord, forever will remain, your throne for generations and generations.

My Heart Be Brave

“Sonnet” - James Weldon Johnson My heart be brave, and do not falter so, Nor utter more that deep, despairing wail.

Thy way is very dark and drear I know, But do not let thy strength and courage fail; For certain as the raven-winged night Is followed by the bright and blushing morn, Thy coming morrow will be clear and bright; ’Tis darkest when the night is furthest worn.

Look up, and out, beyond, surrounding clouds, And do not in thine own gross darkness grope, Rise up, and casting off thy hind’ring shrouds, Cling thou to this, and ever inspiring hope: Tho’ thick the battle and tho’ fierce the fight, There is power in making for the right.

TEXT & TRANSLATIONS Alleluia. Alleluia,

TAKE HIM, EARTH, FOR CHERISHING Aurelias Clemens Prudentius (348-413); from “Hymnus circa Exsequias Defuncti;” trans. Helen Waddell Take him, earth, for cherishing, to thy tender breast receive him.

Body of a man I bring thee, Noble even in its ruin.

Once was this a spirit’s dwelling, By the breath of God created.

High the heart that here was beating, Christ the prince of all its living.

Guard him well, the dead I give thee, Not unmindful of His creature Shall He ask it: He who made it Symbol of his mystery.

Comes the hour God hath appointed to fulfil the hope of men, then must thou, in very fashion, What I give, return again.

Not though ancient time decaying Wear away these bones to sand, Ashes that a man might measure In the hollow of his hand: Not though wandering winds and idle, Drifting through the empty sky, Scatter dust was nerve and sinew, Is it given to man to die.

Once again the shining road Leads to ample Paradise; Open are the woods again, That the serpent lost for men.

Take, O take him, Mighty Leader, Take again thy servant’s soul.

Grave his name, and pour the fragrant Balm upon the icy stone.

THANKSGIVER: A CHILD’S RHYME Jean Belmont Ford

Hold this thought when far away From those you love who cannot stay: One was two, then three, then four.

They saw you through.

They knew you more.

Hold this thought when far away From those you love for whom you pray: Five or six may pick up sticks, They know not what they do.

But seven or eight who met you late Came with you as you grew.

Alleluia. Alleluia.

Hold this thought when far away From those you miss each passing day: Time will line the nine or ten Who sign up for each test.

Yet those who love can reach out now To comfort all the rest.

Alleluia. Alleluia.

Hold on. Hold on.

DREAMWEAVER

Charles Anthony Silvestri

1. Prologue

Listen!

I sing the sacred vision Of the All-Wise Wanderer, The Weaver of Dreams.

On Christmas Eve he fell asleep, So deep, so deep, And woke upon Epiphany With tales to tell.

He hurried to the holy Mass And stood upon the threshold; The warp and weft of wandering He wove into his tale.

2. Dreamsong

And this was his dreamsong: My journey began In a rugged land, Hard and fast And unforgiving.

I made my way.

3. The Crossing

Beasts there were, And wilder things, And shades of night Were in that land; I was afraid.

The monster’s claws Tore at my cloak; With piercing eyes They saw my soul.

I ran away.

For many leagues I traveled west Until at last— My journey’s end— I saw the Bridge!

Stretching out Across the sky, The way was barred To all but wise.

I went across.

This bridge was spanned across a sea of ice— A silver band, a way to Paradise.

A fair wide land did open up at last; I stopped to stand where Future reckons Past.

And in that place the Pilgrim Church did rise Where, full of grace, our Holy Mother wise Bade me embrace her heart of gold and red; And o’er her face a loving smile was spread.

Listen!

I sing the sacred vision Of the All-Wise Wanderer, The Weaver of Dreams.

And this was his dreamsong: I met a man, whose coat was stained in blood, All mired was he, up to his knees in mud; He held a frightened child under his arm, And bitterly he wept for causing harm.

5. Paradise

She spoke in gentle tone and bade me go Where every sin is known, where cold winds blow, Unto the very throne of God to see Where sorrow is unknown, forgiveness, free.

6. Dominion

And through darkness appeared the Christ, wreathed in light, flanked by saints and angels beyond number, and crowned as King and Judge over all the earth. The Deceiver turned in fear, and fled from before the Glory of the Lord and the Host of

Heaven.

Among the souls Who trembled there Burdened down With sin and fear, I took my place.

To Christ the Judge St. Michael spoke, Defending us Despite our shame.

I hung my head.

So one by one We stood alone Before our Maker And our Judge.

He called my name.

His burning heart Loved away my shame, And forged my soul Anew by Grace-I was redeemed!

7. Epilogue

Cloaked all in lead another fell, Laden with burdens heavy; She lost her soul in fear of hell In hope that she might be free.

Others there were by pain ensnared By their grief and tribulation Hoping that they may yet be spared And praying for salvation He forged their souls Anew by Grace-And all were redeemed.

30 DONORS IN 30 DAYS FEBRUARY 10 – MARCH 10, 2024 The members of Kantorei each have a goal: Get 30 people to donate any amount in 30 days! This year’s singer-led fundraising campaign will support costs to fund our upcoming projects with GRAMMY winning composer, Christopher Tin: • Commissioning a new multi-movement work for Kantorei • The premiere performance in October 2024 • Recording an album of Christopher Tin’s new choral works in January 2025 (to be released on the DECCA label later in 2025)

If you would like to contribute, you can do so online at www.kantorei.org/giving/scholarship.

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Kantorei is also offering a Classroom Grant which will support underfunded high school choral programs by offering classroom grants to teachers to be used for choir-related expenses. The members of Kantorei are still singing because we were fortunate to have received a solid choral foundation in high school and college. Kantorei’s vision is that one day every music student in Colorado will have this solid foundation.

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The Alison N. Roman Memorial Scholarship is designed to support students of color who intend to pursue the choral arts in college, whether as a music major or a singer in collegiate choral groups.

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Alison Roman was a beloved member of the Kantorei family and a fiercely dedicated music educator. She touched countless lives, and for this reason, with the blessing of Alison’s family, the Kantorei board of directors has named the Kantorei Individual Scholarship the Alison N. Roman Memorial Scholarship.

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MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Scan the QR code or go to www.kantorei.dojiggy.io/2024, choose your favorite Kantorei member(s), and donate today!

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Alison N. Roman

We’ve made a lot of progress, but costs for the remaining commission, the performances, and the recording exceed $75,000 – we need your help! Every single dollar counts!

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30 people to give in 30 days.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS KANTOREI 2023-24 CONCERT SEASON

SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 2024 Motet Masters @ 7:30 pm, Wellshire Presbyterian Church, Denver

SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2024 Motet Masters @ 3:00 pm, First Plymouth UCC, First Plymouth UCC, Cherry Hills Village

FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2024 The Music of M. Roger Holland, II @ 7:30 pm, Wellshire Presbyterian Church, Denver

SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024 The Music of M. Roger Holland, II @ 3:00 pm, First Plymouth UCC, Cherry Hills Village

Kantorei would like to thank our sponsors for your generous and ongoing support!