SCHOLA CANTORUM Silicon valley

SCHOLA and STRINGS

Sponsored by

Kyle and Susan Ridout

Featuring Quartet San Francisco

Saturday, May 21 at 7:30pm

Los Altos United Methodist Church

655 Magdalena Avenue, Los Altos

‎

Sunday, May 22 at 4:00pm

First Congregational Church of Palo Alto

1985 Louis Road, Palo Alto

Artistic Director

Buddy James

Assistant Artistic Director and Accompanist

Dawn Reyen

Is there anything that sounds better than voices and strings together? People have been singing with stringed instruments since the invention of the lyres of Ur nearly 4500 years ago.

Tonight’s program is filled with incredible music that was written for this magical combination. We are fortunate to partner with one of the most dynamic and exciting string quartets in the world today, Quartet San Francisco.

It is not surprising that the great composers linked these two sounds, so we will sing three masterpieces by Bach, Handel, and Mozart to begin the program. Bach’s Lobet den Herrn is one of his six motets. The motets are musical jewels that were likely written for funeral services and which contain some of his best music. Handel’s Chandos Anthems are often considered intimate sketches of what would become his oratorio masterpieces and one can certainly hear a foreshadowing of Messiah, particularly in the final movement. Ave verum corpus was written in the final year of Mozart’s short life and displays his writing skills at their most mature level. This selection is one of the greatest works ever written for chorus and gives us a glimpse of the glorious music we all missed out on because he perished so young.

We will finish the first half with a beautiful set of five songs, sung without pause, by the foremost choral composer in the world today, Eric Whitacre.

Grammy-nominated and internationally admired, our guest group, Quartet San Francisco, will open the second half with a small sample of their famous jazz string quartet playing. We finish tonight’s program with three modern and very different selections. Gjeilo’s The Lake Isle takes the first stanza of a Yeats poem and creates a minimalistic and nostalgic musical setting that beautifully matches the lyrical evocation of Yeats’s childhood summer memories. We follow this with a world premiere performance of an arrangement of the great Álvaro Carillo tune, Sabor a mí, a bolero internationally popularized by Los Panchos with Edie Gormé in 1964. We finish the program with Bohemian Rhapsody, a surprising and exciting choice for a pairing of choir and string quartet and a great way to finish an evening of music for strings and voices.

- Buddy James

‎

Lobet den Herrn

BWV 230

By J.S. Bach (1685 - 1750)

Psalm 117 King James Version

Chandos Anthem

#11 HWV 256a

“Let God Arise”

By George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1757)

1. Overture

2. Chorus

Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; let them also that hate him, flee before him.

(Psalm 68 (67)-2)

5. Duet & Chorus

O sing unto God, and sing praises unto his name.

Beverly. Hansberry, mezzo-soprano and Steve Hanna, baritone

(Psalm 68 (67)-5)

6. Quartet

Praised be the Lord

7. Chorus

At thy rebuke, O God, both the chariot and the horse are fall'n.

(Psalm 76 (75)-7)

8. Chorus

Blessed be God, Allelujah

Ave verum corpus

K 618

By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

5 Hebrew Love Songs

Music by Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

Texts by Hila Plitmann, (b. 1973)

I. Temuná

(A picture)

II. Kalá Kallá

(Light Bride)

III. Laróv

(Mostly)

IV. Éyze Shéleg!

(What Snow!)

Karen Boyd, soloist

V. Rakút

(Tenderness)

Intermission

Selections by Quartet San Francisco

Spain

Chick Corea, arranged by Jeremy Cohen

Eleanor Rigby

Lennon/McCartney, arranged by Jeremy Cohen

The Lake Isle

By Ola Gjeilo

Benjamin Wright, guitar

Innisfree

William Butler Yeats

Sabor a mí

By Álvaro Carillo, arranged by Jeremy Cohen

Bohemian Rhapsody

By Freddie Mercury, arranged by Tommy Dunbar and Jeremy Cohen

Mark Grossman, soloist

Quartet: Mindy Morton, Ann Walker, Michael Ewaska, Steve Roth

Quartet San Francisco

Jeremy Cohen and Joseph Christianson, Violins

Chad Kaltinger, Viola

Kelley Maulbetsch, Cello

About Quartet San Francisco

QSF has toured extensively throughout Italy, China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Guam, performing in Cremona, Foggia, Seoul, Tokyo, Hyogo, Sanda, Istanbul, Hagatna, and throughout central and eastern China. As winners of the Argentine Consulate’s International Tango Competition in New York, they performed tangos for an Argentine audience at the historic Café Tortoni in Buenos Aires. In 2018 they performed the opening concert for the Cremona Music Festival in northern Italy and their CD release, A QSF Journey, reached the #1 position in Amazon’s new chamber music releases.

U.S. appearances include New York's Le Poisson Rouge, Yoshi's Jazz Clubs in San Francisco and Oakland, the Brubeck Room in the Wilton Library (at the invitation of Dave Brubeck), the Mendocino Music Festival, in concerts with the Marin Symphony, the Peninsula Symphony, and the Tulsa Symphony, and guest appearances with numerous chamber orchestras.

The Schola Cantorum

(Section leaders in bold print)

Soprano 1

Jo Darius,‎ M‎‎elanie Ercoli, Michaela Hlasek, Christine Leisy,‎ ‎Mindy Morton

Soprano 2

Karen Boyd, Carol Daly, Paula Hillard, Chris Scofield, Colleen Vandevoorde

Alto 1

Nurit Barlev, Betsy Beaumon, Ruth Clifford, Amanda Cohen, Celia Dudley, Julie Dutton, Kenna Fenton, Beverly Hansberry, Beth Thomlinson, Carol Worthington-Levy

Alto 2

Marie Alberry-Hawkins, Carrielynn Haedtler, Dotty Hayes, Laura Iraci, Adrienne Prasad, Joan H Skurnick, Ann Yvonne Walker, Kris West

Tenor

Michael Ewaska, Mark Grossman, Eugene Leung, Brendan O'Higgins, Steven Roth, Benjamin Scott

Baritone

Geoffrey Braun, Jim Dudley, Steve Hanna, Dave Hibbert, Eric Levenson, Quentin Long, Philip Schwarz, Ted Tilton

Bass

Robert Bergman, Jose Antonio Casillas, David Haedtler, David M. Jones, Jay Loucks, Lincoln Myers, Charles Thompson

Schola Cantorum is grateful to our wonderful donors

Director’s Circle - $10,000 +

Jim and Kenna Fenton

John Murden and Jo Darius

Candace Pelissero and Brian Larsen

Kyle and Susan Ridout

Allegro Circle - $5,000-$9,999

Catherine and Steve Combs, Hurlbut-Johnson Fund, Lincoln Myers, Ann Yvonne Walker, and David M. Jones

Fortissimo Circle - $2,500-$4,999

Beverly Hansberry, Dotty and Terry Hayes, Catherine Lyman, Thomas and Lorraine Olson, Patricia Rovegno, Silicon Valley Creates

Leadership Circle $1,000-$2,499

Deborah Anderson, Linda Anderson, JoAnn Close, Celia and James Dudley, Tineke Graafland-Erhman, Stephen Kampmeier, Steve Hanna, Brenda and Jim Herrington, Julie Kearney and Eugene Leung, Judith Lookabill, Jay Loucks, Scott McKim, Sharon and Steven Newton, Matt and Mary Powell, Joanna Read, William Reller, David & Joan Skurnick, Greg and Kathy Wait, Larry Wray

Benefactor $500-$999

Leslie Field and Philip Barth, Lauren Bird-Wiser, Lisa Bourgeault, Melanie Ercoli, Michael Ewaska, Don Gustafson, Laura Iraci, William McGee, Claire Roth

Sponsor $250-$499

Marie Alberry-Hawkins, Maybo AuYeung, John & Coral Baglin, Elizabeth Beaumon, Robert Bergman, Karen Boyd, Geoffrey Braun, Ruth Clifford, Amanda Bess Cohen, Carol Daly, Virginia Fruchterman, David Hibbert, Paula Hillard, Joseph Hopkins, Sharon Hoyt, Noel and Bill Kruse, Chris and Ray Leisy, Eric and Elaine Levenson, Loran Loosli, Mindy Morton, Brendan O'Higgins, Marc Rossner

Patron $100-$249

John and Eryl Aynsley, Association of The Los Altos Historical Museum, Jose Casillas, Ulric Dennis, Ellen Donnelly, Julie Dutton, Desiree Guerrero, Caroline Landsbergen, Karen Neubauer Bertrand, Michaela Hlasek, Kirby Miller, Sharon Moerner, Gail Polk, Steve Roth, Philip Schwarz, Marcia Seyler, Ann Stevens, Terry Teplitz, Thomas Weaver,

All of our singers are also donors

The next Schola Cantorum concert will be at historic Mission Santa Clara on November 4th at 7:30 PM.