Kennesaw State University School of Music presents Choral Ensembles: Women\u27s Chorus and Chamber Singers.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1625/thumbnail.jp

Backwell, Leslie J

Barrett, Sherri

Cross, Julie

Mann, Alison

English

DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University

                                           School of Music  presents  KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY  Choral Ensembles  Dr. Leslie J. Blackwell, conductor Dr. Alison Mann, conductor  Sherri Barrett, accompanist Julie Cross, accompanist    Tuesday, March 17, 2009 8:00 pm Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center Performance Hall     Forty-ninth Concert of the 2008-2009 season                                         Kennesaw State University School of Music  Kennesaw State University Choral Ensembles Dr. Leslie J. Blackwell, conductor Dr. Alison Mann, conductor Sherri Barrett, accompanist Julie Cross, accompanist  Tuesday, March 17, 2009 8:00 pm Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center Performance Hall  PROGRAM  KSU Women’s Chorus Dr. Alison Mann, conductor   Halleluya Music by Bill Derksen   (b. 1941)  Swahili lyrics by Jane Nolunda Megan Otte, solo Pershaud Bolt, percussion  Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi David N. Childs   (b. 1969)  Niska Banja Traditional Serbian Gypsy Dance  Arr. Nick Page   (b. 1952) Lindsey Ingle, Lindsay Swann, soprano soloists Maggie Goodhart , Jessica Stewart, mezzo soloists Julie Cross, Matthew Sorenson, piano  How Can I Keep From Singing Traditional Quaker Hymn  Arr. Ruth Elaine Schram   This is the Day (Rejoice!) Gerald T. Smith  Brooke Eastlick, solo                                        Kennesaw State University  Upcoming Music Events  Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Kennesaw State University  Wind Ensemble 8:00 pm • Bailey Performance Center Performance Hall  Thursday-Sunday, March 26-29, 2009 Kennesaw State University Opera The Merry Wives of Windsor  by Otto Nicolai Bailey Performance Center Performance Hall  Saturday, April 4, 2009 Kennesaw State University Faculty Artist Recital Oral Moses, bass-baritone 8:00 pm • Bailey Performance Center Performance Hall  Sunday, April 5, 2009 Kennesaw State University Faculty Artist Recital Mary Akerman, classical guitar 3:00 pm • Bailey Performance Center Performance Hall  Thursday, April 9, 2009 Kennesaw State University Jazz Combos 8:00 pm • Bailey Performance Center Performance Hall  Friday, April 10, 2009 Kennesaw State University  Guitar Ensemble 8:00 pm • Bailey Performance Center Performance Hall     For the most current information, please visit http://www.kennesaw.edu/arts/events/  KSU Chamber Singers Dr. Leslie J. Blackwell, conductor   A Litany for Courage and the Seasons David Maslanka  b. 1943 Six Songs for Chorus, Clarinet and Vibraphone on poems of Richard Beale   Ted Gurch, clarinet      John Lawless, vibraphone   I. The Sleep of Poets  II. Servis Road: A Hymn to St. Francis  Megan Otte, Lindsay Swann, sopranos Clay Mooney, tenor Shawn Keswani, bass  III. The Soundless Sound  IV. On Chestnut Hill  V. Little Dance: For Barbara Mason  VI. A Litany for Courage and the Seasons  Luke Lovett, tenor  Nick Morrett, baritone  Rachel Alexander, alto                                                        Translations and Poetry  Halleluya  Halleluya! We sing your praises, All our hearts are filled with gladness  Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi  Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace; Where there is hate, let me sow love; Where there is injury, let me pardon; Where there is despair, let there be hope.  Where there is doubt, let there be faith; Where there is sadness, let there be joy; Where there is darkness, let there be light; And all for Thy mercies sake.  O divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying, that we are born to eternal life.  Niska Banja  Translation: Let’s go the baths of Nis where we shall kiss, kiss, kiss.  Niska Banja is a folk song/dance popular throughout Yugoslavia. To Central Europeans the 9/8 rhythm of 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 is as natural as a 4/4 rock beat in North America.   The vocal parts are arranged exactly as they would be sung in Yugoslavia. The piano parts are, however, quite different from the traditional accordion, bouzoukee, mandolin and tambourine instrumentals one would hear in Yugoslavia.  ~Program note by Doreen Rao.  Methods, Foundations of Music Education, Choral Conducting, and Vocal Pedagogy for Ensemble Singing. Dr. Mann also supervises student teachers and serves as Conductor of the K.S.U. Women’s Chorus.  A native of Florida, Dr. Mann taught in the Orlando public schools as  director of choral activities at William R. Boone High School and was also the assistant conductor of the Orlando Chorale. While in Orlando, choirs and soloists under her direction received top honors at the district and state levels.   Dr. Mann received her Ph.D. in Music Education and Choral Conducting from the University of Oregon, and a Masters of Choral Music Education and Bachelors of Choral Music Education from Florida State University. Dr. Mann has studied conducting and music education with Andre Thomas, Kevin Fenton, Sharon J. Paul, Judy Bowers, and Harry Price. While in Oregon, Dr. Mann served as the Oregon state ACDA Multicultural Repertoire and Standards Chair. Her professional affiliations include the American Choral Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference, Georgia Music Educators Association, National Collegiate Choral Organization, and the International Society for Music Education. Her research has been presented at the state, regional, and international levels. Dr. Mann is an active conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and researcher.  Sherri N. Barrett accompanist  Sherri N. Barrett received her bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of Michigan and her master’s degree in piano performance from the University of Tennessee. She studied with Eugene Mancini of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Arthur Rivituso from the Juilliard School of Music. Ms. Barrett has recorded two solo piano CD’s entitled From His Hand and At Peace. She has been an active soloist, accompanist and adjudicator in Atlanta for over 20 years. She has performed in both the United States and Europe as a soloist, in various chamber ensembles and accompanist for various choral groups. She maintains a large teaching studio out of which several students have won international piano competitions. She is presently serving as pianist for two local Atlanta churches, the Kennesaw State University Chamber Singers and Chorale and the newly founded Kennesaw State University Community Alumni Choir under the baton of Dr. Leslie J. Blackwell. Ms. Barrett is a member of the National Music Teachers Association and the International Music Fraternity Delta Omicron.                                        How Can I Keep from Singing  My life flows on in endless song, above earth’s lamentation; I hear the real though far-off hymn that hails a new creation. No storm can shake my inmost calm  while to that rock I’m clinging. Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, How can I keep from singing?  What though the tempest loudly roars,  I know the truth; it liveth. What though the darkness round me close, songs in the night it giveth.  Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing. It sounds an echo in my soul; How can I keep from singing?  This is the Day  This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise. I will rejoice and be glad in it.  From the rising of the sun, till the going down of the same, He’s worthy of the glory, He’s worthy of the honor, This is the day that the Lord has made.          Blackwell 's baton, her choirs have performed master works including the requiems of Fauré, Duruflé and Mozart, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Rome Symphony Orchestra, Brahm’s Requiem, Rutter’s Gloria, and Handel’s Messiah with the Cobb Symphony Orchestra.  The Kennesaw State University Chamber Singers performed at the 2002, 2006, and 2008 Georgia Music Educators Association State Convention.  Also, Dr. Blackwell lectured at the annual GMEA In-Service in Savannah, Georgia in January 2007 along with the KSU Men’s Ensemble.  The lecture was entitled “Men: Can’t live with them, Can’t sing without them!”    Dr. Blackwell received a Chancellor’s Award in May 2007 to study Latin American Choral music in Salta, Argentina.  Dr. Blackwell studied with Luis Benavidez and Julio Cesar Reynaga, director del Coro Gaudium and renowned arranger of Latin American Choral music in Argentina.  Dr. Blackwell earned her A.D. from Gordon College and her B.M. in music education from West Georgia College.  She also holds a M.M. from Georgia State University and a D.M.A. from the University of Kentucky.  Influential musicians with whom she has worked are Robert Shaw, Ann Howard Jones, Yoel Levi, David Maslanka, Rodney Eichenberger, and Jefferson Johnson.   During her twenty years as a music educator in Georgia, Dr. Blackwell taught seven years at McIntosh High School in Peachtree City, where her Chamber and Women's choirs performed, respectively, at the 1992 and 1994 Georgia Music Educators Association State Conventions. McIntosh Chamber Choir was selected to sing at the American Choral Director's Association Southern Division Convention in 1996.   In 2007 Dr. Blackwell founded the Kennesaw State University Community Alumni Choir, which began its inaugural season with membership reaching nearly 100 voices.  In addition to her commitments at Kennesaw State University, Dr. Blackwell is currently Minister of Music at Haygood Memorial United Methodist Church.  She is also active as a conductor, clinician and adjudicator in the southeast, and holds memberships in MENC, GMEA, and ACDA.  Alison Mann  Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education  Alison Mann is Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at Kennesaw State University, where she teaches coursework in Choral                                        A Litany for Courage and the Seasons David Maslanka  Poetry by Richard Beale  I. The Sleep of Poets  The sleep of poets is but a travelogue of dream, Mars tonight and the crab nebulae tomorrow. Hear dit-dit-dit—  The voice of God. The colorless silences are his paragraphs, Dark holes the dimples of his mind.  O come, morning, with your vivid dawn And your rain and winds To see if you can rival The augury and majesty of dream!  II. Servis Road: A Hymn to St.. Francis  After a hard winter of work spring comes at last, With warming winds which find even the deepest culverts. In my heart St. Francis is stirring. His blindness And the remedy of hot irons disrupts me as I walk along   this country road. I wonder what God could have done to prepare a man for that, Both the pain and the disfiguration. I ask St. Francis to pray for me Because I need the recommendation of a good man  The sky is blue with no clouds. The freshets gurgle pleasantly beneath the sounds  of countless peepers and new birds. I walk along briskly, remembering my body, Trying to awaken it from a long chill, As though it had been asleep under the snow. The sun surrounds me with a flowing light And shows me the configurations and colors Of things I have come to know and love.  I wonder why my own blindness was not healed   by this transfiguration. Blessed Francis, guide me through my awakening While my spirit is still heavy with sleep And while I have trouble focusing my eyes. contemporary music ensemble Thamyris, with which he has performed and recorded numerous world and regional premieres, including a current release featuring music from the National Black Arts Festival. He also performs with Bent Frequency, an Atlanta-based multi-media new music group, and is a member of Luna Nova, the contemporary music ensemble of the NITLE college association.  In addition to his duties at KSU, Mr. Gurch coaches the clarinet section of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra.  John Lawless vibraphone  John Lawless is the Principal timpanist with both the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and the Cobb Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Lawless held the same position with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Orchestra for 21 years. Since 1978 Mr. Lawless has performed, toured, and recorded with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, while maintaining a thriving freelance career as both a studio and pit percussionist. Mr. Lawless became Director of Percussion Studies at Kennesaw State University in 2004. Previous faculty appointments include those at Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta University, and the University of West Georgia. A founding member of the Atlanta Percussion Trio, Mr. Lawless performs hundreds of school concert each year, and has done so for nearly 30 years. In 2004 the Atlanta Percussion Trio performed as concerto soloists with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in “The glory and the Grandeur” by Russell Peck and repeated this performance with the Cobb Symphony Orchestra in 2006. A graduate of Georgia State University, Mr. Lawless’ teachers include Jack Bell, Paul Yancich, Mark Yancich, Bill Wilder, Tom Float and the late Cloyd Duff. Mr. Lawless lives in Marietta with his violinist wife, Angele, and their two children, Hannah and Bryden. When not performing music, Mr. Lawless enjoys the sport of triathlon and has competed all over the southeast and beyond since 1982.  Leslie J. Blackwell Director of Choral Activities  Dr. Blackwell is the director of Choral Activities and Associate Professor of Music and Music Education at Kennesaw State University where she has taught since 1998.  Dr. Blackwell's duties include conducting the choral ensembles; KSU Chorale, KSU Men’s Ensemble, and KSU Chamber Singers; teaching choral conducting, choral literature, and supervising student teachers.  Under Dr.                                        David Maslanka composer  David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1943. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied composition with Joseph Wood. He spent a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and did graduate work in composition at Michigan State University with H. Owen Reed.   Maslanka's works for winds and percussion have become especially well known. They include among others, "A Child's Garden of Dreams" for Symphonic Wind Ensemble, "Concerto for Piano, Winds and Percussion," the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th symphonies, "Mass" for soloists, chorus, boys chorus, wind orchestra and organ, and the two Wind Quintets. Percussion works include, "Variations of 'Lost Love'" and "My Lady White: for solo marimba, and three ensemble works: "Arcadia II: Concerto for Marimba and Percussion Ensemble," "Crown of Thorns," and "Montana Music: Three Dances for Percussion." In addition, he has written a wide variety of chamber, orchestral, and choral pieces.   David Maslanka's compositions are published by Carl Fischer, Inc., Kjos Music Company, Marimba Productions, Inc., the North American Saxophone Alliance, and OU Percussion Press, and have been recorded on Albany, Cambria, CRI, Mark, Novisse, and Klavier labels. He has served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Kingsborough College of the City University of New York. He now lives in Missoula, Montana. David Maslanka is a member of ASCAP.  Ted Gurch clarinet  Ted Gurch, Associate Principal/E-flat Clarinetist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1989, joined the faculty at Kennesaw State University in 2006 . Prior to coming to Atlanta, he served for three seasons as Principal Clarinetist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. He attended the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Stanley Hasty and Charles Neidich, earning a Bachelor's Degree and the Performer's Certificate. While at Eastman he was active as a saxophonist in the school's jazz program, and was a member of the award-winning Eastman Jazz Ensemble. He continues to play saxophone on jazz, pop and classical programs, and has appeared as a concerto soloist with the ASO on saxophone as well as clarinet. An active chamber musician, Mr. Gurch is a member of the  Speaking is a way of knowing Psalms from a lover's soul, On the heart’s hearth newly glowing Like ignited coal.  The fire's brand along the temples And the smell of burning hair-- The love of God impeached the troubles Brother Ass imprisoned there.  Scarred and blistered and blinded still With ulcers on both feet and hands-- Blessed Francis, share your loving With another blinded man.  III. The Soundless Sound  The soft crackling of the rain On dry leaves And the echo of the birdsong Against the woods-- Are these all one hears Between breathing in And breathing out?  One hears nothing if not The soundless sound.  IV. On Chestnut Hill  On Chestnut Hill I lean against the wind. I walk among the grass and the Solomon's Seal And watch the yellow moon begin its rise. I lie where the deer have lain, and ask the skies Impossible questions: is this phantom real Who made both night and day?  Is it wise to wish the night away?  V. Little Dance: For Barbara Mason  Pushing back the walls,  Stretching for freedom, Time and Space were the fringes                                         Of my limitation. With only my skin For a costume, and no script At all, I offer. A careful bow To the beings beyond the dark.  Perhaps this little dance Will please the dead and the unseen, And then the boundaries will cave in, And then my spirit will fly.  In this moment and no other, In this way and no other, I am.  VI. A Litany For Courage and the Seasons  May the apple blossoms flower on my birthday May my heart be calmed if it snows on the jonquils. May the hot days of summer be made tolerable by a little rain. May I get wisdom if the flowers die. May the maples splash enough color to seem warm, not cold. May I be thankful on Thanksgiving, even though I might not   remember what for, And joyful at Christmas, for the same reason. I am not sure that by myself I would pray for all these things. But if I did not pray, not even knowing what I pray to, I would   lose my reason. May God come and stay in my heart through the round of seasons. May God make me love each season more, though   none are new. And if I should die before the birds come back from the South May my spirit be waiting for them in the trees.            Women’s Chorus  Soprano Alto  Rachel Becker Tracy Bloomer Caitlin Eicholtz Dolenc Brooke Eastlick Newt Fisk Morgan Gentry Jessi Hicks Lindsey Ingle Natasha Larivee Morgan O’Kelley Megan Otte Teonickia Pitts Lindsay Swann  Kelsey Rose Allen Liz Garnsey Maggie Goodhart Jenni Korhonen Christy Rogers Jessica Stewart Jasmine Thompson        Chamber Singers  Soprano Alto  Kristen Brent Rachel Espenshied Anna Gerlach Amanda Newton Megan Otte Michaele Postell Lindsay Swann   Rachael Alexander Amanda Branwer Brooke Eastlick Sarah Harville Rachel Mercer Kati Stewart Tenor Bass  Michael Alcorn Jon Brown Connor Horton Luke Lovell Cody Nichols   Jeffery David Gibb Shawn Keswani John McClure Clay Mooney Nick Morrett   

Choral Ensembles

https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1625&amp;context=musicprograms

Choral Ensembles

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University