Program Notes

 

 

A newly commissioned piece, written specifically for the OCWC by composer Dale Trumbore, will receive its premier performances at the May concerts. For the text of Tribute, she selected contemporary poet Annie Finch’s beautiful tribute to Emily Dickenson. “I was drawn to use this poem because I love Annie’s work, and because it fit the theme of this concert well,” Trumbore commented in a recent interview. The poet plays with words and sounds, which inspired the composer to play with words similarly in the composition. “The music, too, is essentially divided into three distinct sections, corresponding with the three sentences that make up the poem. I also tried to echo the sparse language of the poem in often-bare textures of the music.”

 

Trumbore has composed pieces for women’s choruses before, but this is a first-time collaboration between the composer and the OCWC. When asked about the opportunities or challenges that are presented by composing for women’s voices, she said: “When writing for women’s chorus, the overall range of notes is more limited than the range of a mixed chorus, of course, but the sound of a women’s chorus is also much different in character. Writing for a women’s chorus is like writing for a completely different—and gorgeous—instrument.”

 

In April alone, a number of choral and instrumental ensembles are performing her works. The New York Virtuoso Singers and the University of Southern California Oriana Choir are performing choral works and the Boston New Music Initiative is performing an instrumental work. An active composer on both coasts, Dale Trumbore recently heard the Kronos Quartet premiere her string quartet How it will go as part of their residency at the University of Maryland. Trumbore has won numerous awards for her compositions. Ensembles that have performed Trumbore's choral compositions include the University of Maryland Chamber Singers, the Femmes de Chanson, the Harmonium Choral Society, and the Ward Melville High School Chorus. Her instrumental compositions have been performed by ensembles including the Kronos Quartet, the Neave Quartet, the Left Bank Concert Society, the Nova Ensemble, and the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.

 

 

 

Annie Finch has published or edited fifteen books of poetry, translation and criticism. She currently serves as director of Stonecoast, the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine. Dale Trumbore recently set another of Ms. Finch’s poems to music in a song cycle about twisted takes on traditional fairy tales.

 

Wanderlust meets dance fever! Cast off the winter doldrums, pack your bags, and put on your dancing shoes for February’s very special concert: The Roots of Rhythm. We’ve got a spectrum of folk and folk-inspired music from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas to perform for you, with the assistance of outstanding percussionist Angie Tabor and two special guest ensembles.

 

This is a concert that’s all over the map, quite literally—but with the common threads of rhythm, dance, love, and local color. From Serbia and Slovenia come rollicking wedding round-dances; from Korea, a sweet tune about a flowing river; from Argentina, an unforgettable lullaby sung by a mother exhausted from her work in the fields. Donald Patriquin gives us arrangements of two traditional Canadian tunes, a Huron chant and a capricious Québécois romp about a monk who refuses to dance. An ecstatic Kenyan praise song, traditional Indian and Tamil works, and the beloved American tune “Down in the Valley to Pray” (you may know it as “Down to the River to Pray,” made famous by the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou)—round out the journey, and from OCWC favorite Joan Szymko comes a rousing new work called “It Takes a Village to Raise Our Children.”

 

We’re especially excited to feature, for the first time ever at an OCWC concert, two talented guest ensembles from local high schools. The women’s choruses of Sage Hill School, directed by Megan Eddy, and Valley High School, directed by Karen Bluel, will share the stage with us—and what a stage it is! This will also be our first regular-season concert at the beautiful Irvine Barclay Theatre, where there’s lots of room for you and all the friends you’ve been meaning to bring to an OCWC concert. This one’s a real crowd-pleaser….so let’s have a crowd and enjoy the journey!

 

 

Angie Tabor is an independent drummer/percussionist based in Southern California. She earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree while honing her drum set skills and supplementing them with classical and world percussion studies. Her training, and many years playing professionally, has molded her into an in-demand freelance musician. 

 

She has recorded, performed and toured throughout Europe and Asia with a variety of musical acts ranging from jazz to pop, and rock to Broadway. In 2002, she formed her own steel drum band, Caribe, that also performs throughout the Southland.

 

Taking the stage with the OCWC for this performance will be two women’s choruses—one from Valley High School in Santa Ana and the other from Sage Hill School in Newport Coast. The ensembles were selected for the quality of their conductors and their choral programs. Both schools’ choirs have consistently garnered superior ratings at regional choral festivals.

 

The 40 singers of the Women’s Concert Choir, representing grades 9-12, will be participating in the OCWC concert. Karen Bluel has led the choral program at Valley High School for the past 24 years. When asked about what she hopes her singers will gain from the experience, she said “I am hoping that they will grow as musicians by being exposed to the mature voices of the OC Women’s Chorus; that they will realize that their opportunities for singing do not have to end after high school; and that they will bond as choir members and have a whole lot of fun!”

 

The choral program at Sage Hill has been blossoming since Megan Eddy joined the faculty in 2003, growing from two to five performing groups. The 30 singers—all 10^th-12^th graders--who will be performing with the OCWC are a combined group of the Treble Choir and the girls of the Concert Choir. Eddy expressed her excitement about the international repertoire in the concert, and the camaraderie of the three ensembles. “I am hoping that the girls enjoy the size of the combined choruses, as we are such a small school and rarely enjoy the larger ensemble feel,” she said. “In addition, being surrounded by a women’s chorus the caliber of OCWC will be a memorable experience. It’s good for these kids to know that there is a choral “life” after high school and college.”

 

Sharing the excitement of choral singing with young, talented singers is a high priority for the OCWC. We’re thrilled to welcome these talented choruses and their directors!

The Strangest Moment in History

Deborah Winsor Williams, mezzo-soprano

Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 1932 Magnificat has occupied a place on my OCWC to-do list for some time now. But only recently did I stumble upon the title for our upcoming concert, in a passage by author Michael Kennedy that calls the work “one of the few to treat these words as what they are: a hymn of praise by a young woman chosen for perhaps the strangest moment in history.”

 

It is strange, isn’t it? And yet, to virtually anyone even passingly acquainted with the Christian tradition, the story of a poor virgin destined to bear a Savior has lost its element of surprise over the years. Through music alone, perhaps, can we still be taken aback by the incredibility of tales we’ve come to take for granted as truth or myth—and in the works on the OCWC’s December programs, we hear Mary’s words re-conceived through different voices, with different brews of shock and wonder and fear and joy, reminding us that for all our familiarity with the story, the “strangest moment in history” re­­mains hers to know and ours to imagine.

 

Vaughan Williams, in his mystical setting of the Magnificat, casts a solo mezzo-soprano (the fabulous Deborah Winsor Williams in our performances) as the astonished Mary, the chorus as the angel delivering the news, and a solo flute (our own Sandy Hilger) as the Holy Spirit weaving enigmatically through the work. A new Magnificat setting by Christine Donkin puts a different spin on the mystical elements of the text—you’ll have to experience this one in person!—while Z. Randall Stroope emphasizes the sheer ecstasy of the moment in his piece for soprano solo, chorus, and four-hand piano.

 

Joan Szymko, whose “Ave Maria” was a hit at our 10^th anniversary concerts, has created a new women’s-chorus edition of her luscious “My Soul Magnifies the Lord” just for the OCWC; we’ll premiere it on our December concerts. You’ll also hear a stunning (and challenging!) work by Los Angeles composer Paul Chihara, a lively, jazzy setting by Gwyneth Walker, and many more—all reflecting different styles and moods, all inspiring in different ways.

 

It may seem “strange” to make a whole program of Magnificats, but we’re confident that this is a story worth hearing more than once. Get your tickets, invite your friends, and prepare to be amazed!