559299 bk American Choral US 12/8/06 13:28 Page 8

James Morrow AMERICAN CLASSICS James Morrow is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Texas at Austin where he conducts the Chamber Singers and Choral Arts Society and directs the graduate program in choral conducting. Prior to his appointment at the University of Texas, he served as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Florida AMERICAN CHORAL MUSIC and at Hope College in Michigan. Choirs under his direction have received numerous invitations to perform for various music conferences, and in 2005 he conducted the University of Texas Persichetti • Ives • Corigliano • Foss • Copland Chamber Singers in performances for both the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in San Antonio and for the Susanne Mentzer, Mezzo-soprano national convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Los Angeles. Also in 2005, he led that group in a performance with the Kronos Quartet and in a modern-day première and The University of Texas Chamber Singers recording of Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia’s Missa de Nossa Senhora da Conceição of 1810. Additionally, his James Morrow choirs have toured internationally, singing for audiences in England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Brazil. James Morrow performed as a choral singer with Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Festival Singers in France and in the , participating in several recordings for TELARC, as well as performing as baritone soloist under Robert Shaw’s direction. He is a featured soloist on a TELARC CD with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus released in 2006. A student of the late Gérard Souzay, he has also performed as a baritone soloist with orchestras in a variety of repertoire, including Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs, Arvo Pärt’s Passio, and the Passions of J. S. Bach. He was twice selected as an Artist/Fellow at the Bach Aria Festival and Institute in Stony Brook, New York.

8.559299 8 559299 bk American Choral US 12/8/06 13:28 Page 2

AMERICAN CHORAL MUSIC The University of Texas Chamber Singers Dr James Morrow, Conductor • Seung Won Cho, Rehearsal Accompanist (1915-87): Flower Songs 19:25 The University of Texas Chamber Singers has been one of the leading North American collegiate choral ensembles for nearly half a century. Under the direction of James Morrow, this highly select ensemble of mixed voices was 1 Flowers of Stone 3:19 organized in 1957 by Dr. Morris J. Beachy. Since that time they have traveled extensively throughout the United 2 Spouting Violets 2:20 States and much of Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Recent performances include Terry Riley’s Sun Rings with the Kronos Quartet, Delius’s Appalachia with conductor Gunther Schuller, the North American première 3 Early Flowers 3:02 and first complete recording of Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia’s Missa de Nossa Senhora da 4 Is There a Flower 2:29 Conceição, and concerts for the American Choral Directors Association National Convention in Los Angeles. Their 5 A Yellow Flower 2:08 most recent concert tour was to Brazil where they performed in historic venues in São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. 6 The Rose is Dying 2:56 7 Lily Has a Rose 3:10 Soprano Alto Tenor Bass Chamber Orchestra Julie Agee Sarah Bannon Dwight Bigler Sterling Allen 8 (1874-1954): Psalm 90 11:06 Erin Bobruk Alison Barrow Manuel Castillo Peter Hamilton Darlene Cluff Carla Flores James Henderson D’Acquistoe Hamner John Wiles, Tenor • Darlene Cluff, Soprano • Seung Won Cho, Organ Meredith Groeschel Erin Greene Jeffrey Jones-Ragona Phillip D. Hill Bells: Thad Anderson, Graeme Francis, Stephen Martin, Jeff Otto Katie Menzel Crystalyn Jass John Wiles Matthew Neumann Mary Petrak de Ávila Megan Pachecano Christopher Price 9 John Corigliano (b. 1938): Fern Hill 15:33 Lisa Sunset Roane Jim Shepherd Sarah Wood Susanne Mentzer, Mezzo-Soprano Solo Quartet: Lisa Roane, Soprano • Megan Pachecano, Mezzo-soprano Chamber Orchestra John Wiles, Tenor • Phillip Hill, Baritone • Chamber Orchestra 0 Lukas Foss (b. 1922): Behold, I Build an House 10:05 1st Violin Viola Double Bass Clarinet Seung Won Cho, Organ Laurie Stevens, Ames Asbell, principal David Dawson, principal Richard MacDowell* concertmistress Lana Harris Jessica Gilliam-Valls ! Aaron Copland (1900-90): In the Beginning 16:02 Wallace Depue Will Taylor Horn Leigh Mahoney Flute Susanne Mentzer, Mezzo-soprano Tracy Seeger Cello Patrick Hughes* Marianne Gedigian* The University of Texas Chamber Singers • James Morrow 2nd Violin Sara Nelson, principal Harp Margaret Coltman Oboe Publishers: Tracks 1-7: Elkan-Vogel, Inc. (Theodore Presser Company) Bruce Colson, principal Betsy Sanders Elaine Barber* Michalis Koutsoupides Benjamin Westney* Rebecca Henderson* Track 8: Merion Music, Inc. (Theodore Presser Company) • Track 9: G. Schirmer, Inc. Tammy Linn * Corigliano only Track 10: Mercury Music Corporation (Theodore Presser Company) • Track 11: Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Stephanie Teply † Ives only We regret that we are unable to reprint the sung texts. 8.559299 27 8.559299 559299 bk American Choral US 12/8/06 13:28 Page 6

Susanne Mentzer American Choral Music

Susanne Mentzer has become one of today’s Familiar names and lesser-known works, past masters women’s voices special prominence throughout the foremost mezzo-sopranos. She is widely and living luminaries, biblical texts and modern poetry, cycle. The first song embraces both life and death, admired as a specialist in trouser rôles, most the American choral tradition encompasses it all. The evoking the flowering of youth as well as the silence of notably for her portrayals of Cherubino (Le composers brought together here can reasonably be the grave in chant-like tones, while the second is a nozze di Figaro) and The Composer (Ariadne considered part of a tradition extending from Ives as the reverie of metaphors. The next pair celebrates an auf Naxos) and also specialises in the music of progenitor of modern American music. Selections on indiscriminate sexual passion (the many girls and many Mozart, Strauss, and the bel canto repertoire. this recording span the entire twentieth century but kisses in “Early Flowers”) before pledging true love and She enjoys a significant concert and recital eschew vocal experimentation and avant-garde styles. fidelity. “Is There a Flower” is a tender duet between career, with a particular interest in chamber Instead, these works embrace musical idioms more lovers who murmur to each other accompanied by a music, and is known as an interpreter of the gracious to singers and audiences alike. The choir is steady heartbeat and jazzy harmonies. The heart- vocal works of Mahler and a proponent of here employed by each composer as a vehicle for wrenching dissonances in “A Yellow Flower” and “The women’s music. Susanne Mentzer has communal experiences and collective emotions. Ives, Rose is Dying” speak of betrayal and grief. (Yellow appeared at nearly every great opera house and Copland, and Foss turn to biblical texts to capture the roses are a traditional symbol of infidelity, and in fact with major orchestras, under the batons of awe and wonder of creation, Persichetti and Corigliano Cummings had separated from his wife at the time.) In Muti, Masur, Mackerras, Colin Davis, to contemporary poetry to speak of innocence and the aftermath of the affair, “Lily Has a Rose” is a Bonynge, Dutoit, Mehta, Sinopoli, Ozawa, experience, love and loss. Together they represent the dialogue between two women, one jealous of attention Marriner, Haitink, Chailly, Abbado, mainstream of American composition and some of the paid to the other. Song and cycle end with a profound Eschenbach, Boulez, Norrington, Sawallisch, best in the catalogue of contemporary choral music. yet fatalistic sentiment first voiced by the sopranos and others. She also has appeared in many alone, answered by dissonant suspensions, then asserted productions of the late director Jean-Pierre Vincent Persichetti: Flower Songs (Cantata No. quite stridently by the entire choir. Ponnelle, whom she considers one of her great 6), Op. 157 (1983) influences, and with the late Giorgio Strehler Charles Ives: Psalm 90 (1923–24) at La Scala. Her extensive discography -native Vincent Persichetti was a prolific includes two recitals she often performs in composer of some 120 works, including notable pieces During the 1890s Charles Ives turned to the Psalms as concert: The Eternal Feminine, a recital of for piano and wind band, as well as much music suited texts for a set of experimental pieces. Most he left music by women composers, which includes for instructional use. Like Foss, his style was eclectic, unrevised as they were first written (one, a setting of the première of Libby Larsen’s Love After but Persichetti did not tend to work within any one style Psalm 67 with the women in C major and the men in G 1950 with her long-time pianist, Craig at any given time; instead of falling easily into stylistic minor, was recorded as early as 1939 and is a staple of Rutenberg; and her personal favourite, periods, his music was always marked by compositional choral concerts even today). Psalm 90, however, he Wayfaring Stranger, a collection of variety. continued to work on during his life as a composer, international folk-songs arranged for voice Persichetti preferred texts by American writers, bringing it to its final form as late as 1923. and guitar, with Grammy Award winning with E.E. Cummings clearly a favorite. Flower Songs Written at the end of his compositional career and in Sharon Isbin. Susanne Mentzer has reveals the depth of the composer’s commitment to the a genre closely associated with his earliest experiences established herself as a pedagogue, frequently poet: Persichetti chose seven poems that span as a church organist, Psalm 90 is perhaps a summation giving master-classes in conjunction with singing engagements. She has been appointed Professor of Voice at Rice Cummings’s entire oeuvre, from the very first collection of Ives’s musical life. Moreover, the psalm text, with its University’s Shepherd School of Music and continues her distinguished tenure on the faculty of the Aspen Music (1923) to penultimate publication (1958). The composer themes of divine creation and human toil, is especially Festival and School. She has degrees from the Juilliard School and was trained in the Houston Opera Studio. She carefully arranged the texts into a loosely-constructed suitable for a man who was both an inspired, received the Alexian Brothers, USA Thelan Award for her involvement with the AIDS cause in Chicago. cycle on the theme of love and loss. adventurous composer and successful insurance Although none of the poems is explicitly gendered, executive. At the opening of his score Ives provides a Persichetti seems to privilege the feminine by giving the précis of the psalm. The first two chords in the organ

8.559299 6 3 8.559299 559299 bk American Choral US 12/8/06 13:28 Page 4

part have written above them “The Eternities” and revised as an oratorio (1999). In every version, Fern press was only mildly interested. I can’t imagine how division of time and seasons on the fourth day. A canon “Creation”; the jarringly dissonant third chord is Hill is shot through with the composer’s intellectually you’ll react to it. Anyhow you won’t have to conduct musically depicts the creation of man in God’s image, marked “God’s wrath against sin”. The descending engaging yet sonically accessible style, and his it—since there’s nothing but voices.” and a homophonic hymn marks the seventh day of rest. fourth in the next measure is labeled “Prayer and emotional commitment to the poems is always apparent. The text is from the opening chapters of Genesis. The piece ends with glorious triadic chords and Humility,” the next to last chord of the instrumental Solo sections delineate the days and their separate acts unexpected tonal shifts, much like those at the introduction (before the bells begin to toll) “Rejoicing in Lukas Foss: Behold, I Build an House (1950) of creation, with the phrase “And God said” prefacing conclusion of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Beauty and Work”. Grounding the entire piece is a each new dawn. As the world comes into being, the that here describe the ensouling of man. single, unwavering pedal point that might be heard as a Born in Germany, Lukas Foss was a musical prodigy music likewise takes shape, beginning with simple musical representation of resolute faith. The psalm ends who came to the United States in 1937 from Paris textures at the opening that suggest a formless darkness, Elizabeth B. Crist with a plea for God’s mercy and grace set in a simple (where his family had fled from Nazi Germany) to study through the triplet motives that illustrate the undulating chorale texture, a musical memory, perhaps, of at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Behold, I Build an waters of the ocean, to the divisi chorus describing the Princeton University congregational singing on a Sunday morning in New House falls within the period of Foss’s first maturity, at England. which point his style owed much to Copland’s. Commissioned for the opening of the ecumenical John Corigliano: Fern Hill (1960) Marsh Chapel at University, Behold, I Build an House is a biblical cantata based on passages from About his early choral work Fern Hill, John Corigliano II Chronicles (the odd-sounding “an” comes from the has written: King James version). This scripture speaks to the occasion, as it describes the construction of Solomon’s I’d only just graduated college in 1959 when a temple. The music falls into three sections delineated by singer friend asked me to set Thomas’s famous organ interludes. First is the opening charge to construct poem on his father’s death, “Do Not Go Gentle the temple; second, the dedication of the temple and into that Good Night”. I’d not been familiar musical offerings of praise; and finally, a line from with the body of his work before, and so my Solomon’s prayer set as a slow-moving, meditative friend gave me the Collected Poems to give me chant. a sense of his style. Aaron Copland: In the Beginning (1947) Fern Hill is a blithe poem, yet touched by darkness; time rules over all, finally holding the poet “green and Copland was not a choral composer. Most of his works dying”, but the poem itself, formally just a simple ABA for chorus are relatively short and serve some specific song extended into a wide arch, sings of the joy of youth purpose: fulfilling a commission; voicing of a political and its keen perceptions. I set it for mezzo-soprano solo, perspective; or giving material from larger works a chorus, and orchestra, aiming in the music to match the chance to circulate as smaller compositions. forthright lyricism of the text. (The direction “with In the Beginning belongs to the first of these types simplicity” is often to be found in the printed score.) but is unusual in its length, difficulty, beauty, and This was the first time that I set a poem of Dylan power. Commissioned for the Symposium on Music Thomas’s when I was, emotionally at least, the same Criticism held at Harvard University in May 1947, it age as its creator, but . . . not the last. was first given by Robert Shaw and the Harvard Offered as a gift to his high-school music teacher, University Collegiate Chorale, with the composer in Mrs. Bella Tillis, Fern Hill was later grouped with attendance. “Bob Shaw did a bee-utiful job with my new Poem in October (1959) and Poem on His Birthday chorus,” Copland wrote to Leonard Bernstein soon after (1976) into A Dylan Thomas Trilogy (1976), later the première. “Most people seemed to like it, but the

8.559299 4 5 8.559299 559299 bk American Choral US 12/8/06 13:28 Page 4

part have written above them “The Eternities” and revised as an oratorio (1999). In every version, Fern press was only mildly interested. I can’t imagine how division of time and seasons on the fourth day. A canon “Creation”; the jarringly dissonant third chord is Hill is shot through with the composer’s intellectually you’ll react to it. Anyhow you won’t have to conduct musically depicts the creation of man in God’s image, marked “God’s wrath against sin”. The descending engaging yet sonically accessible style, and his it—since there’s nothing but voices.” and a homophonic hymn marks the seventh day of rest. fourth in the next measure is labeled “Prayer and emotional commitment to the poems is always apparent. The text is from the opening chapters of Genesis. The piece ends with glorious triadic chords and Humility,” the next to last chord of the instrumental Solo sections delineate the days and their separate acts unexpected tonal shifts, much like those at the introduction (before the bells begin to toll) “Rejoicing in Lukas Foss: Behold, I Build an House (1950) of creation, with the phrase “And God said” prefacing conclusion of Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Beauty and Work”. Grounding the entire piece is a each new dawn. As the world comes into being, the that here describe the ensouling of man. single, unwavering pedal point that might be heard as a Born in Germany, Lukas Foss was a musical prodigy music likewise takes shape, beginning with simple musical representation of resolute faith. The psalm ends who came to the United States in 1937 from Paris textures at the opening that suggest a formless darkness, Elizabeth B. Crist with a plea for God’s mercy and grace set in a simple (where his family had fled from Nazi Germany) to study through the triplet motives that illustrate the undulating chorale texture, a musical memory, perhaps, of at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Behold, I Build an waters of the ocean, to the divisi chorus describing the Princeton University congregational singing on a Sunday morning in New House falls within the period of Foss’s first maturity, at England. which point his style owed much to Copland’s. Commissioned for the opening of the ecumenical John Corigliano: Fern Hill (1960) Marsh Chapel at Boston University, Behold, I Build an House is a biblical cantata based on passages from About his early choral work Fern Hill, John Corigliano II Chronicles (the odd-sounding “an” comes from the has written: King James version). This scripture speaks to the occasion, as it describes the construction of Solomon’s I’d only just graduated college in 1959 when a temple. The music falls into three sections delineated by singer friend asked me to set Thomas’s famous organ interludes. First is the opening charge to construct poem on his father’s death, “Do Not Go Gentle the temple; second, the dedication of the temple and into that Good Night”. I’d not been familiar musical offerings of praise; and finally, a line from with the body of his work before, and so my Solomon’s prayer set as a slow-moving, meditative friend gave me the Collected Poems to give me chant. a sense of his style. Aaron Copland: In the Beginning (1947) Fern Hill is a blithe poem, yet touched by darkness; time rules over all, finally holding the poet “green and Copland was not a choral composer. Most of his works dying”, but the poem itself, formally just a simple ABA for chorus are relatively short and serve some specific song extended into a wide arch, sings of the joy of youth purpose: fulfilling a commission; voicing of a political and its keen perceptions. I set it for mezzo-soprano solo, perspective; or giving material from larger works a chorus, and orchestra, aiming in the music to match the chance to circulate as smaller compositions. forthright lyricism of the text. (The direction “with In the Beginning belongs to the first of these types simplicity” is often to be found in the printed score.) but is unusual in its length, difficulty, beauty, and This was the first time that I set a poem of Dylan power. Commissioned for the Symposium on Music Thomas’s when I was, emotionally at least, the same Criticism held at Harvard University in May 1947, it age as its creator, but . . . not the last. was first given by Robert Shaw and the Harvard Offered as a gift to his high-school music teacher, University Collegiate Chorale, with the composer in Mrs. Bella Tillis, Fern Hill was later grouped with attendance. “Bob Shaw did a bee-utiful job with my new Poem in October (1959) and Poem on His Birthday chorus,” Copland wrote to Leonard Bernstein soon after (1976) into A Dylan Thomas Trilogy (1976), later the première. “Most people seemed to like it, but the

8.559299 4 5 8.559299 559299 bk American Choral US 12/8/06 13:28 Page 6

Susanne Mentzer American Choral Music

Susanne Mentzer has become one of today’s Familiar names and lesser-known works, past masters women’s voices special prominence throughout the foremost mezzo-sopranos. She is widely and living luminaries, biblical texts and modern poetry, cycle. The first song embraces both life and death, admired as a specialist in trouser rôles, most the American choral tradition encompasses it all. The evoking the flowering of youth as well as the silence of notably for her portrayals of Cherubino (Le composers brought together here can reasonably be the grave in chant-like tones, while the second is a nozze di Figaro) and The Composer (Ariadne considered part of a tradition extending from Ives as the reverie of metaphors. The next pair celebrates an auf Naxos) and also specialises in the music of progenitor of modern American music. Selections on indiscriminate sexual passion (the many girls and many Mozart, Strauss, and the bel canto repertoire. this recording span the entire twentieth century but kisses in “Early Flowers”) before pledging true love and She enjoys a significant concert and recital eschew vocal experimentation and avant-garde styles. fidelity. “Is There a Flower” is a tender duet between career, with a particular interest in chamber Instead, these works embrace musical idioms more lovers who murmur to each other accompanied by a music, and is known as an interpreter of the gracious to singers and audiences alike. The choir is steady heartbeat and jazzy harmonies. The heart- vocal works of Mahler and a proponent of here employed by each composer as a vehicle for wrenching dissonances in “A Yellow Flower” and “The women’s music. Susanne Mentzer has communal experiences and collective emotions. Ives, Rose is Dying” speak of betrayal and grief. (Yellow appeared at nearly every great opera house and Copland, and Foss turn to biblical texts to capture the roses are a traditional symbol of infidelity, and in fact with major orchestras, under the batons of awe and wonder of creation, Persichetti and Corigliano Cummings had separated from his wife at the time.) In Muti, Masur, Mackerras, Colin Davis, to contemporary poetry to speak of innocence and the aftermath of the affair, “Lily Has a Rose” is a Bonynge, Dutoit, Mehta, Sinopoli, Ozawa, experience, love and loss. Together they represent the dialogue between two women, one jealous of attention Marriner, Haitink, Chailly, Abbado, mainstream of American composition and some of the paid to the other. Song and cycle end with a profound Eschenbach, Boulez, Norrington, Sawallisch, best in the catalogue of contemporary choral music. yet fatalistic sentiment first voiced by the sopranos and others. She also has appeared in many alone, answered by dissonant suspensions, then asserted productions of the late director Jean-Pierre Vincent Persichetti: Flower Songs (Cantata No. quite stridently by the entire choir. Ponnelle, whom she considers one of her great 6), Op. 157 (1983) influences, and with the late Giorgio Strehler Charles Ives: Psalm 90 (1923–24) at La Scala. Her extensive discography Philadelphia-native Vincent Persichetti was a prolific includes two recitals she often performs in composer of some 120 works, including notable pieces During the 1890s Charles Ives turned to the Psalms as concert: The Eternal Feminine, a recital of for piano and wind band, as well as much music suited texts for a set of experimental pieces. Most he left music by women composers, which includes for instructional use. Like Foss, his style was eclectic, unrevised as they were first written (one, a setting of the première of Libby Larsen’s Love After but Persichetti did not tend to work within any one style Psalm 67 with the women in C major and the men in G 1950 with her long-time pianist, Craig at any given time; instead of falling easily into stylistic minor, was recorded as early as 1939 and is a staple of Rutenberg; and her personal favourite, periods, his music was always marked by compositional choral concerts even today). Psalm 90, however, he Wayfaring Stranger, a collection of variety. continued to work on during his life as a composer, international folk-songs arranged for voice Persichetti preferred texts by American writers, bringing it to its final form as late as 1923. and guitar, with Grammy Award winning with E.E. Cummings clearly a favorite. Flower Songs Written at the end of his compositional career and in Sharon Isbin. Susanne Mentzer has reveals the depth of the composer’s commitment to the a genre closely associated with his earliest experiences established herself as a pedagogue, frequently poet: Persichetti chose seven poems that span as a church organist, Psalm 90 is perhaps a summation giving master-classes in conjunction with singing engagements. She has been appointed Professor of Voice at Rice Cummings’s entire oeuvre, from the very first collection of Ives’s musical life. Moreover, the psalm text, with its University’s Shepherd School of Music and continues her distinguished tenure on the faculty of the Aspen Music (1923) to penultimate publication (1958). The composer themes of divine creation and human toil, is especially Festival and School. She has degrees from the Juilliard School and was trained in the Houston Opera Studio. She carefully arranged the texts into a loosely-constructed suitable for a man who was both an inspired, received the Alexian Brothers, USA Thelan Award for her involvement with the AIDS cause in Chicago. cycle on the theme of love and loss. adventurous composer and successful insurance Although none of the poems is explicitly gendered, executive. At the opening of his score Ives provides a Persichetti seems to privilege the feminine by giving the précis of the psalm. The first two chords in the organ

8.559299 6 3 8.559299 559299 bk American Choral US 12/8/06 13:28 Page 2

AMERICAN CHORAL MUSIC The University of Texas Chamber Singers Dr James Morrow, Conductor • Seung Won Cho, Rehearsal Accompanist Vincent Persichetti (1915-87): Flower Songs 19:25 The University of Texas Chamber Singers has been one of the leading North American collegiate choral ensembles for nearly half a century. Under the direction of James Morrow, this highly select ensemble of mixed voices was 1 Flowers of Stone 3:19 organized in 1957 by Dr. Morris J. Beachy. Since that time they have traveled extensively throughout the United 2 Spouting Violets 2:20 States and much of Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Recent performances include Terry Riley’s Sun Rings with the Kronos Quartet, Delius’s Appalachia with conductor Gunther Schuller, the North American première 3 Early Flowers 3:02 and first complete recording of Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia’s Missa de Nossa Senhora da 4 Is There a Flower 2:29 Conceição, and concerts for the American Choral Directors Association National Convention in Los Angeles. Their 5 A Yellow Flower 2:08 most recent concert tour was to Brazil where they performed in historic venues in São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. 6 The Rose is Dying 2:56 7 Lily Has a Rose 3:10 Soprano Alto Tenor Bass Chamber Orchestra Julie Agee Sarah Bannon Dwight Bigler Sterling Allen 8 Charles Ives (1874-1954): Psalm 90 11:06 Erin Bobruk Alison Barrow Manuel Castillo Peter Hamilton Darlene Cluff Carla Flores James Henderson D’Acquistoe Hamner John Wiles, Tenor • Darlene Cluff, Soprano • Seung Won Cho, Organ Meredith Groeschel Erin Greene Jeffrey Jones-Ragona Phillip D. Hill Bells: Thad Anderson, Graeme Francis, Stephen Martin, Jeff Otto Katie Menzel Crystalyn Jass John Wiles Matthew Neumann Mary Petrak de Ávila Megan Pachecano Christopher Price 9 John Corigliano (b. 1938): Fern Hill 15:33 Lisa Sunset Roane Jim Shepherd Sarah Wood Susanne Mentzer, Mezzo-Soprano Solo Quartet: Lisa Roane, Soprano • Megan Pachecano, Mezzo-soprano Chamber Orchestra John Wiles, Tenor • Phillip Hill, Baritone • Chamber Orchestra 0 Lukas Foss (b. 1922): Behold, I Build an House 10:05 1st Violin Viola Double Bass Clarinet Seung Won Cho, Organ Laurie Stevens, Ames Asbell, principal David Dawson, principal Richard MacDowell* concertmistress Lana Harris Jessica Gilliam-Valls ! Aaron Copland (1900-90): In the Beginning 16:02 Wallace Depue Will Taylor Horn Leigh Mahoney Flute Susanne Mentzer, Mezzo-soprano Tracy Seeger Cello Patrick Hughes* Marianne Gedigian* The University of Texas Chamber Singers • James Morrow 2nd Violin Sara Nelson, principal Harp Margaret Coltman Oboe Publishers: Tracks 1-7: Elkan-Vogel, Inc. (Theodore Presser Company) Bruce Colson, principal Betsy Sanders Elaine Barber* Michalis Koutsoupides Benjamin Westney* Rebecca Henderson* Track 8: Merion Music, Inc. (Theodore Presser Company) • Track 9: G. Schirmer, Inc. Tammy Linn * Corigliano only Track 10: Mercury Music Corporation (Theodore Presser Company) • Track 11: Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Stephanie Teply † Ives only We regret that we are unable to reprint the sung texts. 8.559299 27 8.559299 559299 bk American Choral US 12/8/06 13:28 Page 8

James Morrow AMERICAN CLASSICS James Morrow is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Texas at Austin where he conducts the Chamber Singers and Choral Arts Society and directs the graduate program in choral conducting. Prior to his appointment at the University of Texas, he served as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Florida AMERICAN CHORAL MUSIC and at Hope College in Michigan. Choirs under his direction have received numerous invitations to perform for various music conferences, and in 2005 he conducted the University of Texas Persichetti • Ives • Corigliano • Foss • Copland Chamber Singers in performances for both the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in San Antonio and for the Susanne Mentzer, Mezzo-soprano national convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Los Angeles. Also in 2005, he led that group in a performance with the Kronos Quartet and in a modern-day première and The University of Texas Chamber Singers recording of Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia’s Missa de Nossa Senhora da Conceição of 1810. Additionally, his James Morrow choirs have toured internationally, singing for audiences in England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Brazil. James Morrow performed as a choral singer with Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Festival Singers in France and in the United States, participating in several recordings for TELARC, as well as performing as baritone soloist under Robert Shaw’s direction. He is a featured soloist on a TELARC CD with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus released in 2006. A student of the late Gérard Souzay, he has also performed as a baritone soloist with orchestras in a variety of repertoire, including Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs, Arvo Pärt’s Passio, and the Passions of J. S. Bach. He was twice selected as an Artist/Fellow at the Bach Aria Festival and Institute in Stony Brook, New York.

8.559299 8 CMYK NAXOS Playing AMERICAN CHORAL Time: 72:11 MUSIC

broadcasting and copying of this compact disc prohibited. translations reserved. Unauthorised public performance, All rights in this sound recording, artwork, texts and 1 7 8.559299 - Vincent Persichetti (1915-87): & Flower Songs 19:25 AMERICAN CLASSICS

2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd. • Made in Canada Chamber Orchestra 8 Charles Ives (1874-1954): This anthology brings together Psalm 90 11:06 representative works from the MUSIC CHORAL AMERICAN John Wiles, Tenor • Darlene Cluff, Soprano mainstream of contemporary American Seung Won Cho, Organ Bells: Thad Anderson, Graeme Francis, choral music. Charles Ives’s Psalm 90 Stephen Martin, Jeff Otto evokes a mood reminiscent of 9 John Corigliano (b. 1938): congregational Sunday singing in New Fern Hill 15:33 England. Copland’s In the Beginning Susanne Mentzer, Mezzo-Soprano Solo Quartet: Lisa Roane, Megan Pachecano, recalls his Fanfare for the Common John Wiles, Phillip Hill • Chamber Orchestra Man, while Lukas Foss’s Behold, I Build 0 Lukas Foss (b. 1922): An House shows the stylistic influence of Behold, I Build an House 10:05 Copland. Vincent Persichetti’s Flower Seung Won Cho, Organ Songs reveal his deep commitment to his ! Aaron Copland (1900-90): In the Beginning 16:02 favourite poet E.E. Cummings, and Susanne Mentzer, Mezzo-soprano favours the women’s voices. In Fern The University of Texas Hill, set for alto, chorus and orchestra, AMERICAN CHORAL MUSIC DDD Chamber Singers • Chamber Orchestra composer John Corigliano sings of the James Morrow joys of youth. A full track listing can be found on the page 2 of the booklet.

Recorded on 21st and 22nd January 2006, at the Bates Recital www.naxos.com 8.559299 8.559299 Hall in the School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin. Producer and engineer: Tim Handley Booklet notes: Elizabeth B. Crist Cover image: A Rose for Gertrude by John Ferren (1905-70) (courtesy of Blanton Museum, University of Texas) NAXOS American Classics tray insert 24/10/2003 9:01 am Page 1

CMYK