UCA Celebrates 20 Years

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Utah Chamber Artists celebrates 20 years next season!

Past Concerts

An Evening of Chamber Music: March 1, 2010

Date: Monday, March 1, 2010
Location: Libby Gardner Concert Hall
Time: 7:30pm
Guest soloists: David Porter, violin and Vedrana Subotic, piano performing Camille Saint-Saens' "Sonata No. 1 in D minor"

TICKETS: Kingtix

Program

• Night Pieces - J.A.C. Redford.  An encore performance of a piece composed for Utah Chamber Artists.  Text by William Wordsworth
• Quatre Motets sur des Themes Gregoriens - Maurice Durufle
• Sonata for violin & piano No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75 - Camille Saint-Saens
• Let Nothing Ever Grieve Thee - Johannes Brahms
• PREMIERE of two choral works by Barlow Bradford, based on the poem Give Me The Splendid Silent Sun by Walt Whitman

Vedrana Subotic was born in Kotor, Montenegro. She began her musical training at age five at the Music Conservatory in Belgrade. After winning Yugoslavia¹s national piano competition at a ge 17, and completing a BM in piano performance from the University of Belgrade two years later, Vedrana was invited to study with Van Cliburn winner Ralph Votapek at Michigan State University, where she earned a Masters in Piano Performance. Subsequently, Vedrana attended Indiana University, first undertaking the Artist Diploma under the tutelage of Menahem Pressler and Janos Starker, and then a Doctorate in Piano Performance and Chamber Music which she completed in 2007. Vedrana performs in dozens of concerts a year, combining concerto appearances, solo recitals, chamber music collaborations, and orchestral performances. She is a founding member and Music Director of the Intermezzo Chamber of Music Series and is a member of the Porter-Subotic Duo with her husband, Utah Symphony violinist David Porter. Vedrana is also an adjunct Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Utah,  and founder and former Director of the piano program at the Snow College¹s Horne School of Music.

Sing We Joyous All Together: December 7, 2009

Date: Monday, December 7 2009
Location: Libby Gardner Concert Hall
Time: 7:30pm
Guest organist: Andrew Sheranian

TICKETS: Adult $15, Student $10, Family $50 (2 parents, up to 4 kids)

Tickets available through Kingtix.

Program

• Carol Anthems for Chorus - Herbert Howells
• Three Nativity Carols - Stephen Paulus
• Christmas Music of John Rutter
• UTAH PREMIERE of new carols by Barlow Bradford

Add your voice to the choir of Utah Chamber Artists and join with Barlow and Andrew to celebrate the season in song.

Andrew Sheranian is currently employed as Organist and Choirmaster at Christ’s Church in Rye, New York. This position involves overseeing a music program that includes a rigorous chorister program for boys and girls, and a semi-professional adult choir. In August of 2008, the Christ’s Church Choir embarked on a 11-day tour of the United Kingdom, singing for services at Salisbury, Wells and Chichester Cathedrals. Thee choir will return to Salisbury for a week-long residency in 2011.  Prior to his appointment in Rye, Mr. Sheranian was enrolled at Yale University through the Institute of Sacred Music, where he completed his Master of Music degree.

In addition to his church and concert engagements, Mr. Sheranian is an active member of the Association of Anglican Musicians, having served as a Regional Chair of that organization; he currently is serving on the Board of Directors of the Royal School of Church Music in America. He is also the founding director of Lyra Davidica, an early music ensemble specializing in sacred vocal music from the High Renaissance through the Late Baroque.

PROGRAM NOTES

THREE CAROL-ANTHEMS -  HERBERT HOWELLS

British composer Herbert Howells, who began his career as a cathedral organist, later succeeded Gustav Holst as director of music at the St. Paul's Girls School in London, and then was eventually awarded a position at the Royal Conservatory of Music.  He composed music for the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Anglican Church.  During this time he unearthed forgotten Renaissance works and introduced them into the repertoire.  His own music reflects the style of these "discoveries" and he set an unsurpassable standard in choral writing.

The first of the Three Carol Anthems, "Here is the Little Door", is a tune written to a poem by G.K. Chesterton's wife Frances and evokes a simple charm. The second, "A Spotless Rose" is considered to be one of his loveliest works. It is dedicated to his mother and he wrote while watching trains from a cottage window in Gloucestershire.  Fellow composer Patrick Hadley is said to have sent a postcard every Christmas to Howells on which he copied on the final cadence of "A Spotless Rose" and according to some, wrote "Oh, Herbert. What a cadence!”  It is said by others that Hadley claimed to have hoped to "die to the sound of it." The final piece of the three, "Sing Lullaby" is set to a text by F.W. Harvey and is comprised of floating parallel chords that rock gently with undulating and mesmerizing motion.

THREE NATIVITY CAROLS - STEPHEN PAULUS

The music of Stephen Paulus has been described as rugged, angular, lyrical, lean, rhythmically agressive, often gorgeous, and uniquely American.  Paulus, who has spent most of his life in the Twin Cities area, received a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota where he studied composition with Dominick Argento. He has composed over 200 works for various genres. His choral music has been sung by America's most distinguished choirs and he is one of the more frequently recorded contemporary composers.

The Nativity Carols are comprised of ancient texts interpreted musically by Paulus. The composer describes "The Holly and the Ivy" as "crisp and precise in flavor... as the harp and oboe spur the text forward."  He explains that his intent with the shimmering "This Endris Night" (endris meaning "other night" or "a few nights ago")  is to bring to mind the "mystery of being out in the night" which culminates with "waves of sound...[in] continually overlapping lines that seem to echo in a vast space."  The final carol, "Wonder Tidings" proclaims the birth of the Christ Child with energetic delight.

THREE CAROLS - JOHN RUTTER

John Rutter is said to have "become the musical equivalent of Dickens, synonymous with the season of Christmas."  Many claim that, "Christmas somehow wouldn't seem the same without his works lilting in the frosty air."
 
To audiences who enjoy choral music his musical compositions are not only well-known, but beloved - especially in America.  Rutter began his musical education as a chorister at Highgate School.  He studied music at Clare as College Cambridge where he later became Director of Music.  After leaving the university he formed the Cambridge Singers, a professional chamber choir dedicated primarily to recording.  Today Rutter divides his time between composing and guest conducting.

The composer writes, "I have always enjoyed carols ever since I first sang them as a member of my school choir, and it was not long before I began to write carols of my own...For any musician involved in choral music, Christmas is an especially joyous time..."  Tonight the choir will perform three of his Christmas settings. "The Nativity Carol" is a lovely telling of the Christmas story and was one of Rutter's earliest compositions that was successfully championed by Sir David Willcocks. This launched Rutter's career.  In his own words, the composer says of "Dormi Jesus":  "The Latin text of Dormi, Jesu is of late medieval origin, one of a number of lullaby texts on the theme of the Virgin cradling the infant Jesus. The poet Coleridge discovered the poem on ‘a little print of the Virgin and Child in a small public house of a Catholic village' in Germany and made an English translation which was published in 1811."  Rutter composed this for the 1998 Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge.  Not as widely performed as some of his other pieces, "Dormi Jesu" deserves more exposure.  The Caribbean flavor of   "Jesus Child" departs considerably from the style of the very "English" quality of most of his carol interpretations – no “frosty air” here. The rhythm and words suggest a West Indian rendering of the glad tidings - "Have you heard the story that they're telling ‘bout Bethe-le-hem" and "Sing alleluia, brother, sing alleluia sisters."

CHRISTMAS MEDLEY  - BARLOW BRADFORD

In the almost twenty years of Utah Chamber Artists’ rich history, Barlow Bradford has arranged and composed scores of pieces for his choir and orchestra - many of them at Christmas time. The extremely popular CD "Joyous Day!", demonstrates Bradford's affection for the season and his skill at presenting familiar carols in a new and fresh way.  Since its release, Bradford has already produced not only several new arrangements, but compositions with his own melodies set to carefully selected poems and texts – most probably constituting enough for a new Christmas recording! 

Over the last several years, Bradford has received numerous commissions from choirs and orchestras around the country.  His music has been performed by such distinguished ensembles as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the New York Choral Artists. This holiday season audiences across the nation will be enjoying performances of his Christmas music.

Tonight Utah audiences will hear "Christmas Medley", a work commissioned by the Highland Park United Methodist Church and given it's world premiere in Dallas, Texas last evening - December 6, 2009.   Requested for this commission was a work for choir, orchestra, organ, and carillon. (Organist Andrew Sheranian will provide all the aforementioned sources in this performance.) Bradford selected three carols that would result in a pleasing fast-slow-fast combination.  The first is the buoyant "In Dulci Jubilo" whose original lyrics are a macaronic alternation of Medieval German and Latin and is thought to have been written by the German mystic Heinrich Seuse in 1328.   (Macaronic refers to text spoken or written using a mixture of languages)  According to folklore, Seuse heard angels sing these words and joined with them in a dance of worship.

Another German carol "Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine" follows. This carol appears as early as 1500 at Leipzig University. Composers such as Praetorius, Lassus, Brahms, and Handel have since used it in polyphonic settings. Bradford chose this gentle and contemplative lullaby --  either coincidentally or by design -- as the opening melody of "In Dulci Jubilo" is the inversion of the tune to "Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine" which provides a meaningful and aesthetic cohesion between the two carols.

"Hark the Herald Angels Sing" by Mendelssohn is considered by Bradford to be one of his own favorites among the Christmas repertoire and it serves to close the medley with a flourish. The familiar carol’s origins are not often considered.  The work, which is the second chorus of a cantata by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) written in 1840 to commemorate Johann Gutenberg and the invention of printing, lends itself well to the Christmas repertoire. The piece has an inherent nobility that Bradford capitalizes on as he introduces the finale with a toccata-like organ solo during which the choir interjects itself with pomp and conviction, thus bringing the medley to a celebratory conclusion.

Utah Chamber Artists and Friends: Oct 12, 2009

Date: Monday, October 12, 2009
Location: Libby Gardner Concert Hall
Time: 7:30pm

TICKETS: Kingtix

Program

• Triptych, a work for choir and strings by British composer, Tarik O'Regan who has been praised as a "brilliant new voice."
• There is Sweet Music- Edward Elgar
  
• Jubilant Song - Norman Dello Joio
  
• Hunter High Madrigal Choir - Mark Pearce, Director
  
• "From the Top" performers