Summary of Dissertation Recitals: Three Programs of Choral Music

Abstract

These three dissertation recitals consist of choral music from varied countries, genres, styles, and periods spanning from 1615 to 2011. The three recitals also represent my work with ensembles of wide‐ranging abilities and skill sets: a mixed‐voice university chorus of music majors and non‐majors, a professional septet, a mixed‐voice chorus of only non‐music majors, and a larger chorus with orchestra.

The first recital, "A Celebration of Life," was presented on November 15, 2019 at University Presbyterian Church in Rochester Hills, Michigan, with the Oakland University Chorus for whom I served as interim director for the fall 2019 term. The works included Andrew Balfour’s Ambe, an arrangement of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Silent Noon, Ruth Moody’s Parting Glass, Richard Dering’s Ave Virgo gloriosa, Benjamin Britten’s The Evening Primrose, Eric Barnum’s Afternoon on a Hill, H.T. Burleigh’s Deep River, Kristin Kuster’s Home, excerpted movements from Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, Alice Parker’s Bright Morning Stars, and Shawn Kirchner’s Unclouded Day.

The second recital, "in angustiis…," was presented on January 31, 2020, at Bethlehem United Church of Christ in Ann Arbor, Michigan with an ad hoc chorus of forty‐four singers, four vocal soloists, and an orchestra of twenty‐five instrumentalists. The works included Francis Poulenc’s Un soir de neige and Joseph Haydn’s Missa in angustiis, also known as his Lord Nelson Mass.

The third recital is a compilation of performances with University of Michigan Orpheus Singers, on three separate occasions (February 20, 2020; November 24, 2019; and April 9, 2019), all at Stamps Auditorium in the Walgreen Drama Center; with University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club on May 15, 2019, at First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood in St. Louis, Missouri; and with University of Michigan Arts Chorale on December 13, 2019, in Stamps Auditorium. The works featured include excerpted movements from Vincent Persichetti’s Flower Songs, Bradley Ellingboe’s Innisfree, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Epitaph on John Jayberd of Diss, excerpted movements from Francesco Durante’s Vespro Breve, “Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt” from J.S. Bach’s Christ lag in Todes Banden (BWV 4), and Charles Villiers Stanford’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in G.