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Chamber Singers and University Chorale 

  • Geoffrey Boers conducts the UW Chamber Singers (photo: Steve Korn).
    Geoffrey Boers conducts the UW Chamber Singers (photo: Steve Korn).

The Chamber Singers (Geoffrey Boers) and University Chorale (Giselle Wyers) present their Autumn Quarter concert.

Download the program as a PDF


University Chorale
Giselle Wyers, director

“Great and Small”
Exploring the grandest and tiniest things in life, love and nature

Zachary Wadsworth (b. 1983) (text by Christina Rossetti): Great or Small 
Maya Shah, soprano soloist; Serena Chin, piano

Eriks Esenvalds (b. 1977): Rivers of Light
Meena Kuduva, soprano soloi  


Traditional (1591):
Coventry Carol 

Miguel Matamaros (1894-1971):
Juramento 

Cesar Carrillo (b. 1957):
O Magnum 

W.A. Mozart (1756-1791):
Requiem in D Minor K. 626: 3 –”Domine Jesu”
Meliza Redulla, soprano soloist; Akhila Narayanan, alto soloist; Michael Lim, tenor soloist; Alex Mason, bass soloist
Mykola Leontovych (1877-1921): Shchedryk (Carol of the Bells) 
Erika Lloyd (arr. V. Peterson): Cells Planets
Soloists: Kate Connors, Charlie Dawson, Anna Messenger

PROGRAM

UW Chamber Singers
Geoffrey Boers, director

Bernat Vivancos (b. 1973): Les Cris des Berges (The Shepherd’s Cry) 
Tyler Todd Kimmel, tenor solo

Jonathan Dove (b. 1959): Ring Out Wild Bells from The Passing of the Year 
Amy Boers, piano

Daniel Knaggs (b. 1983): Time and Passing 
III. Into Your Hands
II. To Everything there is a Season

Jocelyn Hagen (b. 1980): Already Always 
Dominico Reyes, piano

Reginald Unterseher (b. 1956): Love Your Neighbor 


Program Notes

Welcome to tonight’s program, it has been a wonderful experience to make music together in what feels almost normal. The one silver lining that we can take from the challenges of the pandemic is that there is a renewed joy and a sense of appreciation for each day together, and not taking any day for granted. I hope that you will sense that joy tonight, see it in their faces, and hear it in their expressive singing. 

The Chamber Singers tonight begins with Les Cris des Berges, a cry out of a single voice, calling into the wilderness in hopes of connecting with others like him. Slowly, twelve different voices join him and encircle him in beauty. There is no text in this piece, so you may make it your own, is it a reflection of the feeling of disconnect during Covid times, or the sense of isolation we all experience? 

Ring Out Wild Bells seems to be an exclamation point in reaction to a new time, a “new year” of out with the old and in with the new! This work is the finale of a song cycle titled The Passing of the Year. Composer Jonathan Dove sets Alfred Lloyd Tennyson’s poem of the same name–it is a poem of “out withs” and “in withs,” and Dove sets these poetic opposites brilliantly for two choirs. The poem is as powerful and essential today as when it was written!

We follow with two movements which continue our thoughts about a new time, from British composer Daniel Knaggs’ song cycle Of Time and Passing. Into Your Hands is a depiction of struggle at the end of life. At times frantic, other moments pleading and bargaining, and ultimately accepting. To Everything there is a Season is a more hopeful and celebratory setting, reminiscent of a pop song, and uplifts the beauty of all times of life!

Already Always, by Jocelyn Hagen is also reflective of life–there is no key signature, no consistent time signature or rhythmic pulse–like life, the music is always on the move. It is a Sondheim-esque, comforting reminder to make the most of every moment and not wait to celebrate. The piece is dedicated to people who work with the mental and spiritual health of young people.

Finally, it seems in music that the theme of love is always the punch line. Love Your Neighbor, by Washington composer Reginald Unterseher, is a simple pop setting of what is referred to as the Golden Rule. In the composer’s words, “the idea of loving a neighbor as you love yourself is an important principle of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and most kindergarten classrooms.”


Lyrics and Translations

Rivers of Light                 Eriks Esenvalds (b. 1977)

Translation from Saami Finnish:
Northern Lights slide back and forth, back and forth
Northern Lights, Northern Lights, blanket shivering, green coat

Juramento       Miguel Matamaros (1894-197)

Translation:
If love makes one feel deep pain
And condemns one to live in misery
For your love, I would give you, my dear
Even the blood that boils within my veins
If it is fountain of mystic grief
And makes men drag long chains
I swear to you I will drag them across
The infinite and black seas of my sorrows

O Magnum Mysterium       Cesar Carrillo (b. 1957)

Translation:
O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord, lying in a manger!                                                                    Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear Christ the Lord.                                                                  Alleluia!


Requiem in D Minor K. 626: 3 –”Domine Jesu”     W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Translation:
Lord Jesus Christ, king of glory,
deliver the souls of all the faithful departed
from the punishments of hell and from the deep lake.
Deliver them from the mouth of the lion,
lest Tartarus swallow them up, lest they fall into darkness:
but let the standard-bearer Saint Michael
bring them back into the holy light
which you once promised to Abraham and his seed.


Shchedryk     Mykola Leontovych (1877-1921)

Translation: 
Here flew the swallow from afar 
Started to sing lively and loud 
Asking the master to come out 
Come here, oh come, master – it’s time 
In the sheepfold wonders to find 
Your lovely sheep have given birth 
To little lambs of great worth 
All of your wares are very fine 
Coin you will have in a big pile 
All of your wares are very fine 
Coin you will have in a big pile 
You have a wife 
Fair as a dove
If not the coin, then the chaff 
You have a wife fair as a dove.


Ring Out Wild Bells    from The Passing of the Year Jonathan Dove (b. 1959)
O Earth, O Earth, return!
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the time;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
--Alfred Tennyson

 

Time and Passing Daniel Knaggs (b. 1983)

III.  Into Your Hands
Into your hands I commit my spirit…
Lord let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days;
Let me know how fleeting my life is.
Behold you have made my days but a few handbreadths,
And my lifetime is as nothing in your sight.
Surely everyone stands as a mere breath!
Surely they are for naught in turmoil;
We heap up, and no not who will gather.
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry,
Hold not your peace at my tears.
For I am your passing guest, a sojourner, like all my elders.
O spare me, that I may know gladness, 
Before I depart and be no more.
Into your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
-Psalms 31, 39


II. To Everything there is a Season

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
Time to be born, a time to die;
A time to plant, a time to pluck up;
A time to kill, a time to heal;
Time to break down, a time to build;
A time to weep, a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones;
Time to embrace, time to refrain;
A time to seek, a time to lose;
A time to keep, a time to cast away;
A time to rend, a time to sew;
A time for silence, a time to speak;
A time to love, a time to hate;
A time for war, a time for peace.
-Ecclesiastes 3

 

Already Always
Jocelyn Hagen (b. 1980)

Dominico Reyes, piano

It’s already always. Did you know?

Turn inside out to take it in.

Somersault down your hills of thought tucked in circles

the beginning, the end.

Where did you start and when do you stop if it’s already always.

Clasp hands of here, with now, and dance.

I’m here.

You’re now.

Together we last.

It’s already always.

Jo Ford

 


UNIVERSITY CHORALE 
Giselle Wyers, director

SOPRANO

Tia Bjornson, Tacoma, Wa; Community, Environment and Planning

Emily Cameron, Snohomish, WA; Mechanical Eng.

Chloe Chapman, Vancouver, WA; 

Lauren Chenoweth, Bellevue, WA

Sarah Clark, Mercer Island WA; Political Science

Kate Connors, Kennewick, WA

Julia Fung, Bothell, WA; Pre-major

Anika Harding, Danville, CA; Mechanical Engineering

Claire Killian, Evergreen, CO; Political Science & Phil.

Emma Koslosky, Castro Valley, CA; Communications

Anna Kucinski, Redmond, WA; Human-Centered Design & Engineering

Meena Kuduva, Kirkland, WA; Computer Science 

Ellen Kwon, Federal Way, WA; Piano Performance and Music Education 

Lena Lee, Lynwood, WA; Music Education; Pre-major

Anna Messenger, Olympia, WA; Music Education

Julia Nipert, Renton, WA; Pre-Nursing

Chloe O'Keefe, San Francisco, CA; Gender, Women, Sexuality Studies and Public Health

Sophia Parker, Bothell, WA; Vocal Performance

Clara Propst, Seattle, WA; Psychology

Ace Quisido, Cebu City; Philippines; 

Meliza Redulla, Olympia, WA; Music Education

Sophie Root, Kirkland, WA; Psychology

Anne Tinker, Seattle, WA

Erin Tsai, Irvine, CA

ALTO

Lyla Cain, Seattle, WA; Electrical Engineering

Sofiia Fedzhora, Kyiv, Ukraine; Slavic Languages and Literatures Department

Alexis Georgiades, Basking Ridge, NJ; Chemistry

Christine Han, Suzhou, China; Intended: Philosophy

Naomi-Hal Hoffman, Bellevue, WA; Vocal Performance Drama: Design

Hongyi Ji, Shanghai China; Computer Science

Lexi Koperski, Chicago, IL; Anthropology and Music history

Ella L'Heureux, Leavenworth, KS; Linguistics

Hannah Limb, Mountlake Terrace, WA; Biology

Karissa Longo, Pittsburgh, PA; Music Education

Joely Loucks, Friday Harbor, WA; Music Education

Sophie Ma, Tokyo, Japan; Music Composition

Akhila Narayanan, Redmond, WA; Computer Eng.

Julia Park, Cambridge, MA; English Language and Lit., Journalism and Public Interest Comm.

Leah Peterson, Bellevue, WA; Astronomy and Physics

Jaminfaye Reduque, DuPont, WA; Bioresource Science and Engineering

Silvana Segura, Redmond, WA; Psychology

Maya Shah, Portland, OR; Undeclared

Nelly Sunstrum, Redmond, WA; Civil Engineering

Jessica Thaxton, Psychology

Aliyah Wachob, Belmont, CA; Law, Societies and Justice & Creative Writing

TENOR

Eyad Alsilimy, Mount Vernon, WA; Computer Eng.

Hannah Carpenter, Puyallup, WA; Physics and Astronomy

Gray Creech, Nashville, TN

Javier de Mabel, Pamplona, Spain

Eric Gagliano, Magnolia, TX; Civil Engineering

Cam Gardner, Sammamish, WA; Political Economy

Alé Hernandez, Rio Rancho NM

Michael Lim, Du Pont, WA

Karsten Lomax, Edmonds, WA; Comparative History of Ideas & Cinema and Media Studies

Marshell Lombard, Johannesburg, Gauteng (Place of Gold), South Africa, DMA Choral Conducting

John O’Kane, Seattle, WA; Industrial Systems Eng.

Spencer Lundt, University Place, WA; Mechanical Engineering

Luke van Sickel, Oregon City, OR

Ryan Singh, Redmond, WA; Geography: Data Science

Ethan Walker, Lynnwood, WA; Biology

BASS

Nshan Burns, Graham, WA; Economics

Charlie Dawson, Austin, TX; Economics

Matthew Hanson, Camas WA

Andrew Hoch, Burr Ridge, IL; Informatics

Jacob Knight, Lynnwood, WA; Computer Science

Jonah Ladish-Orlich, Renton, WA; Undeclared

Sidharth Lakshaman, Bellevue, WA; Computer Engineering

Alex Mason, Langhorne, PA

Christian Rolfson, Mount Vernon, WA; Environmental Science and Resource Management

Zach Shafer, Camas, WA; Computer Science

Ryan Uken, Flower Mound, TX

Trey Wheeler, Vancouver, WA; Music Education & Vocal Performance

CHAMBER SINGERS
Geoffrey Boers, director

SOPRANOS

Kaelyn Barnes, Everett, WA; BM, Vocal Performance

Sydney Belden, San Clemente, CA; Sophomore BM/BS, Music-Voice/Environmental Studies

Aida Bowen, Mount Vernon, WA; Junior Vocal Performance & American Indian Studies

Mavis Chan, Bellevue, WA; BM, Vocal Performance and BA, Business Administration - Marketing

Sydney Huang, Cleveland, OH; Freshman Pre-health Science 

Shalini Pullarkat, La Cañada, CA; BS, General Biology

Nandini Rathod, Mercer Island, WA; Freshman Pre-Sciences

Lauren Reynolds, Colorado Springs, CO; MMA, Marine and Environmental Affairs

Caitlin Sarwono,

ALTOS

Cee E. Adamson, Washington, D.C.; DMA, Vocal Performance

Lily Campbell, Olympia, WA; BA, Public Health-Global Health

Anjali Chudasama, Upland, CA; MM, Choral Conducting

Kristin Deitrich, Baroda, MI; Music Education

Heather Halverson, Woodinville, WA; Sophomore BM/BA,Vocal Performance/Communications

Elizabeth Lu, Tacoma, WA; BS, Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology

Anna Messenger, Olympia, WA; BM, Music Education

Jaminfaye Reduque, DuPont, WA; BS, Bioresource Science and Engineering

Larke Witten, San Antonio, TX; MM, Choral Conducting 

TENORS

Eyad Alsimimy, 

Oliver Callahan, Anaheim, CA; BM, Music Education

Caleb Chin-Yung Chan, Portland, Oregon; BS, Computer Science

Tyler Todd Kimmel, Seattle, WA; DMA, Choral Conducting

Marshell Lombard, Johannesburg, South Africa; DMA, Choral Conducting

Chad Miller, Lansing, KS; PhD, Psychology

Tri Nguyen, Everett, WA; BS, Mechanical Engineering

Maggie Petersen, Mercer Island, WA; Undeclared Freshman

Isaac Tian, San Diego, CA ; PhD, Computer Science & Engineering

BASSES

Justin Birchell, Anchorage, AK; DMA, Choral Conducting

Charlie Dawson, Austin, TX; Economics

Scott Fikse, Tacoma, WA; MM, Choral Conducting 

Grant Hopkins, Blue Bell, PA; PhD student, Biostatistics

Evan Norberg, Seattle, Washington; DMA Choral Conducting

Christian Rolfson, Mount Vernon, WA; Environmental Science and Resource Management

Trey Wheeler, Vancouver, WA; BM, Music Education & Vocal Performance 

James Wilcox, Nashville, TN; Computer Science & Engineering

✧- CHOIR LEADERSHIP

DIRECTOR BIOS

Professor Geoffrey Boers

Geoffrey Boers is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Washington in Seattle, a program widely recognized as forward thinking, unique, and of great distinction. Under his direction, the graduate choral program has developed a singular mission: to nurture the whole student as conductor-teacher-servant-leader-scholar. This vision has led the program to become one of the most vibrant and innovative in the country, attracting students from around the world interested in exploring the future of our art. Through his teaching he is exploring the evolution of conducting gesture and rehearsal pedagogy and their connection with the emerging neuroscience of mirror neurons, empathy, perception, learning, and personal transformation. His exploration has led to new thoughts about conducting and teaching with regard to breath, movement, artistry, personal awareness, and cultural development. Recently, his work has led to the mentoring of local choral cohorts of teachers and conductors who are interested in building professional communities of ongoing mentorship and musical development.  He has developed such mentorship programs across the United States and Canada. In addition to these thoughts about mentorship he is actively working with other leaders in ACDA and NAfME to develop a more unified and useful system for development of musicianship, assessment, adjudication, and repertoire grading. 

Geoffrey maintains an active conducting, teaching, workshop and clinic schedule; his recent engagements have included conducting concerts in Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Meyerson Concert Hall in Dallas, New York’s Alice Tully and Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center, the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, and Benaroya Hall in Seattle. In addition he has served as artist-in-residence in Toronto, Ontario, Mainz, Germany, as well as Seoul, Korea with the world-renown choir the Incheon City Chorale

In addition to his position at the UW, Boers sings professionally and is the conductor of the Tacoma Symphony Chorus where he conducts both the choir and symphony players in a four-concert season.

Since his tenure at the University of Washington, the choral program has become a leader in promoting the performance, study and exchange of Baltic music in the United States. The choir has toured to the Baltic countries in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2013. Geoffrey Boers was awarded a prestigious Royalty Research Grant in 2004 to create a Baltic Choral Library in collaboration with the UW Library as well as State and academic libraries in the Baltic. This collection of scores, manuscripts, vocal music, and writings is the first of its kind in the United States. This collection has promoted yearly exchanges with choirs and conductors from the Baltic area who travel each year to Seattle. Further, it has led to numerous UW choral students winning awards and scholarships to travel, study, and work in the Baltic countries.

Giselle Wyers (she/her/hers) is the Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professor of Choral Music at the University of Washington, where she conducts the award-winning University Chorale and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting and music education. She serves as the newly appointed School of Music's designated Diversity Liaison. University Chorale’s latest CD, Resonant Streams (on the MSR Music Recordings label) was featured in a 2018 Gramophone magazine article. Wyers is the newly appointed director of Concord Chamber Choir, an adult community chorus within the Columbia Choirs community. Her professional project choir Solaris Vocal Ensemble, specializes in the performance of contemporary American choral literature. Their premiere album Floodsongs, on the Albany Music label, won the American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music in 2017-18.

As a guest conductor, Wyers has led high school honor choirs and all-state choruses in New York (Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center), Kansas, Wisconsin, Georgia, Missouri, Louisiana, Connecticut, Nebraska, Texas, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, and Vancouver, Canada. She has conducted semi-professional ensembles across the United States and in Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Sweden. Wyers was in demand for Zoom lectures during the pandemic with Res Diversa Chamber Choir (Chile), Western Washington University (a three-week group composition project), University of Iowa, Northern Illinois University, Montana State University, and with the Mastersingers of Milwaukee (Wisconsin), as well as conducting Nevada All-State online. 

Wyers is a leading national figure in the application of Laban movement theory for conductors. She has served as guest lecturer in conducting at Sweden’s Örebro Universitet, European Festival of Church Music (Germany), Latvian Academy of Music, Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College, Westminster Choir College, University of Iowa, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Portland State University.

Wyers’ choral works are published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing Company as part of the "Giselle Wyers Choral Series," and have been performed across the United States, South America, Canada, Australia, Cuba, and numerous European cities. She will conduct her 30-minute choral cycle entitled And All Shall Be Well, in Carnegie Hall May of 2022 with a consortium of NW-based choruses. In 2021-22, she will serve as composer-in-residence for the Greater Seattle Choral Consortium's annual festivities celebrating the return of in-person singing (her appearance is sponsored by Consortio). Wyers is also committed to mentoring scholar-writers in the field, and serves on the editorial board of ACDA’s Choral Journal.

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