Invention

Saturday, March 1, 2025 • 7:30 p.m.
First Free Methodist Church (3200 3rd Ave W)

Harmonia Chorus
William White, conductor


Program

Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (*1963)
Pseudo-Yoik

Morten Lauridsen (*1943)
“Quando son più lontan” from Madrigali

Eric Whitacre (*1970)
Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine

Marques Garrett (*1984)
The Lesson

R. Nathaniel Dett (1882–1943) / arr. Marques Garrett
O Holy Lord

Ken Burton (*1970)
A Prayer

Sheila Bristow (*1969)
At harbor, waiting for wind [world premiere]

Aaron Keyt (*1964)
Nizina [world premiere]

Carol Sams (*1945)
“Stone” from The Earthmakers

Johann Sebastian Bach
“Confiteor” from Mass in B minor, BWV 232


About the Concert

The Harmonia Chorus presents a program that displays our vocal artists at the pinnacle of their versatility. Our concert explores several strains of contemporary choral composition, most notably with world premieres from two of our own musicians.

This performance will last approximately 75 minutes, with reception to follow.


Maestro’s Prelude

Welcome to this evening’s program of great (mostly) new (mostly) American choral music.

We’re opening with a high-energy Finnish romp, but then we’ll attack our purpose head-on with a set that presents works by the two composers who wrought a sort of “Marshmallow Revolution” on American choral music between 1980 and 2000: Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre. Lauridsen has created music of radiant beauty that has proven so popular that all contemporary American choral composers have had to contend with it in one way or another. His music may tend a tad toward the over-gooey for some folks, but not the piece we’ll perform this evening: an Italian madrigal that shows Lauridsen’s refined craftsmanship and careful handling of dissonance. The exact same can be said for Eric Whitacre’s Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine. You’ll hear the clear influence of Lauridsen’s madrigal in Whitacre’s work, but you’ll also hear his use of expanded vocal techniques for which he is so rightly renowned.

Our next set features music from another, more traditional strain of American choral music. I selected these works because I wished to live a while longer in the reverberations from the performance we mounted last season of R. Nathaniel Dett’s masterpiece, The Ordering of Moses, conducted by my friend and colleague Marques L.A. Garrett. Dr. Garrett is a Dett scholar, so for this concert, I wished to pair his music with Dett’s and see what audible connections we could draw. As a cherry on top, I had to include Ken Burton’s A Prayer, a piece that I first learned about when Marques recommended it to me. Ken Burton is, admittedly, a British composer, but this piece’s luscious, soulful harmonies are clearly in conversation with American styles.

For our final set, we’re performing the music of three local composers — and some of it is literally hot off the presses! Not Kia Sam’s “Stone,” though, which comes from The Earthmakers, a major oratorio that she wrote in the 1980s. Harmonia has performed this work five times, most recently in 2019 under my own baton, and I am convinced that it is one of the great works of the 20th century. “Stone” is an a cappella memento from that piece and I’m glad to keep it as a part of our active repertoire. As for the two new pieces — Sheila Bristow’s At harbor, waiting for wind and Aaron Keyt’s and Jennifer Chung’s Nizina — it makes me so happy and honored that we have such great talent residing in our own ensembles, and I very much look forward to bringing these pieces to life tonight.

Our concert ends on a tantalizing note, engineered to make you rush to our web site and purchase a ticket for our next concert, the great and glorious Mass in B minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. Admittedly, this is an unusual way to end a program, but I’m willing to chance it so that you’re maximally primed for this grandiose work come the month’s end.

— William White