Discover Music You've Never Heard Before
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Discover music you’ve never heard before. hope of loving MUSIC OF JAKE RUNESTAD January 18 & 19, 2019, 8pm St. Martin’s Lutheran Church Pre-concert talk at 7pm with Jake Runestad & Mela Sarajane Dailey Craig Hella Johnson Artistic Director & Conductor Season Sustaining Underwriter ® 1 WELCOME COMPOSER NOTE Thank you so much for joining us tonight for another Growing up in Northern Illinois, I was immersed in a family offering in Conspirare’s 25th Anniversary Season. It is an dedicated to serving others. My parents made it a priority extraordinary privilege to celebrate a quarter-century to volunteer our time, give of our resources, and show of singing in this wild and wonderful (and weird) place my sister and me that nature is to be valued, and that the called Austin. All of you, our passionate community of world is made up of a beautiful variety of people from engaged listeners and supporters, have had a profound myriad backgrounds that should be heard and respected. influence on shaping this world class ensemble and molding all of the Conspirare artists with your deep When I began to find my truest voice as a composer, listening and vibrant participation. moving beyond the imitative works of a budding youth, I found that speaking to social issues and authentic human For tonight’s concert in the first month of the new year, we are honored to be experiences were what lived closest to my heart. The featuring the music of Jake Runestad. Following the performance weekend, we will works included in this program and forthcoming album are spend four days, in this very space, recording this music for international release, a representation of what drives me as an artist: a desire for beauty, for allowing with the support of two people in tonight’s audience. Jake’s choral music is rooted compelling texts to inspire the music, and telling authentic stories in a way that in his understanding of choir and the inherent transformative potential whenever might foster compassion for our shared human experiences. a group of singers gather and then come together with an audience. He does not shy away from challenging emotional and cultural topics, but rather, moves directly Why the Caged Bird Sings was my first collaboration with Craig Hella Johnson, towards them. He is also not afraid to point towards hope. In tonight’s program, which he commissioned for the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble. Paul Laurence his music covers a broad emotional and thematic range — mysticism, hope, Dunbar’s text (from which Maya Angelou found the title for her famous enslavement, racism, loss, love of nature, inequality, violence, kindness, human autobiography), conveys the complexity of life as a post-Civil War black man and divine love. Each of his pieces is a world unto itself and occupies its own born to previously-enslaved parents. Musically, there is a tension between black emotional realm. and white pitches (as seen on a piano keyboard) as the work progresses through Dunbar’s metaphor of a caged bird wishing to be free. Jake’s socially conscious music has found a home with young singers in high schools and colleges and among professional and semi-professional choirs. Some of you are already familiar with Jake’s music — we commissioned and premiered “Come to the A recurring theme in my work is that of the importance and Woods” and heard from so many of you about how this piece resonated with you. beauty of the natural world. I am passionate about being The repertoire heard in tonight’s concerts will be recorded for Conspirare’s next outside amidst trees, mountains, lakes, skies, and hiking, album release. Recording has always been a core part of our mission and with camping, and basking in the glory of our world. the support of Conspirare donors we have been able to make recordings that allowed us to share our music around the world. It is always a great joy when I hear from someone who is listening to our music in Belgium or Japan or Argentina. One of the greatest joys in my life has come from my friendship with the Our first recordings, through the green fuse and Requiem were on the Clarion phenomenal poet Todd Boss. Todd and I met seven years ago when I first moved label. We then began a partnership with producer Robina Young and engineer to Minneapolis, on the recommendation of a friend. Todd has become one of my Brad Michel, resulting in 12 albums on the harmonia mundi label. Recordings dearest friends and most frequent collaborators. His lyrical voice packs a punch have been an important way to share our music in our first 25 years, garnering with its directness, approachability, vivid imagery, and attention to the depths recognition including a Best Choral Performance Grammy® for Sacred Spirt of and complexity of humanity. Todd is a craftsman and delights in the collaborative Russia, the Netherlands’ prestigious Edison Award for the re-release of Requiem, experience — creating a new work with Todd is a joyful, illuminating, and fulfilling and Germany’s Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in 2015 for Path of Miracles. experience. Sacred Spirit of Russia and Path of Miracles were recorded right here in St. Martin’s! Waves (2015) is the first work on which Todd and I collaborated. I remember I am so thrilled to begin this next chapter of dynamic choral art with you. I am sitting at an outdoor café on a warm, summer evening and discussing what I look as excited now as I was when we first began and you are a huge part of my joy. for in a text for music (clear and succinct language, open vowels for climactic Thank you for your presence here tonight and for your engagement with us. moments, intentional use of consonants for percussive effects, a narrative form...). The resulting piece uses double choir to explore a wash of sound, moving back and forth between choirs like waves on the shore, as we move through the heaviness of sadness into a consoling sunrise. 2 3 PROGRAM And So I Go On, another collaboration with Todd, has a very special origin. All works composed by Jake Runestad (b. 1986) When Germán Aguilar passed away unexpectedly in the summer of 2014, it was a huge loss to our world. Germán had a love for life, teaching, and the Program to be selected from: people around him – especially his fiancé Jon Talberg. After Germán’s death, Waves (2015) Jon was cleaning out Germán’s wallet and found the only business card inside Michael Jones, tenor was mine. I had given it to Germán when we met in January of 2014. Jon soon contacted me and asked if I would write a piece of music in memory of Germán Spirited Light (2014) – I was honored to do so. Scored for double choir, this piece is a conversation between two lovers as one struggles through the intense experience of loss. Why the Caged Bird Sings (2014) Alissa Ruth Suver, soprano A recurring theme in my work is that of the importance and beauty of the natural world. I am passionate about being outside amidst trees, mountains, American Triptych lakes, skies, and hiking, camping, and basking in the glory of our world. I. Reflections (2015) American Triptych is a collection of three works with texts that span the USA from East to West featuring authors Henry David Thoreau (Massachusetts), II. The Peace of Wild Things (2013) Wendell Berry (Kentucky), and John Muir (California). Each movement III. Come to the Woods (2015) expresses an aspect of our human connection with the natural world and journeys through a rushing river, a peaceful lakefront, and a wind storm in the INTERMISSION Western Sierra mountains. Let My Love Be Heard (2015) Alfred Noyes’ poem that inspired Let My Love Be Heard is a grief-filled plea that I found in a collection of poetry that belonged to my grandfather (given And So I Go On (2015) to me after his death). The main melody of the work, first stated in the tenors, Mela Sarajane Dailey, soprano slowly ascends onto the wings of angels as the plea is lifted into the sky. The Hope of Loving (2015) I am a hoarder of poetry and one of my favorite collections is Love Poems From I. Yield to Love God —mystical poems by Daniel Ladinsky inspired by famous writers from Stefanie Moore, soprano around the world. This book is a composer’s dream with colorful, powerful, and II. Wild Forces succinct writings that talk of living fully, deep spirituality, self-contemplation, III. Wondrous Creatures and love. When starting my work on this new composition, I opened Ladinsky’s Dann Coakwell, tenor book to find a treasure trove of quaint parables and sage advice for us all. “The Hope of Loving” for chorus, soloists, and string quartet, uses a selection IV. The Heart’s Veil of writings inspired by spiritual mystics throughout history to explore the idea of V. My Soul Is a Candle love and its manifestation in our lives. Stefanie Moore, soprano Simon Barrad, baritone My hope is that this music might introduce you to meaningful texts, connect VI. The Hope of Loving you with an element of your own human experience, and foster compassion for the story of another. I am thrilled to be collaborating with Craig Hella Johnson Flower into Kindness (from Into the Light) (2017) and Conspirare, and can’t wait to share in this concert experience together. Kathlene Ritch, soprano Lauren McAllister, alto Jake Runestad, composer Dann Coakwell, tenor John Proft, bass Optional Selections: We Can Mend the Sky (excerpted version) (2014) Kathlene Ritch, soprano 4 5 TEXT AND TRANSLATIONS Waves Why the Caged Bird Sings O my soul, where do you go sometimes? I know what the caged bird feels, alas! Why have I come brooding for you When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; here where the ocean writes its tidelines When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, on the endless sand? And the river flows like a stream of glass; Waves come, waves go.