The Chamber Singers (Geoffrey Boers, director) and University Chorale (Giselle Wyers, director) present their Winter Quarter concert. The UW Choirs welcome Kamiak High School Choir, making a guest appearance on this concert featuring repertoire from England, Sweden, Indonesia, Latvia and elsewhere.
Program
Kamiak High School
NANCY J. DUCK-JEFFERSON, conductor
The Conversion of Saul - Z. Randall Stroope
Way Over in Beulah Lan’ - Stacey Gibbs
University Chorale
Giselle Weyers, director
SERENA CHIN, piano
SCOTT FIKSE, NICHOLAS RENAUD, and HELEN WOODRUFF, Graduate Teaching Assistants
Like As the Hart - Herbert Howells (1892 – 1983)
I denna ljuva sommartid (In this Sweet Summertime) - Clark William Lawlor (b. 1980)
Nachtlied - Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)
Nicholas Renaud, conductor
The Storm from The Seasons - Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)
Helen Woodruff, conductor
Hela Rotan - Indonesian folk song, arr. Ken Steven (b. 1993)
Chamber Singers
Geoffrey Boers, director
SERENA CHIN, piano
INGRID VERHULSDONK, rehearsal accompanist
CLARA JOHNSON, MICHAEL MCKENZIE, and EVAN NORBERG, Graduate Teaching Assistants
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina Lord my God, assist me now Il Padre: G.B. Martini (1706-1784)
Evan Norberg, conductor
Mass for Double Choir Frank Martin (1890-1974)
1. Kyrie
2. Gloria
Hymn to St. Cecelia: Benenjamin Britten (1916-1976)
Unclouded Day: Shawn Kirchner (b. 1970)
Clara Johnson, conductor
Sacred Place: Alex Berko (b. 1995)
IV. Mi Shebeirach
Program Note
A Note from Geoffrey Boers
Welcome to tonight’s program The Promise of Living. Ever heard the saying “Growing old is not for the faint of heart?” In some ways a “promise” of living is that life is full of mountaintop experiences and also deep challenges. Another “promise” is that life is best when it is shared—with friends and loved ones, communities of like minded people, family, and the creation around us. Tonight’s program reflects these promises in a variety of ways.
Our second half program explores lifetime connections of faith, friendship, work, community, and creation. The set begins with a work nearly 300 years old, Martini’s motet, Domine, as adjuvandum me. Even as a solemn anthem and prayer for help, Martini utilized dance-like rhythms popular in that time. The result is a reverent yet celebratory “sac-ular” (not a word, but a portmanteau of sacred and secular) song. Next we sing two movements of Frank Martin’s remarkable Mass for Double Choir. Though the work uses the texts of the Roman Catholic rite, the work was written to expressive beauty and depth. He wrote this profound and orchestral work in the early 1920’s as a “vocal-orchestra” expression of sheer beauty. He deemed it too hard and humbly (and incorrectly )assumed no one could perform this work. So he stuck the manuscript in his desk where it laid for four decades. It was not until just before the end of his life that the work was performed and then published. It is a hugely popular work among professional choirs, and we are honored (and challenged) to sing for you tonight.
At the outbreak of WWII poet William Auden and his soon to be famed partner Benjamin Britten left England and came to America to escape the war. Though both were pacifists, two years later they felt compelled to return and help their country as they could. On the boat crossing the Atlantic, Auden penned his poem Anthem, an ode to St. Cecelia, the patron saint of musicians, and also a symbolic letter to his lover. Britten later set the poem as Hymn to St. Cecelia as a set of three songs or sections, adjoined by the prayer “ Blessed Cecelia, appear in visions to all musicians, appear and inspire. Translated daughter come down and startle composing mortals with immortal fire.” The first song refers to a fourth century nun, Sister Cecelia, who served in Rome, and is purported to have invented the organ. Images of a swan not singing until its death, the creation of an organ sound, are all images related to Sir Benjamin. The second song is a sonic flight worthy of a Midsummer’s Night Dream! “I cannot grow” “I only play” “when (we) know (we) can now do nothing by suffering” flit and float, and call out to Britten to be inspired, grow deeply, be more positive, more creative. In the final section the choir sings sustained tones as a final conversation between the lovers, as if they have become the organ. The instruments of the orchestra come to life and are given qualities of the living—first a violin, a timpani, a flute, a trumpet—all calling to be healed and inspired.
Unclouded day is an early American Christian camp hymn. The idea of an unclouded sky came from Reverend Josiah Alwood who, in 1879 was riding home one evening when he spotted a rainbow–in an unclouded sky! Seeing there was just one small rain cloud that created this rainbow, he felt that seeing a rainbow at night in an unclouded sky was a miracle. He awoke the next day and wrote this hymn. A happy and enthusiastic song, it speaks of the joy and beauty of a “ Heavenly home.” Shouts of heavenly joy were commonplace at this time where parents so often buried their children and lives were often short.
We close with movement four of Alex Berko’s remarkable Sacred Place. While not a sacred work in the religious sense,(perhaps another “sacular” work), Berko captures the “sacredness” of the world around us and in the relationships we share. The fourth movement is Mi Shebeirach, a Jewish blessing of healing for the whole body. A “promise” of living is that bodies—be they our own, or a corporate “body” sometimes experience dis-ease. Our “body-politic,” our post-covid culture, our economy are all bodies experiencing dis-ease. May this be a blessing, a source of strength, and a Promise of Living for you.
Kamiak High School ChoirTHE B NATURALS LEAD BARITONE BASS STARRY KNIGHTS BARITONE BASS
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Biographies
Nancy Duck Jefferson, conductor
Nancy Duck Jefferson earned her B.A. in Music Education at Pacific Lutheran University and her M.A. in Music Education from the University of Washington. In 1999 she became Choral Director at Kamiak High School, a position she still holds. An active member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) , she was the organization’s 2017 High School Music Educator of the Year, chosen for her “strength and quality of work, for her long-term and extensive leadership at the regional and state level, and as a powerful advocate for music direction.” In 2018 she was inducted into the WMEA Hall of Fame.
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, Chasing Daybreak, will begin streaming in January 2024 on Apple Music and Spotify. Their third 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, Nevada and Vancouver, Canada. She has conducted semi-professional ensembles across the United States and in Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Sweden.
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," as well as with MusicSpoke and Hildegard Publishing. Her works have been performed across the United States, South America, Canada, Australia, Cuba, and numerous European cities. She conducted her 30-minute choral cycle entitled And All Shall Be Well, in Carnegie Hall during May of 2022 with a consortium of NW-based choruses, and she will return with a newly composed choral/orchestral work in May of 2026. In 2021-22, she served as composer-in-residence for the Greater Seattle Choral Consortium's annual festivities celebrating the return of in-person singing (her appearance was sponsored by Consortio). Wyers is also committed to mentoring scholar-writers in the field, and served on the editorial board of ACDA’s Choral Journal for six years.
Scott Fikse is a first-year doctoral conducting student at the University of Washington as well as a vocalist, choral clinician, and vocal coach. Currently he serves as the assistant conductor of the University of Washington Chorale, sings as a choral scholar with the St. Mark’s Compline Choir, and has served as a TA or co-instructor for choral methods, music history, and conducting as a UW graduate appointee. He is also a regular contributor to the American Choral Directors Association monthly Choral Journal magazine.
Scott moved to Seattle from Honolulu in 2022, where he directed the music program at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu and created the church’s popular “First Mondays” and “Jazz Journey” concert series. Under his direction the LCH choirs prepared over 200 works each year, ranging from chant, Renaissance polyphony, and Baroque works to modern masters.He also served as director of the Honolulu Chorale and artistic director of Early Music Hawaii, where he continues to serve as board president and conductor. Scott recently returned from a summer abroad that included conducting the University of Washington Chorale in eastern Europe and a pilgrimage to England with the Seattle-based Compline Choir, singing while in residence at St. Alban’s, St. Paul’s London, and Canterbury cathedrals.
Helen Woodruff is a graduate student at the University of Washington, pursuing her MM in Choral Conducting. She is passionate about approaching choral music from new perspectives. She is strongly rooted in music education and thrives for choral music to be accessible to all, pursuing creative ways for singing to be experienced.
Helen believes that we are all born with the innate desire to use our voices. Singing fulfills a universal and fundamental desire to express ourselves and to connect with others. It is the greatest way to convey culture, history, community, and personal expression in a way that is accessible to all because the voice is an instrument that we carry with ourselves daily. She finds substantial power in the collective human voice, which is why she is drawn with such strength to conducting and facilitating this expression and communication.
Currently, Helen co-conducts the Treble Choir and works with the University Chorale. Prior to this, she graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a BM in Music Business. After her undergraduate degree, she spent four years in California at the Harker School teaching K-12 general music, string orchestra, choir, and musical theater.
Michael McKenzie is an international award-winning conductor and music educator, whose work centers around the power that choral music has to affect social change. They serve as a Managing Director of Voices for Social Justice, a national nonprofit organization whose work combines social activism with justice-centered artistic expression through performance, resources, and community collaboration. Outside of VFSJ, Michael serves as the Director of Music at Magnolia United Church of Christ. Most recently, they served as Director of the Bellevue Chamber Chorus during their gold medal winning performance at the 2024 World Choir Games in Auckland, New Zealand.
Michael is currently pursuing their DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Washington School of Music. Prior to this, they graduated with an MM in Choral Conducting, with honors, from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University – Long Beach. There, Michael served as the director of ConChord, a student community chorus, and as a teaching assistant for the University Choir and Bob Cole Chamber Choir. For their Master's Recital, Michael earned honorable mention as a finalist for the American Prize's Dale Warland Award for Collegiate Choral Conductors.
Michael was the Founder and Director of two Social Justice Choirs at Gustavus Adolphus College, and their performances earned them 2nd place in The American Prize for Choral Conducting - Community Division and an invitation to present a concert at The 2020 Nobel Conference. Michael graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College, summa cum laude, in 2019 with a BA in Music Education and certification in K-12 Vocal, Instrumental, and Classroom music. Michael is a member of the Music Honors Society Pi Kappa Lambda and the Education Honors Society Kappa Delta Pi, and holds professional affiliations with the American Choral Director’s Association, the National Collegiate Choral Organization, and the National Associate for Music Education.
Evan has extensive knowledge in both classical and jazz styles, having been part of top notch ensembles in both community and school groups; Edmonds Community College’s Soundsation, Seattle Children’s Choir, Central Washington University’s Chamber Choir, Vocal Jazz 1, and Seattle based Choral Arts Northwest just to name a few. In the professional arena, Evan is a sought after bass/baritone soloist and has performed as a guest for many local community and school groups for major works, such as René Clausen’s Memorial, Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem, Mozart’s Vespers, and more.
Through inspiration and guidance by the great arrangers of the Pacific Northwest such as Vijay Singh, Kirk Marcy, and Kelly Kunz, Evan has been arranging his own jazz standards and compositions since 2003 with a steady stream of charts for his own ensembles. More notably, his arrangement of Love You Madly was premiered at the National American Choral Directors Association Conference in Chicago in 2011.
During the pandemic, Evan formed his own LLC called Envision Studios with business partner Daniel Schreiner. The goal was to help build virtual content for music teachers throughout the US to support their regular online rehearsals, projects, and virtual performances. Envision supported upwards of 40 school teachers in over 100 projects throughout the pandemic, bringing quality music programs to people's homes, enriching 'classroom' learning, and instilling confidence, recording, and musical skills to students across the country.