UW Symphony with UW Choirs: “What a Wonderful World"

$10 all tickets.
Geoffrey Boers, UW Symphony and Combined Choirs
Geoffrey Boers conducts the UW Symphony and Combined Choirs (Photo: Steve Korn).

Geoffrey Boers leads this year-end program by the University of Washington Symphony (David Alexander Rahbee, director) and combined UW Choirs.    


Program

Three Spirituals:  Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1940)
I. Every-time I Feel the Spirit
II. Kum Ba Yah
III. Oh Freedom
Daren Weissfisch, conductor
Singers: Mallory McCollum, soprano, Cee Adamson, mezzo-soprano, Zachary Fitzgerald, tenor, Justin Birchell, baritone

“Goin’ Home” from Symphony No. 9, op.95 From the New World: Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Cee Adamson, voice

Earth Symphony: Jake Runestad (b. 1986)

What a Wonderful World: Bob Thiele & George David Weiss arr. Matthäus Crepaz


Program Notes

Three Spirituals for Orchestra: Adolphus Hailstork
Adolphus Hailstork, born in Rochester, New York in 1941, is a leading American composer and a Cultural Laureate of Virginia. Educated at Howard University, the Manhattan School of Music, and Michigan State University, where he earned his PhD, Hailstork has taught at various universities and is currently on the faculty of Old Dominion University in Virginia. Known for his technical prowess, expressive directness, and accessible style, Hailstork's compositions span a wide range of genres, often incorporating African-American traditions.
His 2005 composition, "Three Spirituals for Orchestra," exemplifies his ability to blend traditional music with contemporary orchestration. The composer said, "I just sing. My whole fundamental approach to music is lyrical, because I came up as a singer. The vocal line, the singing line, is absolutely fundamental to my artistry." This suite was created to celebrate the reopening of the Crispus Attucks Theater in Norfolk, Virginia and features three movements based on traditional spiritual songs. 
The first movement, "Everytime I Feel the Spirit," begins with a call-and-response introduction featuring a dynamic dialogue between strings and woodwinds followed by a prominent trumpet fanfare. The spiritual melody is then taken up by a solo bassoon and the violas, but presented in an unexpected underlying phrase structure.
In the second movement, "Kum Ba Yah," the English horn introduces the familiar tune, supported by a solemn string accompaniment. This movement is characterized by rich harmonies and nuanced suspensions, with the clarinet employing jazzy and expressive glissando techniques to subtly develop the melody before the English horn returns to close the movement poignantly. 
The final movement, "Oh Freedom," is a celebratory finale with intricate woodwind interludes and robust string writing. Hailstork subjects the spiritual melody to fragmentation as it bounces around the orchestra from one section to another. The full brass section and percussion add exciting textures, culminating in a declamation of the hymn driven by a repetitive snare drum rhythm and a blues-inspired bass line. The suite concludes triumphantly with the main motif played in unison.
"Three Spirituals for Orchestra" is an example of Hailstork's mission to include the black experience in the concert halls. In his own words, he says, "I’ve wanted to use African American materials in monumental ways for our people, because I wanted our people to have a reason to go to the concert hall. I used to say, “African American culture does not have to stop at the doors of the symphony hall.” I thought it would be a good idea for me to create works in which black people listening to it would hear something of their own musical experience reflected. They could still say, “Hey, I’ve heard that lick in church before. There is something there that is a reflection of my experience as a black person in this country.” Now, that’s cultural nationalism."


Earth Symphony: 
 Jake Runestad
Over hundreds of years of musical creation, composers developed the symphonic form into a potent, large-scale framework for exploring profound ideas. The sheer number of musicians involved and long duration of the work, allow the time, space, and sonic possibilities for a significant musical journey. For this commission from True Concord Voices & Orchestra, I knew that creating a large work for these forces would necessitate a significant story to tell — one of relevance and power, drawn from our beautiful and complex human experiences. Everyday we hear of more fires, floods, hurricanes, droughts, tsunamis, extinctions, and diseases that impact life around the globe. The earth is changing, due to the impact of human behavior, and how we respond to these changes will determine the survival of our species.


Through brainstorming with my frequent collaborator, poet/librettist Todd Boss, we decided that giving voice to Mother Earth would be a powerful approach for this piece. Todd created a sweeping, gorgeous, and compelling five-part monologue of a mother telling the history of her children — how they admired her, harmed her, and ultimately how she recovered.

Her story begins in a pre-life genesis that tracks the evolution of humans, whose apprehension of Earth’s laws endear them to her as nothing short of miraculous (her beloved “Mirabilia”). Movement 1: “Evolution” hints at the musical themes of each subsequent section and establishes a sonic relationship between Earth (D Major) and humankind (Eb Major), which is explored throughout the work. Movement 2: “Ambition” dramatizes humanity’s fall from grace by retelling the Greek myth of Icarus and harkening to ancient instruments and melodies (including the Seikilos Epitaph — the oldest, complete musical composition yet discovered). Movement 3: “Destruction” charges through a series of ecological cataclysms — forest fire, storms, earthquakes — illustrated by growling brass, raging percussion, and shrieking woodwinds. Movement 4: “Lament” expresses Earth’s grief in a loving farewell to humanity that echoes Henry Purcell’s 17th-century aria, “When I Am Laid in Earth” (Dido’s Lament), and its iconic descending bass-line chaconne. Movement 5: “Recovery” finds Earth restoring balance and moving on, into a deep spacetime like the one from which she emerged. By anthropomorphizing Earth herself, drawing on the familiar earth-mother trope, “Earth Symphony” enables entry into our own ecological shame, guilt, responsibility, potential, and redemption, all from a wide-angled, time-telescoped lens, thereby asking our most immediately pressing environmental questions in an entirely new way.

UW CHAMBER SINGERS 

Soprano 1
Egija Ungure
June Ricks
Kyla Marshall
Jaden Ritscher
Soprano 2
Naomi-Hal Hoffman
Mavis Chan
Cassidy Cheong
Nandini Rathod

Alto 1

Tatiana Boggs
Lainey Graham
Heidi Blythe
Ruby Whelan
Lauren Reynolds

Alto 2
Cee Adamson
Haley Westberg
Sydney Belden
Jaja Reduque
Larke Witten
Heather Halverson

Tenor 1
Chad Miller
David Ferguson
Maggie Petersen

Tenor 2
Brayden Schwartz
Caleb Strader
Emmanuel (Manny) Noyola-Juarez

Bass 1
Matthew Judd
Dustin Peng
William Henry
Justin Birchell

Bass 2
Scott Fikse
Michael McKenzie
Charlie Dawson
Evan Norberg
Logan Cox

UW CHORALE 

Sopranos
Anne Tinker
Chloe Chapman
Chloe O'Keefe
Claire Killian
Elizabeth Brown
Felicia Tzeng
Sofia Groff
Nia Chandramouli
Emily Shields
Kiana Gregorich
Katelyn Wales
Lauren Chenoweth
Lena Lee
Meena Kuduva
Meliza Redulla
Olivia Spaid
Shriya Prasanna
Sophie Root
Sydney Huang
Tara Zohlfaghari

Altos
Akhila Narayanan
Alexis Georgiades
Alina Galata (they/she)
Dominique Mallo
Ella L'Heureux
Emily Colombo
Haley Westberg
Jaja Reduque
Jessica Thaxton
Lainey Graham
Leah Peterson
Lyla Cain
Maya Shah
Naomi Hal Hoffman (they/them)
Natalie Peterson
Ruby Whelan
Silvana Segura
Sophie Ma

Tenors
Adrian Wong Cascante
A J Johnson
Alexander Trias
Caleb Strader
Eric Gagliano
Caleb Chan
Gray Creech
Hannah Carpenter
Haoran Peng
Jackie Smith
Karsten Lomax
Luke Van Sickle
Michael Lim
Michael Lu
Tim Resca
Madeline Rivera
Tyler Santos
Luis Javier

Basses
Aiden Maynard
Andrew Hoch (Hoak)
Brady Lindell
Charlie Dawson
Benjamin Jaudon
Daniel Troyan
Dario Rojas
Dustin Peng
Gavin Morrow
Jonah Ladish-Orlich
Logan Cox
Luke Granger
Taylor Bellamy
Thayden Boome
Will Henry
Zaref Anderson
Zane Bowmer-Vath
Mario D'Ambrosio
Dreyden Brown

University of Washington Symphony Orchestra

David Alexander Rahbee, Music Director and Conductor
Ryan Farris and Daren Weissfisch, Assistant Conductors

Flute
Katelyn Campbell, Flute Performance/Biochemistry
Grace Jun, MM Flute Performance
Erin McAfee, MM Flute Performance
Rachel Reyes, DMA Flute Performance
Yue Zhong, BM Flute Performance

Piccolo
Katelyn Campbell, Flute Performance/Biochemistry
Erin McAfee, MM Flute Performance

Oboe
Max Boyd, Oboe Performance
Lauren Majewski, BA Global & Regional Studies

English Horn
Max Boyd, Oboe Performance

Clarinet
Ysanne Webb, DMA Clarinet Performance
Nick Zhang, BS Computer Science

Bassoon
Ryan Kapsandy, BM Bassoon Performance
Griffin Smith, Music/Philosophy
Eric Shankland, BA Music History
Eric Spradling, BM Bassoon Performance

Horn
Nicole Bogner, Horn Performance
Ben Johnson, MM Horn Performance
Colin Laskarzewski, BS Physics
Yihan Li, Applied Music
Sam Nutt, Molecular & Cellular Biology
Noelani Stewart, BA Political Science
Roger Wu Fu, DMA Wind Conducting

Trumpet
Carter Archuleta, Astronomy/Biophysics
Hans Faul, Trumpet Performance
Kyle Jenkins, MM Trumpet Performance

Trombone
Peter Lin, ACMS
Nathanael Wyttenbach, Music Composition

Bass Trombone
Duncan Weiner, Aero-Astro Engineering/Linguistics

Tuba
Joel Horton, MM Tuba Performance
Adam Mtimet, DMA Tuba Performance

Timpani
Abigail George, Physics/Music Performance

Percussion
Ryan Baker, Music Composition/Psychology
Kaisho Barnhill, Music Education
Abigail George, Physics/Music Performance

Piano
Serena Chin-Daniel, staff

Harp
Kelly Hou, BM Harp/Informatics

Violin I
Grace Pandra, Violin Performance (Concertmaster)
Hanu Nahm, Violin Performance/BS Microbiology
Shinyoung Hwang, Engineering/Violin Performance
Justin Chae, Computer Science
Alexander Metzger, Computer Science
Ido Avnon, Computer Science/Education
Brooke Chen, Public Health
Kara Johnson, Archeological Sciences
Kai-En Cheng, Economics
Amelie Martin, Physics/Mathematics
Quentin Brydon, Pre-Nursing
Hao Xu, Computer Science
David Mok, Computer Engineering
Ethan Wu, Biochemistry
Lyle Deng, Computer Science
Maya DaSilva, Music/Law Societies & Justice

Violin II
Tia-Jane Fowler, Computer Science/Music (Principal)
Nicole Chen, Informatics
Alice Leppert, Chemistry
Sean Sasaki, Music Education
Zak Azar, Pre-Major
Thea Higgins, Industrial Engineering
Brandon Bailey, Computer Science
Terra Bronson, ECFS
Allison Kam, Speech and Hearing Sciences/Linguistics
Kevin Lu, Computer Science
Kate Everling, Mathematics
Ling Yang, Anthropology
Victoria Zhuang, Pre Sciences
Fengrui Liu, Pre-Social Health
Felicia Yeh, Business Administration
Hannah Pena-Ruiz, Music History

Viola
Flora Cummings, Viola Performance/Biology (Co-Principal)
Mica Weiland, Viola Performance (Co-Principal)
Abigail Schidler, Computer Science
Helen Hauschka, Pre Social Sciences
Aribella Brushie, Pre-Science
David Del Cid-Saavedra, Education Studies
Melia Golden, Pre-Humanities
Melany Nanayakkara, Mathematics
Alissa Harbani, Bioengineering/Music
Careu Tapang, Pre-Sciences

Violoncello
Sarah Johnson, Cello Performance (Principal)
Cory Chen, Pre-Sciences
Nathan Evans, Cello Performance
Ethan Kim, Psychology
Ignacio (Nacho) Tejeda, PhD Mathematics
Mina Wang, Cello Performance
Katherine Kang, Human Centered Design & Engineering
Amanda Song, Business
Breanna Humphrey, Microbiology
Andrew Vu, Biology/Chemistry
Ava Reese, Anthropology
Elijah Kashman, Engineering Undeclared
Noah Croskey, Engineering Undeclared
Bashir Abdel-Fattah, PhD Mathematics

Bass
Amelia Matsumoto, Engineering (Principal)
Rina Ishii, Environmental Science
Eddie Nikishina, BM Music Performance
Alejandra Heringer, English
Gabriella Kelley, Philosophy: Ethics/Pre-Law
Beau Wood, MM Jazz Studies

Biographies