Chamber Singers and Santo Tomas University Singers

The University of Washington Chamber Singers present "Points," a program of new music sung by the men and women of the choir as well as music for mixed choir. The choir also welcomes a special guest choir, the Santo Tomas University Singers from Manilla, Phillipines, which will perform a range of music, including Filipino works and Broadway classics.

 PROGRAM DETAIL

Points West

 UW Chamber Singers
Geoffrey Boers, conductor
Amanda Huntleigh and Brad Pierson, assistant directors

ARTIST POINTS
Bogoroditse Dyevo (Roman Hurko) (b. 1962)
Bogoroditse Dyevo    (Arvo Pärt) (b.1935)
Il est bel et bon   (Pierre Passereau) (fl.1509-47)
Amanda Huntleigh, conductor

 POINTS OF LIGHT
Evensong (Stephen Paulus) (b.1949)
Alleluia  (James MacMillan) (b. 1959)

 -OR-
a riveder le stelle    (Ingvar Lidholm) (b. 1921)

POINTS ON A LINE
Passacaglia  (Caroline Shaw) (b.1982)

 THE POINT OF LIFE
You are the New Day  (Peter Knight)
Deahan Kim, conductor
The Road Home  (Stephen Paulus)
Ryan Ellis, conductor
The Stars Stand Up in the Air    (Eric Barnum) (b.1979)
Serena Chin, piano

Points East

Santo Tomas University Singers
Prof. Fidel Gener Calalang Jr., conductor

Program to be selected from:

Classics
Ecce Quomodo Moritur Justus  (Albert Alcaraz Pastor) (1978)
Regina Coeli   (Vytautas  Miškinis) (1954)
The Ground    (Ola Gjelo) (1978)

 International
Ceciliada    (Marcin Wawruk) (1963)
Look At The World   (John Rutter) (1945)
Veniki     (Feodicy Rubstov (1904-1986))
A Tu Lado ( Javier Busto (1949) / Matías Antón Mena)
Mongolian Boots  (Se Enkhbayar)
Everytime I Feel the Spirit  (Arr. Moses Hogan) (1957 – 2003)

Filipino
Banwar Iti Cordillera  (Normita Rio-Pablico) (1970)
Ay, Ay, Ay, O Pag-ibig  (Tagalog Traditional / Arr. George Hernandez)
Kruhay (Benny Castillon)

Film / Broadway
For the First Time in Forever (from “Frozen)  (Robert Lopez / Arr. Fidel Calalang, Jr.)
You Could Drive A Person Crazy (from “Company”)  (Stephen Sondheim)
Old Friends (from “Merrily We Roll Along”)   (Stephen Sondheim / Arr. Fidel Calalang, Jr.)

About our guests

PROF. FIDEL GENER CALALANG JR.
He founded the UST Singers in 1992 and has led the choir into twenty five (25) international concert tours around the world and in winning almost 70 top prizes, including the 1995 and 2010 Choir of the World Grand Prize in North Wales, United Kingdom; the 1998 Gran Premio Citta Di Gorizia in Gorizia, Italy; Grand Prize in the 2002 Tonen International Choral Competition in Monster, Netherlands; Grand Prix in the 2010 Mundus Cantat International Choral Competition in Sopot, Poland and the 2010 Premio Habaneras and the Premio Intercontinental at the 56th Certamen Internacional de Habaneras y Polifonia in Torrevieja, Spain; and the Festa Musicale Choral Competition in Olomouc, Czech Republic, where the choir won a historic three (3) 100 percent scores in three categories and one with 99 percent.

He was awarded Parangal ng Bayan Awards for achievement in Arts and culture in l997 and 1999. He was also confered the "2011 Gawad Lorenzo Ruiz Award for International Achievements" and was one of the "Dangal ng UST" awardees for his 20 years of service to the University of Santo Tomas Singers. He also received the "Benavides Medal for Outstanding Achievement to the University" for his achievements as conductor of the UST Singers in 2011.In celebration of the quadricentenial foundation of UST, Prof. Calalang is listed as one of the 100 Outstanding Alumni of UST in its 400 years of existence as an educational and historic institution.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS SINGERS
Founded in 1992, the University of Santo Tomas Singers, under the baton of its founder and conductor, Prof. Fidel Gener Calalang Jr., is the University's premiere mixed choral ensemble composed of a select group of students and alumni representing the different colleges and faculties of Asia's oldest university, the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas.

The UST Singers has distinctively exhibited the outstanding musicality of the Filipinos, which has been made known through its performances and achievements from around the globe. It was during the rectorship of Fr. Rolando V. Dela Rosa, O.P., who has continually been at the forefront of pursuing the mission of the choir, when the Singers took on its first international sojourn.What followed was twenty one (21) prolific years of national and international recognition, making them one of the world's best choirs.

 They have since completed twenty six (26) international concert tours which brought them to GERMANY, POLAND, SLOVENIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, HUNGARY, MONACO, AUSTRIA, the NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, LATVIA, SWEDEN, IRELAND, SWITZERLAND, DENMARK, ENGLAND, WALES, SCOTLAND, NORTHERN IRELAND, SPAIN, FRANCE, ANDORRA, BULGARIA, ITALY, MEXICO, CANADA, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (Guam, Hawaii, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Washington, Virginia, Oregon, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Delaware, Virginia, Washington, D. C., Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island & Connecticut), TAIWAN, SINGAPORE, CHINA, SOUTH KOREA, MACAU, and VIETNAM.

CONDUCTOR BIO

Geoffrey Boers
Geoffrey Boers is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he is the Mary K. Shepman Endowed Professor of Music. Under his direction, the choral program at the University of Washington has grown to include nearly twenty graduate choral conductors each year, as well as nine ensembles conducted by five faculty and many graduate students, with nearly 600 singers participating.

Boers conducts the UW Chamber Singers, the university's premier ensemble of graduate and advanced singers. The Chamber Singers performs nationally and internationally, most recently having returned from Hungary for a concert tour. He also teaches graduate choral conducting and choral pedagogy, and serves as faculty advisor as part of the graduate choral curriculum. He is the recipient of the University of Washington's prestigious Royalty Research Foundation Grant, which allowed him to travel to the Baltic region and to establish the UW Baltic Choral Music Library, the first of its kind in the United States.

Boers maintains an active conducting, teaching, workshop and clinic schedule. Recent engagements have taken him to Australia, mainland China, Thailand, Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall, and Kennedy Center, where he serves as Artistic Director for the Washington D.C. Choral Festival. He especially enjoys working with conductors and their choirs with focus on building communication through gesture and expressivity, and building community within the ensemble. Boers is also exploring the idea spirare, or the connection between breath and spirit, in disciplines as far reaching as Yoga, Tai Chi and world faith systems. This study is leading to evolving thoughts of gesture as it relates to breath, evocation of sound, and touching the heart.

In addition to his position at the UW, Boers is the conductor of the Tacoma Symphony Chorus and will conduct the Tacoma Symphony in numerous performances this season.