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Repertory Singers Fall Recital Wednesday, October 12

Dr. Jonathan Crutchfield, pianist

Wake Up My Spirit

Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941)

Rontray Miller II, conductor

Wake Up, My Spirit by Hailstork is based on Psalm 57. This piece encourages us to stand firm in who we are and what we believe in among people that seek to change or destroy and to sing and be joyous and thankful for the life we are blessed to live and who we are.

Rontray Miller II

Rontray Miller II currently holds a Bachelor of Voice Performance. His resume consists of performing in productions such as Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” as Masetto (2016), Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” as Marco (2019), and being a featured soloist on Georgia State University Singers’ Album “Heavenly Display” (2020). Rontray is now pursuing his Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting at Georgia State University under the direction of Dr. Deanna Joseph.

Ave Verum Corpus

William Byrd (1543 – 1623)

Bailey Dean, conductor

Ave Verum Corpus is a popular sacred, Latin text used by many composers dating back to the 14th century. This setting by William Byrd comes from his compilation of music for the Catholic church titled Gradualia. Though Byrd was devoutly Catholic, the beginning of his career took place in 16th century Protestant England under Queen Elizabeth I. It wasn’t until King James I’s reign that he felt able to compose for Catholic mass openly. His Ave Verum Corpus features polyphonic and chordal textures, and always favors the text so that the words are easy to understand and can be conveyed in their full meaning through Byrd’s lyrical writing.

Bailey Dean

Bailey Dean is a second-year choral conducting master’s student at Georgia State University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Lewis & Clark College, for which she wrote a thesis detailing the arranging style of the Swingle Singers. Before moving to Atlanta, Bailey worked as a conductor, singer, arranger, and music teacher in Portland, Oregon.

Rejoice in the Lamb

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Morgan Watts, Thomas Dixon, Rosie Smith, conductors

Emma Webster, Emily Halbert, Peyton Fleming, and Rontray Miller II, soloists

English composer Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb was written between May and July of 1943. Britten composed this piece on a commission from St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the church. The commissioning choir first performed the work on September 21, 1943 with Britten conducting. The text of Rejoice in the Lamb was taken from 18th century poet Christopher Smart’s Jubilate Agno, which was written while Smart was a patient at St. Luke’s Hospital for the insane. Moments of both profundity and insanity pepper the work. In fact, The Times of London reviewed the performance as a rousing success, saying “the spirit of the curious, vivid poem has been caught and the outcome of the commission by the Church is a modern work of religious art.”

Thomas Dixon

Thomas Dixon is currently pursuing a M.M. in Choral Conducting at Georgia State University. Alongside his choral graduate assistant duties at GSU, Thom also serves as a music intern at Central Presbyterian Church, where he directs the Youth Choir. This semester, Thom is proud to be the conductor of the GSU Tenor-Bass Choir, and will also present an interest session on repertoire that fosters social and emotional health in the choral classroom at the Georgia Music Educator's Association In-Service Conference.

Rosie Smith

Rosie Smith is a second-year Choral Conducting Master's student at Georgia State University. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Rosie graduated from William Jewell College in 2019 with degrees in K-12 Music Education and Secondary Education. Following her graduation, Rosie spent two years teaching 6th-12th grade vocal music in Paola, Kansas. Now in Atlanta, Rosie is the director of music at Hapeville First United Methodist Church and recently performed in GSU's opera productions as the Mezzo in Bastianello and Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro.

Morgan Watts

Morgan Watts, from Louisiana, is a second year graduate student in choral conducting at Georgia State University. Before moving to Atlanta, she received her bachelor’s degree in vocal music education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, all the while performing and teaching. Morgan is currently a member of the professional choral ensemble Coro Vocati, teaches private voice lessons, is the associate music director at the Catholic Shrine of Atlanta, and recently performed as Countess Almaviva in GSU’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro.

Three Madrigals

Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927)

"O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?"
"Take, oh, take those lips away"
Sigh no more, ladies sigh no more!"

Caitlin Norton, Ernesto Lima Parets, Max Rampley, conductors

Emma Lou Diemer's O Mistress Mine, is the first of a set of three modern madrigals. The brief piece features sprightly, dancing harmonies at an almost manic tempo. The text comes from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; although at first glance the choir may seem to be representing a joyful couple in the blissful era of young love, in the original context it is a man attempting to persuade his mistress to settle for him and not wait for a "better option" to come along.
The second number of the Three Madrigals cycle composed by the North American composer Emma Lou Diemer (1927) with text by the English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare. From a bittersweet and melancholy tone, the compositional procedures both in the choir and in the piano show a minimalist musical sense that suggests subtle inflections in crucial words of the text. The musical traits take us into an atmosphere of certain stillness full of colors and subtleties that propose reflective poetics.
The text of Sigh No More, Ladies, Sigh No More originates from Shakespeare’s, Much Ado About Nothing, which takes place in Messina, a port on the island of Sicily. The men of the city were sailors, "one foot in sea, and one on shore". The song could be addressing how young men of the city, who promise their young loves marriage and a settled life, will not give up the sea. Then again, it could be (and probably is) about the infidelity of these men, though those meanings are not in any way exclusive. You may notice Emma Lou Diemer’s rigid and jaunty setting evokes the sound of a carnival or circus. This serves as a mocking motive towards the unfaithful men and is juxtaposed with more lyrical sections on the text “then sigh not so, but let them go” and the the jovial “Hey nonny no” sections.

Ernesto Lima Parets

Ernesto Lima Parets was born in Havana, Cuba, and obtained a BME and a BM in Choral Conducting at the National School of Music and the University of the Arts, respectively. In addition to working as a professor at the University of the Arts, he has also worked with various professional groups such as the National Choir of Cuba and the Company "Opera de la Calle." Currently, he is completing a Master's Program in Choral Conducting at Georgia State University School of Music.

Caitlin Norton

Caitlin Norton is a second-year Master's student in choral conducting. Before coming to GSU she worked in Tulsa, OK, where she conducted the Hyechka Chorus - part of the oldest music appreciation society west of the Mississppi - and was a sought-after soloist, guest conductor, and clinician around the city. Here in Atlanta, she sings soprano with Atlanta Master Chorale and serves as Assistant Director of Music at the Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Max Rampley

Max Rampley is a second-year choral conducting student from Rome, Ga. Max currently serves as the director of Music ministries at Sam Jones Methodist Church in Cartersville, Ga and an assistant music director for the Atlanta Homeward Choir. He would like to thank his teachers and mentors for his musical development here at Georgia State, and is excited to start his teaching career next Fall!

Soon Ah Will Be Done

William L. Dawson (1899 - 1990)

Dennis Lau, conductor

This arrangement of a traditional spiritual by William Dawson depicts inner joy and assurance in urgent quality. The music opened with its refrain, in which the composer incorporates rapid, high-density texts with soft dynamics to illustrate an easy self-whispering moment. This ease came from negligence of hardship by faith, and this revealed the inner joy. Its verses contrast with refrains in terms of dynamics and articulations. Strong dynamics and articulations in those verses illustrate assurance and determination of the character. With this arrangement, we are all invited to join the journey of faith with the character. There were hardships recurring on the way, but the assurance and determination brings the character’s life to a victorious end.

If you enjoyed the piece above, click below to check out this article on William Dawson's Folk Symphony featured on NPR!

Dennis Lau

Dennis Lau, a native-born Malaysian, is a second-year graduate in the Choral Conducting program. He is also a Bachelor’s degree holder in piano performance. He joined choral singing at the age of nine, and still remains active and passionate today in this field as a choral conductor.

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Created with an image by Helen - "old music background"