The Yale Camerata, Glee Club, and Schola Cantorum
Dale Warland, guest conductor
Music of Barber, Kyr, Tas, Muehleisen, Barnett, Harper, Banks, Paulus, Feigenbaum, Argento, and Hagen
Includes the world premiere Daniel Kellogg’s Echo*
Woolsey Hall, 500 College Street, New Haven
Free and open to the public. No tickets required.
*Daniel Kellogg’s Echo was composed through a joint commission by the Yale Glee Club and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and its Robert Baker Commissioning Fund
Dale Warland, the celebrated American musician who has made an indelible impression on the landscape of contemporary choral music both nationally and internationally, will conduct three Yale choral ensembles in a varied program that includes a newly commissioned piece by Daniel Kellogg. The concert will take place on Sunday, February 28 at 3 pm in New Haven’s Woolsey Hall (at the corner of College and Grove Streets). No tickets are required for the free concert.
Yale Camerata (Marguerite L. Brooks, director) will perform works by Feigenbaum, Kyr, Barber, and others. Yale Glee Club (Jeffrey Douma, director) will present pieces by Barnett, Harper, Banks, Argento, Hagen, and Paulus, and Yale Schola Cantorum (Masaaki Suzuki, director) has programmed music of Tas and Muehleisen. The three ensembles will join forces for the world premiere of Daniel Kellogg’s Echo, composed through a joint commission by the Yale Glee Club and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and its Robert Baker Commissioning Fund. Instrumentalists from Yale School of Music will perform.
Echo is based on a well-known poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), an English poet closely connected with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. The poem pleads for a lost love with joy and pain, the echoes manifesting themselves musically in both the opening and closing sections where the choir divides into eight parts. Much of this music involves simple canonic writing, or musical echoes, to create a musical mist from which the memories emerge with clarity. The setting is for eight part choir, four cellos, piano, and percussion, an unusual combination of instruments that struck the composer as a unique and compelling canvas for the text.
The music world has bestowed its highest honors on Dale Warland, well-known for championing American choral works, including the 2006 Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia’s Individual Leadership in Choral Music Award, the Champion of New Music Award from the American Composers Forum (2005), Honorary Doctorates from Macalester College and the University of Minnesota (2004). a Distinguished Master Artist Award from the University of South Florida (2004), a Grammy nomination of Walden Pond for best choral performance (2003), the prestigious ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Victor Herbert Award (2003) in recognition of Warland’s artistic contributions, the Sally Irvine Ordway Award for Vision (2003), and a special award from Chorus America and ASCAP for Warland’s “pioneering vision, leadership and commitment to commissioning and performing new choral works at the highest level of artistry” (2002). Other awards and recognition include the 2001 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal; the 2001 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award in recognition of his lifetime achievements as a choral conductor and his continued contribution to the arts in Minnesota; and the 1995 Michael Korn Founder’s Award, the highest honor for a choral conductor in the United States, previously awarded to Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, and Roger Wagner, among others.
Warland’s compositions and arrangements have been performed and recorded by choruses throughout the country. As editor, he has established choral series with G. Schirmer, Hal Leonard, earthsongs, Colla Voce, and Walton Music.
Since the closing of the Dale Warland Singers organization in June 2005, Warland remains active as guest conductor, composer, teacher, and producer of choral programs for public radio. Recordings of Dale and the Dale Warland Singers are available through www.gothicrecords.com.
The concert, presented by Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Glee Club, is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. More information is at 203 / 432-5062.