If you are near Watseka or Bloomington, IL, Cincinnati, OH, or Evansville, IN March 15-17th please try to attend a concert by the
Bradley University Chorale on their Spring tour (with home concerts in Peoria April 7th and 28th). The chorale and chamber
singers are presenting a wonderful, quite varied program which
includes my multi-movement piece El Limonar Florido (The Lemon Grove
in Blossom) with texts by the great Spanish poet Antonio Machado
(SATB/solo violin/solo cello). I was down to Peoria a few weeks ago
to work with the chorale and their fine conductor John Jost on El
Limonar and I have to say that this is a great, very lyrical choir
whose members also just happen to have a great amount of fun and
camaraderie as they work. Our evening together was quite a blast, I
must say.
If you would like to know more about El Limonar Florido visit my website which includes audio of the piece as performed by the Calvin College Kappelle under Joel Navarro.Here is the lovely text (in translation) of movment three:
The torn cloud, the rainbow
now gleaming in
the sky,
and the fields enveloped
in a beacon of rain and
sun.
I woke. Who
is confounding
the magic crystal glass
of my dream?
My
heart was beating
aghast and
bewildered.
The
lemon grove in blossom,
cypresses in
the orchard,
the green meadow, the
sun, water, rainbow,
the water in your
hair!
And all in
my memory was lost
like a soap bubble
in the wind.
The chorale will also be taking this
program on tour of Spain in late May and I am going with them! It
will be my first time traveling in Spain and I really look forward to
it. El Limonar has been sung in Spain by the choir that commissioned
it a number of years ago, and it was well-received by the Spanish
audience. I hope that will happen again (I have my fingers and toes
crossed). We will be traveling to Madrid, Granada, Seville, Cordoba, and Cadiz. I guess I will have to return in the future to see Barcelona!
I am especially thankful for John
Jost's wonderful musicality, and the fact that he is not just a
choral conductor but also an accomplished string player seems to be
make the ensemble of SATB plus solo violin and solo cello on my piece
really unified and highly expressive. John has a close connection to
the string players which is obvious- he knows exactly what he wants
from them, has marked their bowings himself, and knows exactly how
the players will produce the string sound he desires- a big advantage
over those with no string background.
 |
| John Jost |
Bradley
Chorale Spring Tour Concert Dates
Friday,
March 15, 2012
7:00 pm
Concert at Watseka First United Methodist
Church
301 S. 4th St.
Watseka, IL 60970
Saturday,
March 16, 2013
7:00 p.m.
Concert
at Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church
6474
Beechmont Ave.
Cincinnati
OH 45230; 513-231-2650
Sunday,
March 17, 2003
7:00 p.m.
St. Benedict Cathedral
1328 Lincoln Ave
Evansville, IN 47715
812-425-3369
Also March 15 - Washington Community High School, Washington IL
Bloomington High School, Bloomington IL
April 7 - Dingeldine Music Center, Peoria
April 28 - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Peoria
BRADLEY CHORALE SPRING TOUR PROGRAM –
MARCH 15-18, 2013
CHAMBER SINGERS:
Alessandro Scarlatti: Properate fideles
CHORALE:
Eric Whitacre: Lux aurumque
Alberto Ginastera: Lamentations of the
Prophet Jeremiah
1. O vos omnes
Tomas Luis de Victoria: Caligaverunt
occuli mea
W. A. Mozart: Missa brevis in Bb, K.
275
Kyrie
Sanctus
Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Paul Carey: El Limonar Florido (The
Lemon Grove in Blossom) (texts: Antonio Machado)
1. Tal vez la mano, en sueño
2. Tarde, tranquila, casi
3. Desgarrada la nube; el arco iris
4. Luz del alma
György Orbán: Mundi renovatio
CHAMBER SINGERS:
Ysaye M. Barnwell: Wanting Memories
Stephen Hatfield: Ain’t that news
John Ratledge: Cool of the day
CHORALE:
Stacey Gibbs: Lord, I don’t feel no
ways tired
Augustus Hill: Fix me, Jesus
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