Aurora University Choral Festival Blogpost #5 This Sparkle of the Day

This Sparkle of the Day will receive its world premiere on October 21st at the Aurora University Festival Concert which holds music written by me over the last fifteen years. Although the piece was written in 2005, it has yet to have a full premiere of all five movements until now. Many thanks to Dr. Peter Dennee of Carthage College (Kenosha, WI) and the newly formed select ensemble Candentibus Women's Chamber Choir which will be performing this work. 

In February 2016 a larger ensemble from Carthage College will perform excerpts from the piece at the American Choral Director's Association North Central Division Conference held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Additionally, the choir will sing the piece in its entirety at a church while they are in the Sioux Falls area.

For this piece I utilized some delightfully refreshing texts by early Catholic saints. I devised short movements that can stand alone or work together in sequence, basically a progression of worship from night into the morning offices. Yet these pieces can be used outside of strictly Catholic services, since the texts simply encompass somewhat general Christian images and ideas.

The general musical model for the piece's structure and overall feel was the Gabriel Faure Messe Basse, a gentle little ten minute gem which is a basically utilitarian worship piece of understated beauty. Thus the simple, manuals only organ part (pedals may be added ad libitum), and the fairly easy SSA vocal parts. Another model, more so for the melodic shapes and harmonies, comes from the British composer Benjamin Britten.

Movement two has some interesting features--the first section is an originally composed setting of the Latin text O Nata Lux de Lumine, which then proceeds to the English version as set by the Renaissance English composer Thomas Tallis, quoted almost verbatim. This is another example of something which I do now and then, quote (or parody, or "sample") other composers' works or snippets of old melodies. In the Tallis section there is a strange little moment when voices disagree on pitch, some parts are singing in a major key while other parts are in minor. This is an effect Tallis (and a few other composers of his time) was quite known for.

The text of movement four is short yet profund. It speaks of how quickly a human life can come into existence and go. We're only here for an instant--It's up to us to make every moment count in some meaningful way.

---

TEXT

Introduction: 

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more
than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
   -Psalm 130

It is now the moment for you
to wake from sleep.
For salvation is nearer to us now
than when we became believers;
the night is gone, the day is near.
   -Romans 13

I. The limit of the night is passed,
the quiet hour of sleep has fled;
far up the lance of dawn is cast;
new light upon the heaven is spread.

But when this sparkle of the day
our eyes discern, then, Lord of Light,
to Thee our souls make haste to pray
and offer all their wants aright.

O Holy Spirit, by the deeds
of Thine own light and charity,
renew us through our earthly needs
and cause us to be like to Thee.

Grant this, O Father ever blessed;
and Holy Son, our heavenly friend;
and Holy Ghost, Thou comfort best!
Now and until all time shall end.

  -Saint Hilary

II. O nata lux de lumine,
Jesu redemptor saeculi,
dignare clemens supplicum,
laudes precesque sumere,
qui carne quondam contegi
dignatus es pro perditis,
nos membra confer effici
tui beati corporis.

O light which from the Light has birth,
Jesus, Redeemer of the earth,
thy faithful flock vouchsafe to spare,
hear our gift of praise and prayer,
thou, who for man's salvation sake
thyself hast deigned pure flesh to take,
o make us members true and sure
of that Thy Holy body pure.

III.
Remember, God, that we are the plants in your fields,
so connected to the earth
that you know what would happen
if you did not rain upon us.

And if your light ceased to lift us from the ground
and craft our bodies,
how might we near you
like the suns?

Remember, God, to love us in a way
Our souls can taste and rejoice in.

   -St. Theresa of Avila

IV. My life is an instant,
a fleeting hour.
My life is a moment,
which swiftly escapes me.
O my God, you know that
on earth I have only today
to love you.

    -St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Dr. Peter Dennee

Professor Peter Dennee ’86 joined Carthage in 2005. He conducts the Carthage Women’s Ensemble and teaches courses in conducting and music education.

Prior to his appointment at Carthage, Prof. Dennee held positions as assistant professor of music at West Virginia University and Susquehanna University, and visiting assistant professorships at the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of Michigan. He has taught music at the elementary and secondary levels in Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Tempe, Ariz.

He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral music from Arizona State University, a Master of Music in music education from the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Arts in music education from Carthage (1986).

Hey, if you've read all the way down to here-- here's your bonus! My good friend Joan Szymko set a wonderful text by St Therese of Avila titled Nada te Turba. Here is the text (Joan uses a shortened version of the full text) and the song, conducted by another pal of mine, Lynne Gackle.

Nada te turbe

nada te espante

Todo se pasa

Dios nose muda.

La paciencia todo alcanza.

Quien a Dios tiene

nada le falta

Solo Dios basta.

Translation: 

Let nothing disturb you,

nothing frighten you,

All things are passing.

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing.

God is enough.

Recap of the 2013 ACDA National Conference in Dallas

Thursday Morning at the ACDA 2013 National Conference in Dallas

Well this was my big day- the panel session I proposed to ACDA over a year ago and which was accepted to be presented was set for this day at 10:30 AM. Was I nervous abut this? You betcha. And had I been nervous about it off and on for weeks? Again, a big yes.

But first I made myself get up and go to Our Lady of Guadeloupe Cathedral (I have a soft part in my heart for that lady) to attend the women's choir reading session, as I have a big personal investment in the world of women's choirs (I founded and directed a professional women's choir in Chicago back a  few years ago and have written dozens of pieces specifically for women's voices). This 8 AM session was heavily attended (awesome, as many of us are just not 8 AM people) and Iris Levine and her division R and S people did a great job leading the session. I was especially proud to see my pal Lisa Fredenburgh leading some pieces and was very impressed by Janice Vlachos' skills at the piano. This was the second reading session I had attended that was far above and beyond the usual mediocre reading session experience that many of us have come to hate. Bravo to all involved.

Once this was done, I really had to vamoose back to the Sheraton to get all my ducks in a row for my session. There were handouts to grab from my room and get into place, panel members to brief for one last time, and of course last minute snafus- when we showed up at the space there was only one mike and it was tethered into the audience area. Between me, the session presenter Joan Catoni Conlon, and session fixer-upper Tom Shelton we got the Sheraton to get us two more mikes pronto- thanks to Joan and Tom!

Before I go any further, here is the handout from our session- I hope you may explore some of the links here!

2013 ACDA INTEREST SESSION

Paradigm Shift:
The New Conductor/Composer Dynamic

Thursday 10:30 A.M.

Sheraton Hotel - San Antonio Ballroom

MODERATOR: PAUL CAREY

PANELISTS: ABBIE BETINIS

DR.BUDDY JAMES
DR. DEBORAH SIMPKIN KING
JOAN SZYMKO
REGINALD UNTERSEHER

WEBSITES/RESOURCES:

Project Encore: http://www.scholaonhudson.org/project_encore

National Collegiate Choral Organization Music Series: http://www.ncco-usa.org/ncms/

NW ACDA e-publishing reading session article (plus more) by Reg Unterseher:

http://www.nwacda.org/news-com-unterseher%20article-1-16-09.html

NJ American Guild of Organists paperless reading session of new works, held in Feb 2013
by NJ ACDA board member Steven Russell: https://www.facebook.com/events/205885122883082/

Atlanta Young Singers of Callanwolde (Paige Mathis, dir.) Composer Next Door Series
blog at : http://ayscomposerproject.blogspot.com/

COMPOSER WEBSITES/BLOGS OF INTEREST:

http://www.abbiebetinis.com/

http://www.paulcarey.net/

Paul Carey's choral music blog: http://paulcarey440.blogspot.com/

http://www.joanszymko.com/

http://www.reginaldunterseher.com/

Independent Music Publishers: www.imp.coop (music of Abbie Betinis, Joan Szymko, Edie Hill,
J. David Moore, Elizabeth Alexander, Jocelyn Hagen, Linda Tutas Haugen, and Timothy C. Takash)

As our start time of 10:30 approached we saw that we had a great turnout, even though there were many other very interesting sessions competing against us for attendees. We jumped into our topic with glee and everything went very well. My panel members were gregarious, entertaining, and thoughtful, and my batch of second round questions for them didn't even have to be pulled out- each panel member was so good AND passionate about their subject that I didn't have to worry about the session stagnating or becoming boring.

I also worked hard to maintain some time toward the end for Q and A, even though I failed to preserve as much time as I really wanted for this. The real mark of success to me was this astounding fact- after the session was over, at least half of the audience stayed and talked to me and the panel for an hour after the session ended. I had never seen this happen before, usually people get up and leave and go onto something else. But we had provided so many great new ideas that people wanted to stay and talk about them, and also share their own insight into the new ways that composers and conductors are working together.

Deborah Simpkin King, Buddy James, Joan Szymko, and Reg Unterseher

I was thrilled to greet some folks from the audience afterwards who I had no idea would be there - people like Kathleen Skinner of the excellent Canadian group Kokopelli (who have performed my music), Paige Mathis, and many more. I was also pleased that many fine composers such as Sydney Guillaume, Paul Aitken, Joe Gregorio, John Muelheisen, the amazing Donald Fraser (we visited the pub afterward!), and my Irish friend Michael McGlynn were there too- and I was glad to meet, for the first time, young composers like Jake Runestad and Joni Jenson. I was also happy for the support that someone as experienced as Joan Catoni Conlon could provide- I sense that Joan liked our session and she was in support of what we were discussing. Thank you, Joan! Also Philip Copeland was in attendance- Philip has been an outspoken supporter of new ideas through his posts in ChoralNet in the last few years. I hope that Philip will soon start posting more on whatever topics interest him- he has a great mind.

Just so you know, here are the main topics that each person covered:

Reg Unterseher discussed the first-ever paperless composer/conductor collaborative reading session, held by NW ACDA. Reg humorously also noted that on the very same day Steven Russell held an almost identical event on the east coast.

Joan Szymko related how the use of Skype is revolutionizing the ability of choirs to work more directly with composers and she discussed some of her projects she is currently working on that related to our topic.

Deborah Simpkin King talked about her Project Encore- a database and advocacy for second performances of important works beyond their premiere performance. This was big news to most everyone in the room. Deborah has also told me that interest in her project has exploded since the interest session was held.

Buddy James talked about NCCO (National Collegiate Choral Organization) and its publishing venture which is publishing and promoting works of high quality with the composer receiving all revenue after costs. Once again, most of the people in the room did not know about this endeavor.

Abbie Betinis talked about IMP, the Independent Music Publishers co-op that she and others founded not long ago and which has been very successful.

All in all, I believe the session was a massive success and I want to publicly thank Buddy James, Deborah Simpkin King, Joan Szymko, Reg Unterseher, and Abbie Betinis for a job truly well done. I hope to continue working with these folks in any way I can over the next decade. I also want to publicly thank Tom Merrill who guided this session and all its details over the last 12 months- Tom you were great to me. And I would also like to thank Joan Conlon and Tom Shelton for their support as well. Also thanks to Howard Meharg for the photos you see here.

COMING UP: THE REST OF THURSDAY NOW THAT THE PRESSURE WAS OFF!
THIS NEXT POST WILL INCLUDE THE EPIC BRITTEN WAR REQUIM PERFORMANCE

Day Two: 2011 ACDA National Conference

My Thursday was a bit wacky at the national conference. Whereas I used to go to every concert on the program, I now know that some choir types just aren't going to wow me (like high school choirs in general) and that I really do have a lot of people I need to connect with for various reasons. One of these is of course trying to meet people who have been so kind as to program and conduct my music but we so far have only had an e-mail or FaceBook relationship. It's important to get to know people face to face and show my appreciation for what they do in the musical world. So my Thursday was about meeting wonderful musicians from all over the country and not much about concerts.

First off, it was important to visit my main publisher the Roger Dean Company and my editor there Scott Foss. Roger Dean is presenting three new releases for me this year and they are all in stock ready to ship (hint hint). Roger Dean (the fancy subsidiary of Lorenz) has been my most supportive publisher by far, and Scott was in fine humor the whole conference, cracking jokes, often at my expense! The Lorenz booth was large and they were giving people perusal scores, not charging folks a dollar a copy like most other booths.



My pal Sarah Graham (Illinois State U) and Scott Foss



So, after admitting above to, in general, dissing high school conference performances, I am forced to eat crow. A choir about to perform handed out their concert material and it sure looked like the group was show choir based. I was thinking this could be scary. Were we about to have some Glee moments? Or jazz hands? But...wow, they blew me away on so many levels-- this was "The Counterpoints" from Indiana directed by Patricia Wiehe. The school has a high standard of performance success both as a show choir and concert choir school. And what I saw was a choir that took the best elements from show choir and transferred them to a great concert presentation. Oh yeah, they could sing up a storm too, and all very healthy production- no tired voices here.

The program wound through Debussy, Bach/Nystedt's Come Sweet Death with an understated choreography of simple arm and hand motions, Memly's Ave Maria, and a folk song from earthsongs series . The two most stunning performances were on "Horizons", the Peter Louis van Dijk tune- I forgot what this title was until I saw the familiar first line "Come my springbok baby...". This was a wonderful performance of a very heartfelt piece, the text ending of which is heartbreaking. This performance stunned the audience in its beauty, depth, and sincerity.

The final piece was a gangbusters all-out wild performance of Ethan Sperry's arrangement of Jai Ho, sung in Spanish and Hindi. I think Ethan was in the room, and I think I heard he was thrilled with their choreography, which was all original. This group brought everyone to a rousing standing ovation, and they deserved every bit of applause and excitement in the room. Thank you Pat Wiehe and thank you to your students for showing that a great high school program, singing quality age appropriate music, can steal plenty of thunder away from the university choirs!

I then had lunch with a very cool, smart, funny, and talented composer- Joan Szymko, who grew up in Chicago-- I would imagine you all know her music. It's my opinion that Joan is writing the best music of her career right now, and we had a blast comparing notes and a bunch of things, and having a good laugh about this and that.



me and Joan


Following that I attempted to attend James Jordan's interest session on breath and center- oops, even thought the session had not yet started attendance was capped off and no more people were being allowed in. I was sorry to miss this, but glad to see that so many people were attending. I think it would be great if more directors would become far more breath conscious-- I saw too many choirs not breathing during the week. Well I guess they were breathing, but you couldn't tell it from their tight singing!

The rest of my evening was devoted to visiting receptions, especially those hosted by universities who have done my music over the past few years, or who are preforming a piece of mine very soon. So, as a bit of a whirlwind I hung out first with the University of Missouri at KC Conservatory people. Chuck Robinson was instrumental in my decision to put regular conducting off for awhile in order to compose more and he was happy to introduce me to Robert Bode who is a recent new addition to the faculty there. Reg Unterseher was with me, and of course he knew Dr. Bode from his years in the Pacific Northwest. After also running into Matt Harden there, I bounced over to the fun reception being held by the children's choir folks, and witnessed the larger than life Nick Page doing a sing along with Doreen Rao.






The photos I took of these two are hilarious.
I had never met Nick, so to get to talk to him for a few minutes and realize what a hoot of a guy he is was great fun. From there it was off to the Walton reception hosted by Gunilla Luboff. The usual suspects were in the room, but also some very interesting Northern European publishers who were manning booths at ACDA for, I believe, the first time. They were asking me all sorts of earnest questions about American composers and I did my best to inform them about a number of things from our perspective and to also tell them that, indeed, Virginia, there are more US composers than just Moses Hogan and Eric Whitacre.

Finally the evening finished up at Mike Scheibe's swanky USC reception where I got to meet a bunch of people including Buddy James, president of NCCO. Mike's receptions are always first class. Another fifteen hour day has flown by!

Guest Clinicians at N Carolina Governor's School East choir

Things have been crazy busy here at the North Carolina Governor’s School East choir program. It’s been hard to keep up with everything and still find time to blog. In addition, I have received two wonderful new commissions in recent weeks, so I have been trying to find time to work on the one I have already started, and at least start mulling over the other.

Anyway, I would like to relate stories about all the guests I have had in to talk to or work with the students. This has been extremely valuable in two ways; one, they gain valuable insight from skilled, experienced adults on a variety of topics that pertain to their singing, vocal health, and music-making, and 2) it allows me to not be stressing their voices with too many hours of rehearsal per week (we technically have anywhere from 150-195 minutes of rehearsal time per day on the school calendar, but obviously that would cause really ragged voices in HS students).

Our first guest, way back in week one, was my good friend Lisa Fredenburgh who will start a new job as director of choral studies at Aurora College in Illinois. Lisa volunteered to work with these students for a day and a half in group vocal tech lessons. About 60% of them had never had a private voice lesson, so this day and a half from Lisa was great for them. She really stressed posture and breathing “from the back”, which really was a great image for them. She also worked a lot with them to envision a shape to the sound within the mouth and how that sound would project out. this was great instruction from a wonderful, positive person.

Our next guest was Leda Scearce, from the Duke Vocal Health Clinic. Leda presented all the facts any young singer should know about their voice and how to take care of them. She showed photos of damaged larynxes, videos of vocal folds in action, and imparted great wisdom about how to treat your “instrument”- one of her biggest concerns was that young singers should plan vocal rest into their day. To me, this was important, as Lisa Fredenburgh had already told me she felt that in our environment here, Susan Fetch (my assistant ) and I are already treating their voices with respect in rehearsals (full, well-planned warm-ups, no extra stress in the AM, de-emphasis on pressing down with the voice) and that any tired or strained voice issues are happening out on the quad, through too many hours on cellphones, and so on. Leda emphasized over and over that singers need rest, water, good nutrition, a better approach to their vocal use throughout the day, and many other things.

Our next guest was a young tenor who caught my eye at the Longleaf Opera aria competition, Jonathan Blalock. Jonathan placed second in that competition which we all attended, and I was able to get him in for two days to do even more vocal tech with our singers, and I was especially interested in him working with the guys (the ladies did get his attention as well). Jonathan stressed the importance of breath and breath management. He really helped many of the singers find more breath support connected to the sound and the ability to move air in appositive way. Of course I didn’t want these teenagers trying to sound like Jonathan and that was said out loud to them. What we did want them to emulate was the connection of all the elements in his vocal production, and developing an ear for when things feel right and sound right. Jonathan has a great live voice and a wonderfully engaging personality- so he was an excellent role model for them, since he is only about ten years older than they are. He is now off to Israel for some great opera roles.

Our next guest was Shawn Copeland, a professional clarinetist and also an Alexander Technique instructor. We were able to work with Shawn for an entire day and it was amazing. He taught physiology to the students and dispelled all sorts of misconceptions they had about their body and its physique (ably assisted by “George”, Shawn’s full skeletal model). Shawn decided to work mostly on the body mapping element of Alexander Technique but he did get into hands-on work with almost every singer in the room. He was able to reinvent posture and carriage for almost every singer, in some cases drastically improving their posture and their awareness of how they habitually hold their bodies. Wow, this day was amazing.

Dan Huff, head of music ed at UNC, Chapel Hill, visited us and talked to the students about careers in music and how to choose a music college. Dan’s presentation was extremely valuable to these students.

We also worked with the multi-talented Tigger Benford, a percussionist who teaches musicians and dancers in a very creative way. For our one session with Tigger, I chose for him to work with them on body percussion. After a few simple things, Tiger stepped up the challenge, and the students were expected to be able to use their hands, arms, feet, and whole bodies to learn (by rote) a whole series of rhythms, many of which were outside their usual area of competence (cross rhythms you would not usually run across in western music). This was a great Governor’s School moment-- a few kids wanted to give up, but I told them just keep going. No one said everything was easy in life (right?!). And the fact that this was a bit of a struggle for some of them was a good thing. I was proud that the 2-3 kids who sort of wanted to give up stepped right back into the fray of what Tigger was challenging them with. Another pearl of wisdom from Tigger that they won’t hear in their HS classroom: beat one is not always the start of everything, in fact in much music , things lead into beat one (and back out of it) , so it is just an arrival point, not just a disconnected, blatantly strong beat.

Our final guest, via Skype, was the wonderful choral composer Joan Szymko. We are working on her 2010 ACDA Brock commissioned piece “All Works of Love”, with a very simple text by Mother Teresa. Over an hour-long Skype session, Joan answered some great questions from the kids, and gave them many moments of heartfelt wisdom about the meaning of music, how texts and music compel us to think deeply about who we are, and so on. The students questions were well thought out, and Joan’s answers were brilliant. This was an amazing opportunity for young people to talk directly t to a living composer about a recent work which has been premiered to great praise. We will be singing Joan’s piece July 23rd on our final concert, and I think this personal connection with the composer will make our performance so much more meaningful.

So there you have it, a bunch of all-star guests who shared their love of music and lots of the technical things they have worked so hard to discover in their careers. To be 16 or 17 years old and gain all these insights over six weeks time was truly invaluable for these students.

Part Two: ACDA Brock Commissions for 2011-13

While I was in Tucson for the recent ACDA Western division conference, Tim Sharp, ACDA executive director, happened by. Tim sat down and we got a chance to chat for a few fun minutes (and also again later in Memphis). One of our topics was how to get more young choral directors to join ACDA and to start attending conferences regularly, and I think Tim and the organization have already made some strides there.

The other topic was Joan Szymko’s very successful new piece “All Works of Love” which was the 2010 Brock Commission. I asked Tim how the commission had progressed and how Joan and he had discussed it as the process unfolded. And Tim’s wonderful comment was this- his role, as he saw it, was to invite Joan to write a beautiful new choral piece, and it “just happened to be” the Brock Commission. In other words, don’t let the “importance” of the commission weigh you down and make it difficult to simply write in your own personal, very creative voice. It appears Tim’s advice/invitation to Joan really worked.

By the way, Joan’s new piece is published by Santa Barbara Music Press, and through their new marketing/distribution relationship with Lorenz, it is available through Lorenz, catalog number SBMP 942. Here is a link to the order page:


http://lorenz.com/product.aspx?id=SBMP942


Then Tim rewarded this cub reporter with a mini-scoop.



(pictured: a more famous cub reporter)


In addition to already public knowledge of the next two commissions (Steven Sametz for 2011 and Chen Yi for 2012) Tim gave me this scoop (you are hearing it here first folks)-- the 2013 commission will be for women’s choir and orchestra. Tim likes this idea a lot, as he’s trying do things outside the box- how many pieces are there for women’s choir and orchestra? So, it will be very interesting to see who this commission goes to and how the piece turns out. I hope it will be stunning and a great addition to the repertoire!

ACDA Brock Commissions Pt. One: Joan Szymko's "All Works of Love"

The 2010 ACDA Raymond Brock Commission, Joan Szymko’s “All Works of Love”, is in my mind, the most successful ACDA Brock Commission in years. The piece is beautifully lyrical, thoroughly well-crafted, sets a timely yet ever-universal text, and is accessible to many choirs in the best sense of that sometimes scary word “accessible”.

I had two opportunities at the recent ACDA conferences to hear the piece, once in Tucson and again in a performance by Dan Bara’s wonderful choir from East Carolina University in Memphis. What Joan has created is a gorgeous piece with a gentle text that could and most likely would devolve into cloying musical clichés in the hands of a less mature, less sensitive composer. The text by Mother Teresa is all of twenty–five words, yet Joan has found a way through repetitions, using almost Zen-like echoes of varying phrase lengths (this was important, I believe, to avoid four bar phrases) to bring the message across in the most artistic way:

“All works of love are works of peace. If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”




The piano part is supportive and never intrusive, in fact, in many ways the music often feels like an a cappella piece, that’s how much the choir is entrusted to convey the message, with the piano just there to help out.

Joan is a composer who has strong beliefs about music, about society, and other issues and her world views are usually reflected in her music. I was quite thrilled that she received this commission and wrote about it last April in one of my first blogs- which you can see here

http://paulcarey440.blogspot.com/search/label/Joan%20Szymko

(this also includes a fun anecdote about meeting her parents at one of my concerts!).

Here are some thoughts about composing by Joan, taken from her website, which is at www.joanszymko.com

“As a choral musician, I have witnessed over and over again the power of ensemble singing to awaken in both vocalist and listener an almost ineffable yearning; a longing to be “one with”—what? The object is not so important as is illuminating the illusion of separateness. Dispersing the illusion allows the participant to enter into communion with that for which they yearn. I believe that it is the responsibility of any artist to facilitate this kind of communion. As a choral musician I am bound to the task. It is the nature of the medium. It is also in my nature as an artist. I know that as I compose, if I truly surrender myself—if I become “one with” the process, then I will create something of beauty that will resonate deeply with singer and listener, whatever the tone, character or meaning of the work.

I honor intuition, letting my compositions unfold, but am also a craftsman and a lover of language. I look at the rhythm and flow of a text in the way a sculptor may search her medium for the form that is already there. The willingness to see what is inherent, the courage to allow the truth that is present to be revealed and the skillful craftsmanship to give it a clear voice; all are a part of my ideal as I create new works.

Throughout my career, my goal has been to compose in such a way that invites the audience in while challenging the notion that “accessibility” and “musical integrity” are incompatible concepts. One of the means to realizing this goal has been through collaboration. I have composed choral music to be performed with actors, poets, Taiko drummers, modern dancers, aerialists and accordion players. I have set texts by fourth graders, 12th century mystics and Pulitzer Prize winners. As a composer and conductor, my intention is to engage audience members with choral performances that will surprise, delight, move and transform.”

Congratulations to Joan on this new piece, which I expect will become standard choral repertoire, something which many recent Brock commissions have not been able to achieve for one reason or another.

Coming Up: Part Two: ACDA Brock Commissions for 2011, 2012, and yours truly gets a scoop from Tim Sharp on the 2013 commission

Joan Szymko- 2010 ACDA Brock Commission Composer

ACDA announces their selection of Joan Szymko as the 2010 Brock Commission Composer

The following is from acdaonline.org (plus I have a comment at the bottom)

The American Choral Directors Association has selected Joan Szymko as the composer of the 2010 Raymond W. Brock Commission. The Raymond W. Brock Memorial Choral Series was established in 1991 to honor the life and contributions of Raymond W. Brock, who served as Administrative Assistant for ACDA from 1987 until his untimely death in 1991.

Annually, the ACDA Executive Committee will commission a recognized composer to write a choral composition in an effort to perpetuate quality choral repertoire. The funding for this annual commission comes from the Raymond W. Brock Memorial Endowment which has been established by ACDA members, friends, and supporters of the choral art.

About the Composer
Joan Szymko has over 25 years of experience as a choral conductor, composer, teacher and performer in the Pacific Northwest. She led the Seattle Women's Ensemble for ten years and in the fall of 1993 became the artistic director of the 100+ voices of Aurora Chorus – women in harmony for peace. Szymko founded and directed Viriditas, a select women's chamber ensemble from 1994-2001. Szymko has been a resident composer with Do Jump! since 1995, performing her music with the company at their home theater in Portland, OR and on tour, including runs on Broadway (2000), the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. (2001,2007) and at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles (2001).

From Paul: What a great choice! Joan has been writing very creative choral music in a unique personal voice for years. She has never boxed herself in musically, a trait she shares with another Pacific Northwest composer, Stephen Hatfield.

When I founded and directed Vox Caelestis, a professional women's chamber choir in Chicago, we did a number of Joan's pieces. I had always hoped she could come visit us at a concert, but the trip from the Pacific Northwest was always a deal-breaker. But.... her parents live nearby! Once I found this out from Joan via e-mail, I invited them to be our special guests and come hear a concert we were doing which included Joan's incredibly fun The Rose, a setting of Gertrude Steins' famous lil' poetic fragment "...a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" (music and recording at sbmp.com). Joan set it for SSAA and accordion. When I showed the piece to Vox at our first rehearsal for that concert they all laughed- accordion (and "a rose is a rose is arose is a rose")?! But it really is a fun piece and a little trickier in the voices than you might guess at first. The big chore was to find an accordionist who could read music well and follow with me and the choir. Of course Chicago (and Milwaukee) are still full of accordion players (though I am sure their numbers are in decline) but so many of them play only popular music by ear, work solo, etc. We did finally find a very talented women who read well and did a great job on the piece-- and truly The Rose was a big hit with the audience. Joan's delightfully gracious parents were there and loved it all. We even had them stand and take a bow for raising such a talented and wonderful daughter. Congratulations on ACDA's announcement, Joan!