No-Name Chorale
Andy Jensen, artistic director
Gail Long, piano
Heather Cunningham, piano
NNC Kid's Choir | Shannon McFarland, director
Shine Like Stars (0:05)
Akin Drum (4:42)
NNC Jr. All-Stars | Laura Hollingsworth, director
Come to the Music (8:34)
Dream Keeper (12:00)
Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing (14:57)
Combined NNC Choirs
We're Gonna Shine (18:22)
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The Cloud-Capp’d Towers (21:04)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine (23:04)
Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)
Come to the Woods (31:42)
Jake Runestad (b. 1986)
Both Sides Now (42:47)
Joni Mitchell | arr. Ben Bram & Rob Dietz
The Battle of Jericho (48:26)
arr. Moses Hogan (1957-2003)
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And just like that, we’re at the end of our first uninterrupted season!
It’s been a tremendous year for NNC and we’re already looking forward to an exciting 2023-24 lineup including another featured performance at the Illinois ACDA state conference in October and guest conductor Kevin McBeth of the SLSO in February.
Today you’ll hear five pieces exploring the theme of adventure in
Dreams Nature Relationships Stories
We begin with the legendary English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams and his mysterious setting of Prospero’s Act IV monologue from The Tempest. For our purposes it sets the scene for American composer Eric Whitacre’s, Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine. This year marks the 20th anniversary of its debut at the ACDA National Convention. It was immediately recognized as a modern masterpiece combining innovative harmonies with a wide array of contrapuntal devices. Hymn-like sections explode into highly rhythmic, independent lines animating the imagination of one of history’s greatest minds. The text combines modern poetry with writings from Da Vinci’s famous notebooks. It’s a thrilling piece and an adventure for both the audience and the performers.
Come to the Woods is another tremendous piece by Jake Runestad (we’ve recently performed his And So I Go On and Wild Forces). This time he set words by John Muir, a Scottish-American naturalist, environmental philosopher and early advocate of wilderness preservation in the United States. His writings, telling of his adventures in nature, have been read by millions and his activism can be directly linked to the foundation of the National Park Service. This quote, written in 1901, perfectly illustrates how many of us feel today, 122 years later: “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”
Our final two pieces explore the adventure of life itself and the stories we tell about it. Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now is lovingly arranged by modern a cappella guru Ben Bram and in the hands of Moses Hogan (an absolute master of arranging spirituals for the concert/classical choir) The Battle of Jericho boils over in a frenzy of action.
I hope this afternoon provides a moment to pause and give thanks for the gift of music and its ability to create experiences worth sharing.
~Andy Jensen, NNC Artistic Director
7 июл 2023
