Brady Allred unexpected resignation, via Deseret News

By Michael De Groote

Deseret News

Published: Monday, Oct. 25, 2010 6:06 p.m. MDT

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah has named a guest conductor to lead its choral studies program after last week's unexpected resignation of Brady Allred.

The university had been using graduate students to fill in for Allred after he took a month's personal leave and then resigned for "unexpected personal and family circumstances." On Nov. 1, conductor, pianist and teacher Barlow Bradford will step in as a visiting professor of choral studies at the U.'s School of Music.

Like Allred, Bradford will be responsible for leading the University of Utah Singers and the A Cappella Chorus and will supervise the graduate choral conducting program as well as other teaching duties. Bradford co-founded the Utah Chamber Artists in 1991 and is its current artistic director. He was also music director of the Orchestra at Temple Square in Salt Lake City and associate director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir until 2003.

Allred's departure meant the canceling of a few concerts, but Robert Baldwin, the interim director of the University of Utah's School of Music, said he was determined to keep the quality of the experience for the students. "I'm very optimistic. I'm actually really excited about the opportunities that (the change) provides," he said. "It does open opportunity to things that can be, frankly, revolutionary for the coming year. It will be a different experience for the students … a really positive experience."

Part of that positive experience involves recruiting well-known guest teachers like Bradford.

While the search for a permanent replacement for Allred continues, Bradford will conduct for scheduled December and February choral programs and assist with two planned guest residencies. One of those guest residencies is conductor James Jordan. A prepared statement from the UU. said Jordan was "one of the most influential conductors in America" and the author of 17 textbooks and recordings. He'll visit the school in January and again in the spring. The other guest residency is pending.

Edgar Thompson, an emeritus faculty member, will teach the graduate choral conducting class this fall. Bradford and Jordan will teach the spring classes and seminars. Candidates to replace Allred will come to the UU. in March for interviews and also a mini-performance. Baldwin said students would be heavily involved in choosing Allred's successor.

Baldwin remembered a similar situation when he attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz. to study under a specific conductor only to have that conductor retire after one semester. That professor's leaving opened up opportunities for Baldwin to study with a variety of conductors. "For me it was an incredible experience."

Baldwin is confident that the guest conductors will do the same for Allred's former students.

Last week, former students of Allred expressed shock an disappointment that he resigned, but said he had their continuing admiration and support.

"We haven't been told anything about his resignation," said Kat Kellermeyer, avocal performance major. "The only thing I do know is that he is a fabulous teacher; he is the reason I came to this school. Everyone is sad to see him go."

ACDA in Tucson- The University of Utah Singers

Today the University of Utah Singers directed by Brady Allred sang the most beautiful a cappella program I have heard in the last two weeks. Allred apparently took the words of Eric Whitacre's piece "hope, faith, life, love" and created a program of amazing music that touched on all these basic universals of our existence. In addition to the Whitacre sung beautifully there was also "Wonder" from Mack Wilberg's "Dances of Life" (a bit of Mack channeling Sondheim) plus other pieces which were just perfectly placed in the program and sung in a masterfully inspiring way.

But the two pieces that I want folks to know about and very much want to hear again were by two European composers unfamiliar to Americans:"Salve, Regina" by the Spanish composer/conductor Josep Vila I Casanas (b. 1966, and who will be directing the World Youth Choir this summer)and "A Drop in the Ocean" by the Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds (b. 1978), whose music has been featured recently by Donald Nally's The Crossing in Philadelphia.

"A Drop in the Ocean" uses a text by Mother Teresa and is simply a gorgeous, highly developed piece of music. Full of beautiful moments and sung with amazing richness by Allred's choir, the piece also ended with a beautiful and special moment- the singers gradually unfurled a large white sheet over themselves, and kept the sheet gently swaying over them as they sang quieter and quieter- the sheet representing the waves of the ocean. On the sheet is an image of Mother Teresa, although I'm not sure that is even needed, since the image of the choir singing from underneath the undulating waves is an amazing effect.

The Salve Regina by Casanas was my favorite for a few reasons- and chief among them was the prominence of a very personal ebb and flow between homophony and a gorgeously flowing more contrapuntal style. I feel that American composers are writing too much these days in such a simple homophonic style that it is refreshing to hear a composer seek to intertwine the voices, letting them move about in lovely serpentine manner as dictated by a very close affinity to the text. This also respects the singers more- altos, tenors, and basses feel they are more important than just filling out a bass line or chord tone underneath a soprano line which the ear will usually be drawn to simply because it is on the top.

The other element that set the piece apart was an amazing moment toward the end on the words "nobis post hoc exilium ostende" ([and Jesus...] show us after this our exile). Here Casanas music paused very slightly and then the women entered with a tonality that was completely new-- shocking yet beautiful, over which was then laid another chord in the men which was equally unexpected. This polytonal moment (kind of Gesualdo-like) was of otherwordly beauty and Allred and the choir knew that and embraced it. I see there is a youtube clip of the choir singing this piece, I hope to check it out soon (and you should too).

I also noticed another thing which both these composers did- as their pieces were about to end, there was a brief soprano solo, almost as if signifying with that one voice that the emotion conveyed by the text can and should be internalized by us as individuals, and then the pieces end with the whole choir singing again. This is a most organic and text-driven dramatic idea and therefore a very valid reason to use a solo in a choral piece, and I do believe that a solo written into a choral piece must have a true reason for existing (in fact, it's what I also do intentionally toward the end of the Agnus Dei of my "Missa Brevis Incheon").

The choir's sound is built from the basses up, an approach which I think is highly successful and I wish that more choirs would do this. I actually had a chance to discuss this briefly with Brady Allred after the concert and it was Vance George who brought up the question. I also felt that the Casanas was so beautifully sung because Allred encouraged the men and women's voices to shine at various times during the piece- in other words, there were moments when the music demanded a male dominant or female dominant sound. But in addition there was also this wonderful vertical integration when all four voices were basically equal, and this seamless vertical sound, grounded firmly in the bass/baritones and building up, was something that really sets this choir's approach to tone apart from so many others.

All in all, an incredible performance of inspiring and beautiful music. Thanks to Brady Allred and the choir for introducing us to these amazing pieces.