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Long Night of Culture

Hotel Alcatraz

Director: Eric Weddle

The Choir

Soprano:
Monica Alent, Angela Benra, Ka'lelah Bryant-Tillis, Morgan Cessac, Mariella Collinsworth.
Flora Cordero, Marianne von Hagen-Baralt, Anastasiia Lavrenova, Haley Maddox,
Keysha Martinez, Pauline Olsen, Alexandra Ramos, Gosia Schulze,
Antje Siegers, Jutta Strobel, Nicole Thomas, Kristina Wise, Jennifer Young, Barbara Ziska

Alto:
Jone Ambraziejiene, Hannah Aurand, Luisa Benra, Claudia Cafuk, Malinda Cox,
Konnie Deßloch, Anne Doll, Tess Foster, Kathrin Galijasevic, Christine Gauer,
Waltraud Herrgen, Christy Keating, Susi Krueger, Simone Neifeld,
Christine Petry, Marlies Röpke, Sarah Rose, Kathryn Rose, Susanne Schwetschke,
Madeline Slagley, Elsie Smith, Noël Sprenkle, Michelle Walker,
Thrinh Weinhold, Kortney Whaley

Tenor:
Daniel Armstrong, Bryan Fox, Christoph Hartmüller, Tyler Kersten,
Spencer Lee, Michael Reed-Price, Ian Rose, Robert Rose,
Scott Thomsen, Robby Wetzler

Bass:
Ari Basurto-Olsen, Alex Benra, Patrick Casey, Michael Cohen, Stefan Deßloch,
Andreas Fordan, Joel Foster, Hans Kauf, Jordan Lamothe, Jan Neifeld

Program Order

Solo: Eric Weddle
Percussion: Hannah Aurand, Rob Rose

Todd Tozama Matshikiza (1921–1968) was a South African journalist, composer, and jazz pianist. His song “Tshotsholoza,” written during the apartheid era, is often seen as an expression of hope, unity, and resilience and is considered South Africa’s unofficial anthem. Originally sung by miners in the mines, it conveys a longing for home and community, while also serving as a hymn of progress and strength. The song symbolizes moving forward - both literally as a train song and figuratively as an inspiration for social and personal change.

Lyrics translated:
Go forward, go forward on those mountains;
The train is coming from South Africa.
You are running away on those mountains;
The train is coming from South Africa.

Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978) is a Norwegian pianist and composer whose works are influenced by classical, jazz, folk, and pop music. Ubi Caritas, one of his early choral pieces, is probably his most performed and popular works today. 

Gjeilo describes the inspiration for this piece in the following way (see olagjeilo.com).

“The first time I sang in a choir was in high school; I went to a music high school in Norway and choir was obligatory. I loved it from the start, and the first piece we read through was Maurice Duruflé’s Ubi Caritas, which to me is the perfect a cappella piece. ​So when I set the same text myself a few years later, it was inevitably influenced by his incomparable setting – though while Duruflé used an existing, traditional chant in his incomparable work, I used chant more as a general inspiration.”

Lyrics translated:
Where charity and love are, God is there.
Christ's love has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And may we love each other with a sincere heart.

Fueled by a passion for combining tradition and innovation, American composer Michael John Trotta (b.1978) creates music that resonates with modern audiences around the world. From Carnegie Hall to cathedrals and concert halls around the world, he creates “elegant, singable music with a strong, spiritual heft” (Choir and Organ Magazine).

Trotta’s father passed away unexpectedly when he was seven, and music became his solace. He said: “As a singer in choir, and later as a conductor and composer, I fell in love with the choral masterworks of the genre: the gravitas of Brahms, the tenderness of Faure and the juxtaposition of old and new in the Duruflé. When I was commissioned to write a Requiem, I sought to both honour this tradition while at the same time bringing it to modern day listeners.”

Lyrics translated:
Day of wrath and day of judgment,
Earth shall perish in an instant,
as foretold by prophets ancient.

Death and nature both are shaken,
as creation re-awakens,
to its Judge an answer making.

Remember me, merciful Jesus,
let me not perish (that terrible day).
Therefore, Gracious God, spare them (me),
grant eternal rest to them.

Save me!

American composer Frank Ticheli (b. 1958) has been frequently commissioned as a composer for a wide variety of instrumental genres since completing his formal music study in the 1980’s. His largest output has been in symphonic music, yet he has many chamber music titles in his catalog as well. Earth Song (2007) is his third of only eight works exclusively for chorus. This a cappella setting is a poignant cry for peace in a war-torn world. The original text tells a story of music as refuge for humankind’s shortcomings.

Solo: Robby Wetzler
Percussion: Rob Rose

Stephen Ross and Benjamin Lunstad are vocalists in “Face,” a male band consisting of five men who sing a cappella arrangements, based in Boulder, Colorado. Their music is steeped in folk and rock traditions, and their popularity has taken them across the globe performing for the past two decades. The Parting Glass is a sample from their repertoire, a traditional Irish folk song full of the gratitude and positive energy often found in Irish folk music.

Our performances: 2019

The Hungarian dance song “Tambur” was published in 1583 as an instrumental piece by German organist and composer Jacob Paix (1550–1623) in an anthology. The Hungarian conductor, composer, and music educator Lajos Bárdos (1899–1986) created the choral arrangement in 1951. He composed primarily sacred and secular choral works, both for a cappella choirs and for choir and orchestra, and is considered one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Hungarian music.

John Farmer (c.1570–c.1601) was an important composer of the English madrigal school, also known for his four-part choral settings of ancient church psalms. He served as an organist and choirmaster in Dublin and London.

Fair Phyllis is a jocular four-part madrigal by Farmer that was published in 1599 by William Barley in a collection entitled The First Set of English Madrigals to Four Voices. Farmer dedicated the collection to his patron, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.The text, whose author is unknown, presents a brief mock-pastoral narrative that playfully engages with traditional pastoral themes.

Our performances: 2010, 2012, 2022

Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre (b. 1970), is among today’s most popular musicians. A graduate of The Juilliard School, his works are performed worldwide, and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united well over 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries. Among his recent accolades and awards, Eric received the Richard D. Colburn Award from the Colburn School and an Honorary Doctor of Arts from Chapman University (CA).

Originally set to American poet Robert Frost’s poem Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, the text of Sleep later had to be replaced because permission to use the poem was not granted by Frost’s heirs. Tony Silvestri (b. 1965), according to Whitacre, “wrote an absolutely exquisite poem, finding a completely different (but equally beautiful) message in the music [he] had already written.”

Trio: Haley Maddox, Gosia Schulze, Kortney Whaley

The hymn “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” first appeared in the 1908 Alexander’s Gospel Songs, with words by Ada Ruth Habershon and music by Charles H. Gabriel. The hymn was substantially reworked (and the lyrics of the verses replaced) by A.P. Carter for The Carter Family in 1935 and experienced a popular renaissance when it was released by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1972. The updated lyrics in this arrangement were written by folk singers Betsy Rose, Cathy Winter, and Marcia Taylor, and printed in the marvelous folk song resource Rise Up Singing (ed. Peter Blood, ©1988 Sing Out Corporation).

J. David Moore (b. 1962), American composer and arranger, has written hundreds of arrangements of vocal jazz, spirituals, barbershop quartet, Celtic mouth music, Civil Rights marching songs, early American hymn tunes, sixteenth-century madrigals, and folk music in Ukrainian, Gaelic, Austrian, Brazilian Portuguese, French, and Latin. His own compositions include art song, oratorios, music for percussion ensemble, string quartet, wind ensemble, baroque orchestra, and tuned wine glasses. He has won numerous grants, awards, and residencies from many organizations such as ASCAP, the Jerome Foundation, the American Composers Forum, and was the recipient of the 2001 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, along with his a cappella group Dare To Breathe.

The Spiritual (Negro/African American spiritual) is a genre of Christian music that emerged from the17th-century American slavery, merging sub-Saharan African cultural traditions with the traumatic, lived experience of bondage. It is a deeply emotional, often improvised, oral tradition of sacred songs that served as coded messages of protest, survival, and faith.

Like most Spirituals, the original author of “Soon Ah Will Be Done” is unknown. William L. Dawson set it for mixed voices in 1934, the same year that his extensive “Negro Folk Symphony” was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York.  Later versions of “Soon…” have been released in a slower, bluesy style, including a highly regarded 1959 version by the renowned gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. Sinead O’Connor, the late Irish singer, upon releasing her version of the song in 2020, commented: “It's written that the world will become the Garden of Eden which it was intended to be, and that to me is what the song is saying."

Piano: Elsie Smith
Percusssion: Rob Rose

Robert T. Gibson is a conductor, clinician, composer/arranger, lecturer, and educator who desires to develop future music educators for the next generation. He is the recipient of the 2020 Missouri Choral Director Association Opus Award for his arrangement of “We Shall Overcome” and has received various awards for his leadership and dedication to the choral world as well as his leadership in the communities he has served.

"It's All Right" is a 1963 song recorded by The Impressions and written by the group's lead singer, Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999).  Jon Batiste's cover in Disney/Pixar's "Soul" brought this early Curtis Mayfield song to a whole new generation. Built on a soulful groove, jazzy twists, and a feel-good vibe, this choral arrangement is based on the Batiste version from the film.