C4: Love and Other Stories

Love and other stories

An evening of songs about love — both for and against

Artwork: Byron Gibbs

Manhattan Thursday November 9 The DiMenna Center for Classical Music

Forest Hills Saturday November 11 Our Lady of Mercy Roman Catholic Church

Remembering Byron Gibbs A Tribute to the C4 Friend and Contributing Artist C4 mourns the loss of our Friend and contributing artist, Byron Gibbs who passed away this year. One of the original members of the “Friends of C4,” Byron actively supported the group through his active participation in C4 and Friends functions, his Þnancial support, and particularly - the generous contributions of his artwork for the beneÞt of C4.

Born in New York in 1930, Byron studied painting at The Cooper Union. He worked for some time for the airline industry in graphic design and later joined the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, working there until his retirement. All through this time he continued working on his own art in his studios in Manhattan and in Becket, MA.

We wish to honor Byron for his generosity and dedication to C4, featuring a small set of his beautiful pieces throughout the season.

From ByronÕs contributed works for the 2013-14 Innovate|Elevate Season…

From those to be featured this season…

C 4 : T h e C h o r a l C o m p o s e r / C o n d u c t o r C o l l e c t i ve

L o ve a n d O t h e r S t o r i e s

Thursday, November 9, 8:00pm: The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, NY Saturday, November 11, 8:00pm: Our Lady of Mercy RC Church, Forest Hills, Queens, NY

Canti d’Amor

Bernard Rands (b. 1934)

Karen Siegel and Hannah Carr, conductors X. This heart that flutters near my heart V. My love is in a light attire VI. Winds of May, that dance on the sea

poems by James Joyce

Sinu Vari (Your shadow)**

Mirjam Tally (b. 1976)

Ben Arendsen, conductor

poems by Kristiina Ehin

Two Poems by Robert Herrick*

David See (b. 1958)

Martha Sullivan, conductor Manon Blackman, soloist I. An Ode for Him II. The Kiss: A Dialogue

poems by Robert Herrick

Evening Star

Michał Ziółkowski (b. 1991)

Canti d’Amor

Bernard Rands (b. 1934)

Daniel Andor-Ardó, conductor

poem by Edgar Allen Poe

Karen Siegel, conductor IX. In the dark pine-wood VIII. O cool is the valley XI. Silently she’s combing her long hair

poems by James Joyce

Intermission

* World Premiere

** North American Premiere

Canti d’Amor

Bernard Rands (b. 1934)

Hannah Carr, conductor I. Strings in the earth and air II. The twilight turns from amethyst III. Lean out the window, Goldenhair

Anti-Love Songs*

poems by James Joyce

Perry Townsend, conductor Martha Sullivan, Rebecca Ehren, Amber Evans, women’s trio Bettina Sheppard, cabaret singer Mario Gullo, Brian Mountford, Karen Siegel, soloists Ben Arendsen, finger cymbals I. The World Is… II. This Just In III. Elephant IV. Recipe for Disaster V. Normally I Wouldn’t VI. Miserable’ VII. Unfortunate Cookie VIII. The Forgotten Art of Mincing Words IX. How I Made Sense of You X. The Trouble With Birthday Cakes

Mario Gullo (b. 1973) poems by Pamela August Russell

Don’t Ride Off

Perry Townsend (b. 1965)

Canti d’Amor

Bernard Rands (b. 1934)

Karen Siegel, conductor Bettina Sheppard, Mario Gullo, soloists

Hannah Carr, conductor Ben Arendsen, soloist XII. Gentle lady, do not sing sad songs XIII. Rain has fallen all the day XIV. Sleep now, o you unquiet heart XV. All day I hear the noise of waters

* World Premiere

poems by James Joyce

** North American Premiere

Program Notes and Texts Love and Other Stories Love provokes.

We think we know what it is and how it works, but the contrasts among the works on this program prove us wrong, as poets and composers speak to love in so many different tones of voice. Some take the traditional path of beauty, as in Bernard Rands’ settings of James Joyce’s love poetry; some choose the direct opposite, as in Mario Gullo’s settings of Pamela August Russell’s poetry, which takes swipes at love from all directions.

Mario responds to these poems with short songs in diverse styles—the discomforts of romantic love are made clear and fresh in his music.

Michał Ziółkowski provides warm music that contrasts vividly with Poe’s imagery of the coolness of moonlight, eventually supporting the poet’s joy in the light of the Evening Star. Mirjam Tally evinces a love of rich sounds in “Sinu Vari (Your Shadow)”; in Kristiina Ehin’s poetry, the beauty of the sky and shadows below it empty out the speaker, as if beauty gives richness to a distant love, and Tally’s polytonal chords, set over a clean and pure electronic track, support the words perfectly.

By contrast, Perry Townsend’s “Don’t Ride Off” is motivated by a love of found sounds, in this case those of escalators forming a part of the daily commute; he dedicates this piece to commuters everywhere. David See’s two settings of poems by Robert Herrick add two more forms of love: that for a friend and mentor (“An Ode for Him”, for Ben Jonson) and the purely sensual love given voice in the jazzy setting of “The Kiss: A Dialogue”.

Love provokes us to search out these unusual works, and it provokes us to sing them. It also welcomes you tonight, and it bids you join us for future concerts that explore new ideas in choral music.

—Martha Sullivan

Canti d’Amor Bernard Rands

poems by James Joyce Bernard Rands combines tonal and nontonal elements in this collection of short pieces writte for his wife setting love poems by James Joyce. The recording of seven of these songs by Chanticleer (who commissioned the work in 1991) won a Grammy Award in 2000. C4 first performed selections from Canti d’Amor in 2009, and we have wanted to perform more of them ever since. Tonight C4 presents 13 out of the 15 songs in this collection, distributed into 4 sets throughout the program. This practice mirrors the performance history of the work, for which a subset of the songs is most often performed rather than the whole collection.

—Karen Siegel

X. This heart that flutters near my heart This heart that flutters near my heart My hope and all my riches is, Unhappy when we draw apart And happy between kiss and kiss; My hope and all my riches—yes!— And all my happiness.

For there, as in some mossy nest The wrens will divers treasures keep, I laid those treasures I possessed Ere that mine eyes had learned to weep.

Shall we not be as wise as they Though love live but a day?

V. My love is in a light attire

My love is in a light attire Among the apple-trees, Where the gay winds do most desire To run in companies.

There, where the gay winds stay to woo The young leaves as they pass, My love goes slowly, bending to

Her shadow on the grass; And where the sky’s a pale blue cup Over the laughing land, My love goes lightly, holding up Her dress with dainty hand.

VI. Winds of May, that dance on the sea Winds of May, that dance on the sea, Dancing a ring-around in glee From furrow to furrow, while overhead The foam flies up to be garlanded, In silvery arches spanning the air, Saw you my true love anywhere?

Welladay! Welladay!

For the winds of May! Love is unhappy when love is away!

Sinu Vari (Your shadow) Mirjam Tally

poems by Kristiina Ehin Sound - regardless of origin - is the central concern in the compositions of Estonian composer Mirjam Tally. As a result, she often uses a blend of electronic, ambient and live performed sounds to create the sonic textures of her works; Sinu Vari/Your Shadow is no exception. Inspired by the poetry of Kristiina Ehin, the vastness of nature and profundity of loss explored in Sinu Vari/ Your Shadow are expressed through a sonic vocabulary that is at once dense and vast, yet shimmering approachable, and beautiful.

Scored for chorus, tape, and seashell wind chimes, Tally blurs the roles of the various sounds; the taped sounds feel natural, the choir sings thick chords reminiscent of electronic music, and the chimes blur the lines further between the performing forces.

The result is a unique vastness of tone, amplifying the character of the text.

– Ben Arendsen Text: I am empty from the beauty of the purple streak in the sky the horses of the mother of God

and the scent of your shadow at the bottom of the valley

Two Poems by Robert Herrick David See

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) was an English poet and cleric best known for the line “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” which opens the poem To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time. The carpe diem message runs through much of his work. He was a member of the “Sons of Ben”, a group dedicated to the works of his older contemporary and fellow Londoner Ben Jonson. The poem An Ode for Him (sometimes called An Ode to Ben Jonson), is an elegy and I have given it a straightforwardly mournful setting here. By contrast the setting of The Kiss: A Dialogue. is more impressionistic, and aspires to depict what the “wild clusters” in the pub crawls were like, as fondly remembered in the Ode. The original text is divided between two individual speakers and a chorus, as if it were intended to be sung (to music long ago lost). I have not kept that division intact for this setting, instead portraying the partiers in free and wonderfully witty, bawdy repartee, perhaps drowned out now and then by raucous singing from the next table.

I first came across Herrick’s Ode as an epigraph for the Philip K. Dick 1982 novel The Transmigration of Timothy Archer not long after that book was published, and it somehow stuck in my memory over the years. It is probably not a total coincidence that I was moved finally to set the poem as I was losing my own parents last year, even if they bear little resemblance to Jonson. And it was a pleasant surprise for me to learn as an adult that my father, like Jonson and Herrick, was rather fond of pubs.

—David See

I. An Ode For Him

Ah Ben! Say how or when Shall we, thy guests, Meet at those lyric feasts,

Made at the Sun, The Dog, the Triple Tun; Where we such clusters had, As made us nobly wild, not mad?

And yet each verse of thine Out-did the meat, out-did the frolic wine.

My Ben! Or come again, Or send to us Thy wit’s great overplus; But teach us yet Wisely to husband it, Lest we that talent spend; And having once brought to an end That precious stock,--the store Of such a wit the world should have no more.

II. The Kiss: A Dialogue

Among thy fancies, tell me this, What is the thing we call a kiss?

I shall resolve ye what it is:-It is a creature born and bred Between the lips, all cherry-red, By love and warm desires fed,-CHOR. And makes more soft the bridal bed.

It is an active flame, that flies First to the babies of the eyes, And charms them there with lullabies,-CHOR. And stills the bride, too, when she cries.

Then to the chin, the cheek, the ear, It frisks and flies, now here, now there: ’Tis now far off, and then ’tis near,-CHOR. And here, and there, and every where.

[This verse is not set] Has it a speaking virtue? Yes. How speaks it, say? Do you but this,-Part your join’d lips, then speaks your kiss; CHOR. And this Love’s sweetest language is.

Has it a body? Ay, and wings, With thousand rare encolourings; And as it flies, it gently sings-CHOR. Love honey yields, but never stings.

Evening Star

Michał Ziółkowski

poem by Edgar Allen Poe Evening Star is a musical impression on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe. In this piece each word has its own harmonic color and is used very precisely to paint the glimmering image from Poe’s world. Human voice is the most powerful medium in expressing poetry. With music it can tell the story hidden between the lines.

– Michał Ziółkowski Text: ‘Twas noontide of summer, And mid-time of night; And stars, in their orbits, Shone pale, thro’ the light Of the brighter, cold moon, ‘Mid planets her slaves, Herself in the Heavens, Her beam on the waves.

I gazed awhile On her cold smile; Too cold- too cold for meThere pass’d, as a shroud, A fleecy cloud, And I turned away to thee, Proud Evening Star, In thy glory afar, And dearer thy beam shall be; For joy to my heart Is the proud part Thou bearest in Heaven at night, And more I admire Thy distant fire, Than that colder, lowly light.

Canti d’Amor

Before the looking-glass.

poems by James Joyce

I pray you, cease to comb out, Comb out your long hair, For I have heard of witchery Under a pretty air,

Bernard Rands

IX. In the dark pine-wood In the dark pine-wood I would we lay, In deep cool shadow At noon of day.

How sweet to lie there, Sweet to kiss, Where the great pine-forest Enaisled is!

Thy kiss descending Sweeter were With a soft tumult Of thy hair.

O, unto the pine-wood At noon of day Come with me now, Sweet love, away.

VIII. O cool is the valley O cool is the valley now And there, love, will we go For many a choir is singing now Where Love did sometime go.

And hear you not the thrushes calling, Calling us away?

O cool and pleasant is the valley And there, love, will we stay.

XI. Silently she’s combing her long hair Silently she’s combing, Combing her long hair, Silently and graciously, With many a pretty air.

The sun is in the willow leaves And on the dappled grass, And still she’s combing her long hair

That makes as one thing to the lover Staying and going hence, All fair, with many a pretty air And many a negligence.

INTERMISSION Canti d’Amor Bernard Rands

poems by James Joyce

I. Strings in the earth and air Strings in the earth and air Make music sweet; Strings by the river where The willows meet.

There’s music along the river For Love wanders there, Pale flowers on his mantle, Dark leaves on his hair.

All softly playing, With head to the music bent, And fingers straying Upon an instrument.

II. The twilight turns from amethyst The twilight turns from amethyst To deep and deeper blue, The lamp fills with a pale green glow The trees of the avenue.

The old piano plays an air, Sedate and slow and gay; She bends upon the yellow keys, Her head inclines this way.

Shy thoughts and grave wide eyes and hands

That wander as they list-The twilight turns to darker blue With lights of amethyst.

III. Lean out the window, Goldenhair Lean out of the window, Goldenhair, I heard you singing A merry air.

My book was closed; I read no more, Watching the fire dance On the floor.

I have left my book, I have left my room, For I heard you singing Through the gloom.

Singing and singing A merry air, Lean out of the window, Goldenhair.

Anti-Love Songs Mario Gullo

poems by Pamela August Russell Many years ago a friend gave me a book of poetry for Christmas. I promptly did what every person would do after receiving a book of poetry for Christmas. I put in on my shelf (dirty shelf, clean the shelf) and promptly forgot about it. Many years later, wanting to make room in my cramped NYC apartment, I started clearing off the shelf and rediscovered said book of poetry. It was called B is for Bad Poetry by Pamela August Russell. All it took was the first few pages to know it was one of the greatest collections of bad poetry.

Ever a fan of comedy in choral music, I went right to work picking texts. Soon a pattern

started to emerge. The ones that called to me centered around relationships and the underlying feelings that go along with them.

Not wanting to “flog a dead horse,” I felt the pieces should be short and all be in very different styles reflecting the sensibility of each of Pamela’s pearls of wisdom. If you laugh at least once, then my mission has been a success.

Special thanks to Pamela August Russell for giving me the right to use her delightful work and Perry Townsend for his ability to bring them to life.

—Mario Gullo

I. The World is…

The world is not a safe place for lovers.

For instance, mine was hit by a bus.

II. This Just In This just in Sources confirm the woman who stole your heart has been arrested.

Police in Reno say she was disguised as a beautiful soul who would never hurt a fly.

Detectives also say she is wanted in several other states for impersonating someone who actually gave a shit about you.

III. Elephant There’s an elephant in the room.

He’s wearing your favorite T-shirt, cooked us a delightful lasagna for dinner and left a note

on the fridge that says, “You should break up.”

I wonder what he wants?

VII. Unfortunate Cookie

IV. Recipe for Disaster

Eventually they will devour your soul like it’s a hot dog eating championship.

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 2/3 cup sugar 3 eggs I love him 3/4 cup butter or margarine (softened) but I’m not ‘in love’ with him 1/2 cup cream (unsweetened) 1 cup all-purpose flour we’re getting married 2/3 cup cocoa tomorrow 1/4 cup baking powder (beat until blended)

V. Normally I Wouldn’t Normally I wouldn’t ask if you love me but when I saw all my things on the lawn I got curious.

VI. Miserable’ Miserable’

Miserable, Miserable’ Miserable.

Toute le journe All day long je suis miserable’ I am miserable. mon Coeur My heart reste sur une etagere it sits on a shelf je reste sur une I sit on a etagere shelf nettoye l’etagere clean the shelf sale etagere. dirty shelf!

C’est toi, c’est tois!

It is you, it is you!

C’est toi que j’aime it is you that I love et pourtant je suis and yet I am miserable’ miserable et puis je fume. and so I smoke.

Je suis miserable’.

I am miserable.

You will soon meet someone who will bring you much joy and love.

Lucky Numbers: 543, 8, 192, 78

VIII. The Forgotten Art of Mincing Words Oh good, you’re back.

Did you get the sausage like I asked?

The spicy, Polish kielbasa?

You forgot it?

How could you?

All I wanted was some damn sausage and I don’t think I’m asking much here!

I even gave you a note it said, “don’t forget the sausage,” and you forgot the sausage!

This is so typical of you.

This is unforgivable.

This is...

What I’m trying to say is, I’m in love with you.

IX. How I Made Sense of You Trying to make sense of you was like flogging a dead horse, with a dead horse.

X. The Trouble with Birthday Cakes Last night I dreamt I had the chicken pox at my birthday party.

I blew out the candles and made a wish but no one wanted cake because they thought I got germs all over it.

I woke up and remembered I was single.

Canti d’Amor

Don’t Ride Off

poems by James Joyce

Perry Townsend

The text of Don’t Ride Off is a found object.

New Yorkers find it daily in several different subway stations throughout the city, whether they want to or not. To me, the spectacle of a hundred sleep-deprived people squashed into a long tunnel, being compelled to listen to overly polite electronic voices schooling them on escalator etiquette … just begged parody. So the piece is a (mostly) comic portrait of a mundane moment, exploring sound color and the elasticity of language.

I chose to set these words for speaking chorus, a wonderful and under-utilized medium (Ernst Toch’s famous Geographical Fugue notwithstanding). No exact pitches are notated, but since human speech is full of rich melodic shape, the score encourages performers to create a wide variety of pitch contours. Don’t Ride Off is dedicated to commuters everywhere.

– Perry Townsend Text: step on and off quickly never sit on steps or handrails never run up or down on escalators escalators are for passengers only no large packages or objects should be carried on escalators children should hold grownups’ hands – not the handrail face forward – please hold handrail attend your children hold your child, fold your stroller step on and off quickly – don’t ride off avoid the side of the escalator ride safe have a great day never put strollers on escalators while riding never rest umbrellas on escalator steps – text found on NYC subway escalators

Bernard Rands

XII. Gentle lady, do not sing sad songs Gentle lady, do not sing Sad songs about the end of love; Lay aside sadness and sing How love that passes is enough.

Sing about the long deep sleep Of lovers that are dead, and how In the grave all love shall sleep: Love is aweary now.

XIII. Rain has fallen all the day Rain has fallen all the day.

O come among the laden trees: The leaves lie thick upon the way Of memories.

Staying a little by the way Of memories shall we depart.

Come, my beloved, where I may Speak to your heart.

XIV. Sleep now, o you unquiet heart Sleep now, O sleep now, O you unquiet heart!

A voice crying “Sleep now” Is heard in my heart.

The voice of the winter Is heard at the door.

O sleep, for the winter Is crying “Sleep no more.”

My kiss will give peace now And quiet to your heart Sleep on in peace now, O you unquiet heart!

XV. All day I hear the noise of waters All day I hear the noise of waters Making moan, Sad as the sea-bird is when, going Forth alone, He hears the winds cry to the water’s Monotone.

The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing Where I go.

I hear the noise of many waters Far below.

All day, all night, I hear them flowing To and fro.

Composers (in alphabetical order)

Mario Gullo

Mario’s music has been performed by the New York City Master Chorale, the Larchmont Avenue Church Chancel Choir, Bridges Vocal Ensemble, the Canite Quartet, and C4. It has been called “shiny and exuberant,” “a quick-step dance rhythm and a modern sense of fun,” and “balances choral counterpoint and harmonies extraordinarily well.”

Mario has performed in and around New York City at Alice Tully Hall, City Center, Theatre 80, Barrow Street Theater, La MaMa, the Slipper Room, Pianos and Arlene’s Grocery. By far, his favorite was appearing with Barbara Cook at Carnegie Hall.

Regionally, he has performed at Artpark, the Theater of Youth, Tri-State Center for the Performing Arts, the Depot Theater and with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic.

Mario is a graduate of the State University of New York at Fredonia and Bowling Green State University. He can be contacted at divvomcg@gmail.com.

Bernard Rands

Through a catalog of more than a hundred published works and many recordings, Bernard Rands is established as a major figure in contemporary music. His work Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize in Music. His large orchestral suites Le Tambourin, won the 1986 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. His work Canti d’Amor, recorded by Chanticleer, won a Grammy award in 2000.

Born in Sheffield, England in 1934 his 80th birthday has been marked internationally by upward of one hundred concert performances, radio and television

broadcasts of his music. Rands emigrated to the United States in 1975, becoming an American citizen in 1983. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004 and into the Illinois Lincoln Academy in 2014.

Recent commissions have come from the Suntory Concert Hall in Tokyo, the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Internationale Bach Akademie, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra. Many chamber works have resulted from commissions from major ensembles and festivals from around the world. His chamber opera was commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival and School for its fiftieth anniversary in 1999.

His full-scale opera Vincent, with libretto

by J.D. McClatchy, was commissioned

by Indiana University Opera School and produced there, to critical acclaim, in 2012.

Rands lives in Chicago with his wife, composer Augusta Read Thomas. www.bernardrands.com

David See

David See is a longtime collaborative pianist for singers, instrumentalists and musical theater productions, having worked for the Symphony of the Mountains (Kingsport TN), East Tennessee State University, Middle Tennessee State University, and Tapestry Choir (New York City). He is currently staff pianist at Mannes School of Music at The New School, and pianist for Highbridge Voices and Apotheosis Opera. A member of New York Composers Circle, his original compositions include “Be On Time” for a cappella chorus, premiered in 2017 by C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective (in which he also sings bass),The Argument Rag for viola and piano, Piano Concerto premiered by Symphony of the Mountains in 2001 with pianist Gary Hammond, and a series of piano duos that he performs with

his wife Lynn Rice-See. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin College.

Mirjam Tally

Sound is central in Tally’s creations. Her music is a flow of playful contrasts where a sense of humour and poetic use of sound are blended to mix. Beside writing works for contemporary music scene, she is active as a film composer. In recent years, importance of orchestral music has increased in her oeuvre. Mirjam Tally is also active as a performer: she has a duo “Unejõgi” (“Dream river”) together with Estonian folk musician Meelika Hainsoo. Elements of Estonian folk music are mixed with electroacoustic sounds, with influences of minimalism, glitch, drone and electronic pop.

Tally´s music has been performed in over 20 countries, including festivals Mixtur in Barcelona, Spain (2013), Dark Music Days on Iceland (2006, 2016, 2017), Summartónar on Faeroe Islands (2008, 2017), The Venice Biennale’s International Festival of Contemporary Music in Italy (2008), ISCM World New Music Days in Lithuania, Sweden and Croatia (2008, 2009, 2011), Nordic Music Days on Iceland (2011, 2016), in Finland (2013), and in London (2017), Sound of Stockholm (2010-13), Geiger festival in Gothenburg (2012), Svensk Musikvår (2017), Sweden; several festivals in Estonia.

Perry Townsend

Perry Townsend is a composer and performer, whose work has been hailed as “a journey through sounds rich in surprises.”

His music can be heard on American Modern Recordings and Ravello Records, and has been performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Tenri Cultural Institute, Roulette, and Duplex Cabaret Theater.

He has been commissioned by Bowdoin International Music Festival and Barbad Chamber Orchestra, and has premiered works at the ppIANISSIMO Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the Fontainebleau Summer Festival. As a conductor, he leads the Angelic Voices Youth Chorus, Community Singers of Queens, Immaculate Conception Contemporary Ensemble, and is Music

Director at Incarnation parish in Hollis, NY. As a vocalist, he has sung with the Choir of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin and Canticum Novum. He received an MA in composition from Copland School of Music, studying with Thea Musgrave, and a BM from N.C. School of the Arts, studying with Sherwood Shaffer. Currently, Perry is working with acclaimed mezzo Tichina Vaughn to create an opera about Christine Miller, the lone dissenter at Jim Jones’ Guyana commune in 1978.

Michał Ziółkowski

Michał Ziółkowski (b. 1991) is an emerging composer from Poland. He has written chamber and symphonic music along with Children’s Opera The Ugly Duckling based on Andersen’s fairytale (premiered at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław).

His compositions are performed around the world by the greatest ensembles and choirs (recently The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge), and have won international composers’ competitions (among others: 3rd Krzysztof Pederecki Composers’ Competition in Sopot, and Musica Sacra International Choral Competition in Brauweiler, Germany) More music at: soundcloud.com/herbsareflying facebook.com/herbsareflying youtube.com/herbsareflying

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C4’s activities are funded in part with the generous assistance of:

C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective Sopranos

Manon Blackman Hannah Carr Rebecca Ehren Amber Evans Karen Siegel Martha Sullivan

Altos

Sam Kaseta Jamie Klenetsky Fay Rachel Lansang Jane Lawson Leonore Nelson Bettina Sheppard

Tenors

Ben Arendsen Mario Gullo Carlos Tabares Perry Townsend Richard Tucker

Basses

Daniel Andor-Ardó Hayes Biggs Timothy Brown Brian Mountford David See Blane Shaw

C4 exists to enrich artists and audiences alike, through passionate advocacy of new choral works, performing pieces written within the last 25 years, premiering and commissioning new choral works, and mentoring emerging singers, composers, and conductors of today’s choral music. www.c4ensemble.org

photographer: Nadia Mian

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