SCHOLA CANTORUM
DR. JEFFREY RIEHL, CONDUCTOR
DR. MARY BETH BENNETT, ACCOMPANIST
CAMP CONCERT HALL
BOOKER HALL OF MUSIC
SUNDAY • 13 APRIL 2025 • 3:00 PM
DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC
Te Deum in C, Hob. XXIIIc:2
PROGRAM
Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur. Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur. Tibi omnes Angeli; tibi caeli et universae Potestates; Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae.
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus, Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus, Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia, Patrem immensae maiestatis:
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium; Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
Tu Rex gloriae, Christe.
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti Virginis uterum. Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum. Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris. Iudex crederis esse venturus.
Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari. Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae. Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.
Per singulos dies benedicimus te; Et laudamus Nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi. Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire. Miserere nostri Domine, miserere nostri. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te.
In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum.
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
We praise You, O God, We confess that you are Lord. All the earth worships you, everlasting Father. To you all Angels, to you heaven and its powers, to you the Cherubim and Seraphim cry out unceasingly: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
It is you whom the glorious choir of apostles, you whom the glorious number of prophets, you whom the white-robed army of martyrs praises. Throughout the world the holy Church confesses you: Father of immeasurable majesty; your true and only Son, deserving of worship; and the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
You are the King of Glory, O Christ; you are the Creator's eternal Son. When you endeavored to set humanity free, you did not despise the Virgin's womb. With the sting of death defeated, you opened the kingdom of heaven for believers. You sit at the right hand of God, in the Father's glory. You are the judge who is to come.
We beseech you to help of your servants, whom you have redeemed by your precious blood.
Grant them to be counted among your saints in eternal glory. Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance. Rule them and uphold them forever
Throughout every day we bless you, and we praise your name forever and ever. Deign, O Lord, to keep us without sin this day. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us. Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we have hoped in you.
In you, O Lord, I have hoped; I will not be brought to ruin forever.
Lullaby (from Three Nocturnes)
Lullaby, sing lullaby, the day is far behind you. The moon sits high atop the sky, now let sweet slumber find you.
Away,
the day is done, and gone the sun that lit the world so brightly. The earth's aglow with speckled show of twinkling stars to sprightly.
Away,
where the sunlight is beaming through a deep, cloudless blue, and the treetops are gleaming with a fresh morning dew; where the mountains are shining
Prayer of the Children
Daniel Elder
and the meadows below, in a brilliant white lining of a new-fallen snow
Close your eyes, breathe in the night; a softer bed I'll make you.
The trial is done, all danger gone; now let far dreaming take you.
Away,
where the ocean is lapping at a soft, pearly shore, and the swaying palms napping as their swinging fronds soar.
Now the dark night approaches, yet so soft and so mild.
Lullaby, sing lullaby; sleep now my child.
Can you hear the prayer of the children on bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room?
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry, turning heavenward toward the light.
Crying Jesus help me to see the morning light of one more day, but if I should die before I wake, I pray my soul to take.
Can you feel the hearts of the children aching for home, for something of their very own?
Reaching hands with nothing to hold on to, but hope for a better day, a better day.
Daniel Elder
Crying Jesus help me to feel the love again in my own land, but if unknown roads lead away from home, give me loving arms, away from harm.
Can you hear the voice of the children softly pleading for silence in their shattered world? Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate, blood of the innocent on their hands.
Crying Jesus help me to feel the sun again upon my face? For when darkness clears, I know you're near, bringing peace again.
Dali čuje te sve dječje molitve?
Can you hear the prayer of the children?
Recognition of Graduating Seniors
Kurt Bestor; arr. Andrea S. Klouse (b. 1958)
Selections from Considering Matthew Shepherd Craig Hella Johnson (b. 1962)
Clayvon Grimes, tenor
Ryan Thompson, baritone
Pearce Burlington, Lyla van Hoven, Christine Gyure, Maddie Hitching, sopranos
David Hensley, Narrator
PROLOGUE
Narration
Tenor
Yoodle ooh, yoodle-ooh-hoo, so sings a lone cowboy, Who with the wild roses wants you to be free.
Choir
Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass
Cattle, horses, sky and grass
These are the things that sway and pass Before our eyes and through our dreams
Through shiny, sparkly, golden gleams
Within our psyche that find and know The value of this special glow
That only gleams for those who bleed Their soul and heart and utter need Into the mighty, throbbing Earth From which springs life and death and birth.
I’m alive! I'm alive, I'm alive, golden. I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive . . .
These cattle, horses, grass, and sky
Dance and dance and never die
They circle through the realms of air And ground and empty spaces where A human being can join the song Can circle, too, and not go wrong Amidst the natural, pulsing forces Of sky and grass and cows and horses.
I’m alive, I’m alive, I’m alive . . .
This chant of life cannot be heard It must be felt, there is no word
To sing that could express the true Significance of how we wind
Through all these hoops of Earth and mind
Through horses, cattle, sky and grass
And all these things that sway and pass.
Narration
Baritone and Choir The Innocence
When I think of all the times the world was ours for dreaming, When I think of all the times the earth seemed like our home
Every heart alive with its own longing, Every future we could ever hope to hold.
All the times our laughter rang in summer, All the times the rivers sang our tune Was there already sadness in the sunlight? Some stormy story waiting to be told?
Where O where has the innocence gone?
Where O where has it gone?
Rains rolling down wash away my memory; Where O where has it gone?
When I think of all the joys, the wonders we remember
All the treasures we believed we’d never ever lose. Too many days gone by without their meaning, Too many darkened hours without their peace.
Where O where has the innocence gone?
Where O where has it gone?
Vows we once swore, now it’s just this letting go, Where O where has it gone?
Narration
Soloists and Choir 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.
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 your face; Ordinary boy, Only all of us, Free us from our fear.
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;
EPILOGUE
Rivers flowing on, Ever to the sea; Bind up every wound, Every cause to grieve; Always to forgive, Only to believe.
[Chorale:]
Most noble Light, Creation’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 every human heart.
(Only in the Love, Love that lifts 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 lifts us up.
All Of Us . . . All.
Choir and Tenor Reprise: This Chant of Life (Cattle, Horses, Sky and Grass)
(This chant of life cannot be heard It must be felt, there is no word To sing that could express the true Significance of how we wind Through all these hoops of Earth and mind Through horses, cattle, sky and grass And all these things that sway and pass.)
Yoodle ooh, yoodle-ooh-hoo, so sings a lone cowboy, Who with the wild roses wants you to be free
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Life is a complex menagerie of emotions for most people; a multi-faceted and often chaotic collection of varied experiences, people, and situations that make each one of us uniquely who we are Today's concert presents slices of this emotional complexity as captured in the works of four composers: Joseph Haydn, Kurt Bestor, Daniel Elder, and Craig Hella Johnson. The program moves from the exuberant joy of the Te Deum text to the innocent childhood fear of bedtime darkness and the comforting words of a parent; from the senseless slaughter of children by war and genocide, to the tragic and poignant sorrow caused when a young and vibrant life is snuffed out by hate and homophobia. Joy and sadness, hope and fear, anxiety and quietude, anger and forgiveness all human emotions captured in the works you will hear this afternoon.
JOSEPH HAYDN made two settings of the Te Deum text, one in the 1760s and the second more than thirty years later. Both are in C major and are quite joyful in character When Haydn returned to Vienna from London in 1795 his reputation was as a celebrated composer of instrumental music. During the decade that followed, he would match that achievement with a series of remarkable vocal works that included not only the two late oratorios, The Creation and The Seasons, but also the six great Masses of 1796-1802 and the Te Deum for the Empress Marie Therese you will hear this afternoon.
Marie Therese, wife of Emperor Franz I of Austria, was among Haydn's most enthusiastic admirers; she was fond of singing and Haydn was a frequent visitor at the Imperial Palace in Vienna where he often accompanied her "pleasant but weak voice " Their friendship led her to ask him repeatedly for some speciallycomposed church music, but Prince Nicolaus Esterházy II, Haydn's employer, was reluctant to allow his now-famous Kapellmeister to write for anyone other than himself.
It is likely that the Empress Marie Therese offered Haydn a decidedly firm reminder of her request when she and her husband visited the Esterházy estates in the summer of 1797 and that Haydn, perhaps with the grudging assent of his patron, delivered the Te Deum to her sometime shortly thereafter. The autograph score and original orchestra parts are lost, and there is no documentation of the premiere performance; what we know of the first authenticated performance is a brief record of Haydn directing the Te Deum at Eisenstadt on 8 September 1800 for the name-day of Prince Nicolaus's wife Princess Marie during a visit by Lord Nelson the great naval hero who was famous for his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar and Lady Hamilton his infamous mistress. It was during this visit that the D minor Missa in angustiis, now better known as the Lord Nelson Mass, also was heard.
Despite being only 193 measures long, Haydn succeeds in creating a work that is spacious and grand. The opening Te deum laudamus in the tonic major is based on the Gregorian Eighth Psalm Tone while the darker and more somber words Te ergo quaesumus are set in C minor. The final section marks a return to the optimism of the Resurrection and culminates in a fugue at the words In te Domine speravi. The unbridled joy of the fugue is upset momentarily by a dramatic passage of diminished seventh chords at the words non confundar, but the final pages reaffirm Haydn's view of the unity of humanity with the heavenly in the celestial key of C major.
LULLABY is the final work in a collection for mixed chorus and piano by Daniel Elder titled Three Nocturnes The works in the cycle explore, as Elder wrote, ". . . both observational and psychological experiences associated with love, nature, darkness, and light." Lullaby is a simple song of reassurance, the kind a mother might sing to her child to calm fears of darkness and aloneness. Elder explained,
The beauty of this text lies in its dual nature, as it also serves to comfort those who grieve over loss. The line, 'the day is done, and gone the sun' has its origins in the first line of the text traditionally sung to Taps, the tune generally played on bugle . . . for military funerals or to signal the end of the day.
PRAYER OF THE CHILDREN, written by American composer and keyboardist Kurt Bestor, is among the composer's best-known pieces. Bestor wrote this piece out of frustration over the horrendous civil war and ethnic cleansing that took place in the early 1990s in the former Yugoslavia where Bestor had lived twenty years earlier as an LDS missionary. During that time, he grew to love the people there, regardless of their ethnic origin as Serbian, Croatian, or Bosnian. Bestor wrote:
. . . they were all just happy fun people to me [whom] I counted as friends from each region. Of course, I was aware of the bigotry and ethnic differences that bubbled just below the surface, but I always hoped that the peace this rich country enjoyed would continue indefinitely. Obviously that didn't happen. When Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito died [in 1980], different political factions jockeyed for position and the inevitable happened: civil war. Suddenly my friends were pitted against each other. Serbian brother wouldn't talk to Croatian sister-in-law. Bosnian mother disowned Serbian son-in-law and so it went. Meanwhile, all I could do was stay glued to the TV back in the US and sink deeper in a sense of hopelessness.
Finally, one night I began channeling these deep feelings into a wordless melody. Then little by little I added words....Can you hear....? Can you feel......? I started with these feelingssensations that the children struggling to live in this difficult time might be feeling. Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian children all felt the same feelings of confusion and sadness and it was for them that I was writing this song.
Bestor's song, as arranged for choir by Andrea Klouse, was championed throughout the choral community by the late Weston Noble and his Nordic Choir from Luther College. It has been recorded by hundreds of choirs since and used for such special occasions as the annual 9-11 commemoration, a yearly memorial service for the Columbine High School tragedy, and a concert in memory of the Oklahoma City bombing.
CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPHERD is an oratorio-length work of thirty-three movements written in 2016 by Minnesota-born composer and conductor Craig Hella Johnson; we will perform a suite of just four movements Johnson was deeply affected by the 1998 death of Matthew Wayne Shephard, a college-aged gay man in Wyoming. The events surrounding Shephard's death created an enormous feeling-world in Johnson that reverberated with him for years after the event. Johnson was led to use a traditional liturgical form the Passion as the framework for a piece through which its performers and hearers could experience Matt’s voice and reflect upon the emotions and questions that are raised when considering Matthew Shephard's story.
On October 7, 1998, then-21-year-old Matthew Shepard was brutally attacked by two men, tied to a fence in a field outside Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die. His attackers targeted him for being gay. On October 12, he died in a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado from his injuries. This horrific chain of events became one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history and spawned a new generation of LGBTQI+ civil rights activists.
Considering Matthew Shepherd was first performed in 2016 in Austin, Texas with Craig Johnson conducting his professional choir, Conspirare. Since its U.S. premiere, the work has been performed throughout the world. Conductor Daniel Bara observed:
". . . the narrative offers a sweeping and multi-hued meditation on humankind's predilection for cruelty towards those whom it views as different. More than a timely and poignant memorial for its namesake, the enduring art of Considering Matthew Shepherd it its power to reawaken and renew our love and compassion for one another, regardless of race, gender, orientation, or religion and its underlying invitation for each one of us to embody love, forgiveness, understanding, and justice in our communities and throughout the world."
Sopranos
Isabella Aldeguar
Julie Auten
Pearce Burlington*
Nora Cahill
Sarah Deverna
Chloe Fortune
Christine Gyure*
Nandita Hareesh
Leah Marchetti
Grace Pawlewicz
Iris Pham
Pera Roberts
Maya Tarnoff
Lyla van Hoven*
Nora Veigas
THE PERFORMERS
Instrumentalists
Adam Kasti, clarinet
Toby Tate, guitar
Justin McConchie, percussion
Mary Beth Bennett, keyboards
Narrator
David Hensley
Schola Cantorum
Altos
Ella Colmenares
Sydney Hass
Maddie Hitching*
Jessica Khan
Leah Li*
Olivia Liang*
Gabrielle Lindsay
Kate Magee
Amy Ogle
Mariana Panariello
Eva Pfeiffer*
Caroline Stansberry
Piper Turri
Andrea Valderrama-
Avila*
Ash York*
Tenors
Clayvon Grimes*
Connor Mirone
Will Quackenbush*
Benjamin Stalder*
Luke Surrusco
Ryan Thompson*
Joe West
Bass
Jaimon Chaney
Emerson de Leon-Alvarez
Nate Grossman
Will Hoffman*
Dara Kavanagh
Zion Kim
Mac Patterson
Bastien Pecorini
Zack Ruighaver
*graduating senior
SCHOLA CANTORUM, formed in 1971, is comprised of University of Richmond undergraduates who represent many academic majors across the University’s schools. Schola has made two recordings with Jeff Riehl and was the centerpiece of the 2007 PRI broadcast Christmas from Jamestowne. Praised for its expressive and incisive singing, Schola has performed with Maestro Joseph Flummerfelt, Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars, Joseph Jennings and Chanticleer, New York Polyphony, Eighth Blackbird, composer Nico Muhly, and Jazz bassist Matt Ulery. Schola has made eight international concert tours under Dr. Riehl’s leadership, most recently in March 2024 to Ireland.
MARY BETH BENNETT is an internationally recognized performer, composer and improviser. She serves on the adjunct music faculty of the University of Richmond, teaches improvisation at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, and is Organist of Second Baptist Church, Richmond. Before coming to the University of Richmond, she taught piano at Virginia Commonwealth University and Hampton University. She also held various positions in Washington, DC, including at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and as Ceremonial Organist for the United States Government. She holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Stetson University, the Staatliche Hochschüle für Musik (Cologne, Germany), and the University of Southern California. The winner of nine national and regional awards in performance and composition, she won the AGO/ECS National Publishing Award in Choral Composition
in 2018. She also maintains a studio of improvisation students and has served as a judge for the AGO National Competition in Organ Improvisation, and presented improvisation seminars for major conventions of the AGO and NPM as well as the Smithsonian Institution. As a conductor, she has directed the Basilica of the National Shrine’s professional choir in Washington, D. C., as well as the 120-voice West Los Angeles Chorale, among others. She has served as a judge for the national women’s composition competition of AAM and the AGO International Year of the Organ composition competition. As a performing member of the Liturgical Organists Consortium, she recorded three compact discs which have garnered critical acclaim, including a “Golden Ear Award” for best organ CD of the year from Absolute Sound Magazine. Her most recent CD, Bennett plays Bennett, was recorded in 2015. Her performances and compositions have been featured multiple times on APM’s Pipedreams with host, Michael Barone, and her compositions are published by EC Schirmer, Augsburg-Fortress, Concordia, Selah, G.I.A., World Library, National, Hope, and Oxford University Press.
JEFFREY RIEHL has taught at UR since 1995 and served as Department Chair from 2014-2021. He conducts Schola Cantorum, teaches applied voice and courses in conducting, Music in Film, and Music and Religion. His choirs have performed in distinguished venues throughout the United States and Europe, and are widely admired for their musicality, vitality, and expressive sound. An accomplished solo and professional ensemble singer, Riehl performed with Robert Shaw, Helmuth Rilling, Peter Schreier, Joseph Flummerfelt, the early music consort Affetti Musicali, the Eastman Collegium Musicum and lutenist Paul O’Dette, the Williamsburg Choral Guild, and at the Spoleto Festival USA, and the Kronos String Quartet among others. He is an active guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator and has recorded for Chesky Records as a member of the Westminster Choir and for the Milken Foundation Archive of American Jewish Music. Riehl is Director of Music at historic Second Presbyterian Church in downtown Richmond and was Artistic Director and Conductor of the James River Singers from 2001-2011. Dr. Riehl earned degrees in conducting at the Eastman School of Music and Westminster Choir College. Riehl held faculty appointments at Westminster Choir College and Lebanon Valley College of Pennsylvania before coming to UR
No cameras or recording are allowed.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the Modlin Center staff for their technical support and Veronica Clinton, Department of Music Administrative Coordinator, for her deft handling of countless administrative details.
Funding for this performance is provided by the Department of Music .